Head teacher speaks out to expose flawed school inspection

By Julie Henry, Education Correspondent 630PM GMT fourteen March 2010

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Head clergyman Tara Baig felt she had small to fright when propagandize inspectors came to her first in January. Standards at Miles Coverdale Primary, in Shepherd Bush, West London, were improving, relatives were some-more concerned than ever prior to in their childrens preparation and staff spirit was high.

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An investigation 3 years progressing had rated the propagandize as "good with superb features". Mrs Baig, had, she thought, built on this flourishing reputation.

But afterwards came the abrasive blow. Ofsted inspectors branded the propagandize as "inadequate" and served it with a notice to urge - one step afar from a unsuccessful inspection.

"The staff here work in cold blood and are rarely committed. For them to be told that they were on the bottom stage was an comprehensive outrage," pronounced Mrs Baig. "We know we are a great propagandize and we had the justification to infer it. Being since a notice to urge was a outrageous blow and it can be harmful for the destiny of a school."

The head clergyman and governors became assured they had been subjected to a injured investigation process.

Inspectors had noted the propagandize down for unwell to recycle the food waste, for not fasten up with a "leafy, suburban white" propagandize to "promote village cohesion", even for the ease of a little pupils packaged lunches. Criticism of the schools assemblage levels, that was to fool around a vital piece in the last rating, abandoned new poignant improvements.

"Some of what was settled in the investigation inform was usually solid wrong or formed on interpretation picked up prior to I even assimilated the school," pronounced Mrs Baig. "Other things were paradoxical or odd. It was a injured report, that was unfair, unfair and unnecessarily damning."

Miles Coverdale is between dozens of propagandize that explain they have been really bad treated with colour and foul judged underneath a new Ofsted investigation regime, introduced in Sep 2009. Figure published last week show the series of unsound propagandize has jumped from 4 per cent to 9 per cent. Six in ten schools are right away no softened than satisfactory.

But teachers feel their schools are being noted down by inspectors who are spooky with ticking boxes, overzealous about student reserve and determining on the result prior to they even set feet in the school.

Anecdotal justification suggests schools are being penalised for such sparse considerations as the distance of the filigree in a propagandize blockade and the tallness of the doorway handles.

Parents at one primary, St Wunlstans Catholic school, in Staffordshire, were indignant when the propagandize was downgraded by inspectors at the finish of last year for not supervising a car park. It is outward the propagandize gates and belongs to the parish, rather than the school.

"We have been inundated with abhorrence stories about the new investigation regime," pronounced Christine Blower, the ubiquitous cabinet member of the National Union of Teachers. "It is a punitive horizon that allows schools to be graded cruelly since of technical or comparatively teenager details. We can not have illusory propagandize in formidable areas, similar to Miles Coverdale, being vilified and hung out to dry."

Most headteachers are fearful to verbalise out, shocked of receiving on the competence of Ofsted. But Mrs Baig, with the await of her ruling body, relatives and Hammersmith and Fulham internal authority, is severe the watchdog.

She says the experience of her west London primary, where scarcely half of young kids are on free propagandize meals, 70 per cent have English as a second denunciation and twenty per cent have special tutorial needs, raises critical doubts about the concentration and integrity of the new inspections system.

"The staff come in each day and we know there is regularly something that can be improved," pronounced Mrs Baig. "You never mount still, never. Accountability is not something that can be escaped, nor in truth should it be. My censure with the Ofsted investigation is not about accountability, it is about fairness."

One of the areas where the propagandize was noted down was "community cohesion" - one of the Governments hum phrases that facilities prominently in Ofsted inspections.

Miles Coverdale, with the churned intake, had left to great lengths to display young kids to as most practice as possible, from talks by internal imams and vicars, visits to the ballet and opera, links with the Church propagandize up the road, to internal chess tournaments and a residential on HMS Belfast. But it was the disaster to couple up with a "leafy, suburban white" school, a order that is not lonesome in any Ofsted guidance, that led to a downgrade.

Inspectors at Miles Coverdale additionally seized on the not long ago commissioned electronic security gates that were not nonetheless operational. Snowy continue had at the back of internal management contractors. The embankment were locked, so did not benefaction a risk but inspectors still noted the propagandize down in that category.

Recycling became an additional bone of contention. Plastic and paper is religiously recycled at the school, as is the rubbish constructed by the gardening club. But inspectors pronounced food rubbish should additionally be recycled.

"They didnt discuss it us what we should do with it, as Hammersmith and Fulham legislature usually pick up cosmetic and paper," pronounced the head teacher, who was an behaving and a emissary head in Ealing prior to fasten the propagandize with twenty years training experience at the back of her.

In usual with most schools, Mrs Baig has additionally cursed Ofsteds mania with data, mostly the wrong kind.

The head clergyman was told that assemblage total at the propagandize were one of the main reasons inspectors released the notice to improve. But inspectors took in to comment interpretation picked up prior to the new head assimilated the school, total that had not been commented on at all in the intense 2007 report. The old interpretation unsuccessful to take in to comment the alleviation in assemblage rates from 90 per cent to 94 per cent in the last year.

The inform pronounced "too most pupils have assemblage next 80 per cent." In reality, "too most children" alluded to 3 out of 188 pupils, who were know to the propagandize and internal management and had really sold circumstances. More than one family had been put underneath military insurance and changed to a tip address, together with a kid whose father had been murdered.

Evidence of an ceiling direction in formula in all opposite all ages, together with a large burst in maths formula for eleven year olds from 49 per cent to 90 per cent, was since most less weight than a drop in essay results, that the propagandize had identified and was addressing.

The outcome on training by inspectors was similarly confusing. During their dual days in school, they noticed twelve lessons, 9 were rated as good. Three of those were "close to outstanding". Two ratings of unsound are doubtful by the head. Yet in the report, training was described altogether as usually "satisfactory".

Childrens poise was the usually area of the investigation that was since an superb rating. It is no surprise, since the ease ambience that pervades the Edwardian construction where young kids in each category appear to be bustling operative quietly. What is startling is that poise is model in a propagandize where inspectors judged so most else to be wrong.

Ofsted defends the new investigation system of administration as some-more focused on what goes on in the classroom. It pronounced that the feedback from head teachers had been certain and that raising the club on propagandize standards is something that relatives expect.

But Mrs Baig, still baffled, indignant and frustrated, has resolutely refuses to accept the inspectors settlement about her primary.

She has already won one victory. After her minute of censure was finished with to Ofsted, the propagandize was told that the "moderation" process, where low ratings are reviewed, had overturned the primary decision.

The schools rating was softened to "satisfactory".

It is a clearance of her critique but the reassessment does not go far enough. Mrs Baig, who has right away lodged a grave complaint, is dynamic to quarrel on for the repute of the propagandize and the staff.