An educated guess of deterioration

I suppose our school has ‘deteriorated’ in a sense, due to our Ofsted inspection, which reflected our school in a negative light…

Recently we have had an Ofsted inspection, the type in which teachers become stressed, frightened and not quite themselves. I have sympathy towards teachers around this time, due to the sharp eye that Ofsted have, not only do they watch and observe, they also read between the lines, and scrutinise all faults.

I respect Ofsted, as they are given an unbiased perception of what schools are like, by categorising them into level of excellence: outstanding, good, satisfactory, improvement and special measures. Ofsted are important as they give reports of aspects of the school which people may take interest in, such as intake: parents who are contemplating whether or not to send their child to a certain school, may refer to Ofsted to hope for an accurate account of the school itself.

Sadly, in assembly the Head teacher delivered news on Ofsted, which I think was due to the behaviour of some children in our school – as did the Head teacher (I suppose this is quite evident due to the behaviour I have witnessed around the school), that our Ofsted inspection resulted to being categorised in ‘special measures’, however our school is not a ‘typical’ special measures school as we are not wholly negative, however there is room for improvement with support. The ‘lower’ part of the school received a bad report, however Sixth Form (which I am in) received a good report. Most teachers teach both 9, 10 and 11 years and Sixth form: 12 and 13, so it can’t solely be the teachers? The pupils have had a significant impact on the news.

I sympathise with the teachers, as I could tell during the days in which Ofsted were inspecting, they were all under a lot of pressure to deliver the best they could; in my honest opinion, I believe the level of education in our school is good, I do not regret in the slightest going to my school, the teachers are supportive and the library is resourceful. Our GCSE results reflect my opinion, our school reached the best in the county, shown in the statistic of 85% of people receiving A*-C level. I am failing to understand, why then, have received a negative Ofsted report, to me, it’s not the teaching, it must be other aspects of the school? Perhaps, behaviour or facilities? Who knows, the Ofsted report is pending release…