The Inspection process

Cath took up post as head teacher in September 2009. Although she had been briefed to expect weaknesses in the school which had led to underperformance in some areas, and gaps in the school’s systems and procedures, she was shocked to discover the extent to which the school was not complying with requirements, particularly with regard to the Safeguarding. She discovered that nine members of staff had still to receive Criminal Records Bureau (CRB) clearances, in line with statutory obligations. She immediately began the necessary checks, but when the call came less than four weeks later informing her that the inspection would take place that week, results had still not arrived. She realised how vulnerable the school was, but knew that she was unable to do anything to rectify the situation in time:

I think it’s one of the only times in my career where the colour drained and you actually shake. I knew how much the school had got to get done and all I thought in September was please don’t turn up yet because I know that I think if they had turned up in the summer term it would have been Special Measures and the previous head knew that as well. Had some very honest conversations with me indicating that they knew that there were issues in school with safeguarding. I had researched that and spent a long time in the summer organizing

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things, I’d got the policies that were missing in place on the first day of term. The first thing I did was to say ‘Hi, I’m the new Head and I’m going to do half a day child protection’, so we ticked all those boxes but CRB checks weren’t back. So it didn’t matter what I did, I couldn’t get those CRB checks back.

The initial phone call to the Lead Inspector confirmed her fears:

What I did when they phoned was raise it because they didn’t have a clue that there were issues with CRB which is why I mentioned it on the phone and it changed the whole focus of the inspection, right from the initial phone call. He just said this is a big concern and was asking questions and then said that they were going to look at it differently from the first time they came in. They started off straight away with safeguarding, and then found out that the CRBs weren’t in place by probably about half past nine, and then it was just two days on the phone after that.

Far from focusing on achieving a positive outcome, her attention was taken by the possibility that inspectors might decide that the school would have to close while CRBs were obtained:

They were talking about closing the school at that point and that’s probably when the nerves did start because I was saying there was

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no way of closing the school because that’s more of a safeguarding risk because some of the families the children go to don’t have anyone at home.

From this point onward, Cath and the rest of the Leadership team felt that the judgment had been made and the remainder of the two days would make little difference to the overall outcome. However, the fact that the school was vulnerable overall was not unexpected, and had been something that she had communicated to staff:

I had been on to the staff. I had said to staff that I felt that we would have to work really hard for the inspection to get satisfactory, so was sort of pleading with staff, I kept an eye on everything and watched the children that they weren’t using worksheets, looked at outcomes…

I had done it in a calm way but had been honest and said at this stage I can’t guarantee that we are going to get through with satisfactory based on what I found in school. The staff were pretty much in that same mind anyway when I started here....I was hoping satisfactory, but sceptical whether we could get it. I was more concerned about teaching and learning because I knew that there was some teaching that was inadequate.

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The tone was set for the inspection, and Cath felt that her role was to manage the situation rather than influence the decision. This left her feeling ineffective and isolated:

The day comes and you feel pretty useless, they wanted me – because I used to walk around the school, liked to see how the children were doing by popping into classrooms – but they were saying we might need you so if you just base yourself in the room that you have been in so I was sitting in there for most of the day. They said don’t walk round the school just in case we need to ask you something. So I felt pretty useless on that day. I also had staffing issues before they came in with the deputy. I didn’t have a deputy that I could fall back on for one thing.

Other members of staff were aware that the inspection was likely to be difficult, but had little knowledge of the mechanics of the process as it unfolded and no time to build their relationship with the new head teacher. The initial reaction was one of acute anxiety, as Linda, the Acting Deputy describes:

We were all nervous and absolutely paranoid really. We were all very, very scared. The whole staff were. It was distressing really. It meant

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very long hours for us and my health isn’t very good. It’s had a terrific impact on my life.

Cath saw the impact on her colleagues as the Inspection unfolded and the outcome became clearer, and detected a sense of powerlessness and de- professionalisation:

I saw young teachers crying. Absolutely paranoid the day before Ofsted came in, trying to plan lessons and link it. I said it had to be a good lesson. They said it’s got to be topic based. I said no it hasn’t, it’s just got to be good teaching. People were panicking really, staying up late, staying in school late.

As a result, she feels that staff did not perform as well as they might have done:

We weren’t particularly on top form. People were just shattered. Stayed up so late and then got up at 3 o’clock in the morning to make sure everything was prepared, and so it’s just a case of going through it in a fog really, absolutely exhausted.

As the Inspection unfolded, Cath felt compelled to be as positive and supportive as possible around the school, despite the growing realization

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of the likely outcome. She kept her emotional response under reasonably strict control, until she returned home at the end of the first day:

There were a few tears actually. I was talking to my children and my husband and he was an Acting Deputy in a secondary school just talking about how I understand what Ofsted are saying and why they are doing it but I just wish they had given me a bit longer because I can see how my workload is going to go when I’ve gone down – that was the first night. On the second night when I got home and the decision had been made I was just numb really because I was just thinking that I will have Local Authority going in and I’m going to have to do an action plan and have to keep meeting them and I’ve got to – the parents were my biggest concern because I thought as soon as that was out there the parents were just going to see that the school wasn’t safe and I have had quite a few of those. It was just thinking about what’s around the corner really.

Although it had been apparent to Cath that the school was going to be placed into a category, that knowledge was not shared with the rest of the staff until the end of the Inspection:

At that point they were just getting on with their job really so I didn’t get much feedback but then I met them at the end of the inspection

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and gave them what was probable and there was just an absolute silent staffroom. They just all looked totally gutted really.

Linda (Acting Deputy) vividly remembers the meeting and the staff reaction:

Cath told us. She got the staff together and she told us. People were crying and awful and very resentful of the previous Head because she hadn’t set up the safeguarding. It seemed ridiculous really that you were being judged for 2 minutes on your teaching so to speak, and yet it was all safeguarding, which is important but to me the safeguarding ought to be a separate issue and then there ought to be an Ofsted looking at teaching and learning and what we are doing in the classroom. There did not seem to me to be enough of that. That is very unfair. Absolutely.

The outcome was a Notice to Improve, which by the end of the inspection, was the best that Cath was hoping for. The report stated that the school was performing significantly worse that could reasonably be expected, and drew attention to the particular issue of meeting statutory safeguarding requirements.

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