Passmores Academy head removes Ofsted references from prospectus
Education / Tue 8th Aug 2023 at 07:08am
A HARLOW headteacher said all mentions of Ofsted had been removed from his school prospectus because inspections did not do what they said “on the tin” reports the BBC.
Vic Goddard, from Passmores Academy said the Ofsted framework should better help parents make “informed choices”.
Mr Goddard told BBC Essex: “If you look at school brochures you will often see Ofsted quoted in speech marks – ‘this school is a wonderful place’ or whatever it might be.
“That’s what we’ve removed from any of our publications. We’re not using them to boost our prestige.”
Mr Goddard said inspections should be carried out more frequently, to better acknowledge improvements that schools make.
He said: “We’ve seen the damage that it has done to members of the profession and I have been critical of the fact I don’t think it [Ofsted] is fit for purpose.
“I don’t think it does what parents need. I don’t think it does what schools need.”
The school’s Ofsted report would remain linked on its website as the government mandates, Mr Goddard said.
Click below for the full story.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-essex-66429635
David Forman
2023-08-08 09:15:51
The government's time would be better suited to repairing school buildings and safely removing asbestos from them.
Harlow resident
2023-08-08 09:57:34
Ofstes inspections should also be unannounced as per CQC or ofstes inspections of care homes. Many education establishments I have worked with have ensured certain pupils and staff are not in school on inspection days.
Adam
2023-08-08 10:03:02
Why is this a story, virtue signalling head master part of the education blob that hate conservatives and will do anything to have a go at them (covid school closures, strikes etc). Makes a pointless decision, Vic should spend more time running his school and less his media career
Hugo
2023-08-08 11:19:18
Covid school closures - schools were closed, mostly at the Conservative government's orders, to stop the spread of a pandemic. This was cooperating with the Conservatives. Strikes - we still have the right to strike for better pay whichever government is in charge. education blob - is this "blob" somehow related to the same "blob" That Liz Truss referred to? The same "blob" that consisted of Liz Truss's Tory opponents and Whitehall officials? As Ofsted is a government organization, so surely they must be part of the "blob"? I think the training for Culture Warriors needs to be improved. Perhaps whatever school these Culture Warriors attend needs an Ofsted inspection immediately.
Angela
2023-08-08 14:47:37
So how do parent determine if a school is suitable for their child? Would be good to know
Harlow parent
2023-08-08 15:42:55
Read the piece Angela. In the same way they do now! Reading the report! Nothing changes. Seems like they’ve decided not to be a hypocrite and use quotes from them! And as for Adam! Hilarious. Person puts out tweet during their holiday. Media decides it is newsworthy!
Nostradamus
2023-08-09 09:43:52
OFSTED has failed, rather than being broken, from inception it's never been fit for purpose. Ask any teacher. It was created, like the National Curriculum to remove a local and collaborative education system from local authorities, local advisors and most of all from teachers on the grounds that teachers could not be trusted and were too left wing or even communists. The real agenda was to grab power away from local control to put it in the hands of governments made up from ex Eatonians (whilst exempting their own alma maters the private sector public schools ), to save money by closing all of the very effective Teachers Centres, to shut down local CSE examination boards that worked closely with teachers) in order to let big business companies like Pearson's take over. As with the NHS it was a policy of privatisation by stealth: as evidenced by the slide through grant maintained status to academies and MATs. Other outcomes were: to create a system dominated competition between schools and through a highly damaging competitive examination system which is accurately described as a Terminal examination system, the elimination of vocational courses and an exponential rise in stress levels that adversely affects the health of students and teachers alike. A result is the massive skills gap that the government's own figures predict a 40 million shortfall in the workforce over the next 10 years. Having witnessed in the early days of OFSTED,.first hand the same team of inspectors failing a school to come back as very highly paid consultants to fix the school but actually changing nothing except to cane the exceptionally innovative and successful Head Teacher and from then on in a variety of schools seeing schools forced to make changes that did nothing to improve the quality of learning to only increase the burden of creating paper trails I and many teachers know OFSTED to be fatality flawed. To profess it's possible define a school in a word and through a couple of days inspection is highly misleading, to imply to parents it can replace a team of local authority Advisors working closely & collaboratively with schools and teachers day by day throughout the year is dishonest. All schools need to become community schools and parents need to visit schools and get involved rather than dependent on a politically central government and unaccountable Qango. The UK has lost 40 years of educational innovation and development and remains locked in what is fundamentally a Model T Ford factory based batch production system. It's time the uk moved it's education system into the 21st Century. Vic all power to your elbow, any Headteacher with the courage to open their doors to the public via TV cameras as in Educating Essex to give insights to how it is deserves our support.
Steve
2023-08-09 11:51:38
Maybe that is what happens when you change the name of a school,then rebuild one and call it something else 😉
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