Our Ofsted Inspection

THE call came on Tuesday morning. 

On the 5th day of the new school year (and day two for our new reception pupils), my executive head rang me to say, "We've got the call" Ofsted would be inspecting us tomorrow. 

To be fair, we'd been expecting it. They'd first called two weeks before the end of last term, but we'd had to defer because a key staff member was unavailable. So it wasn't quite a bolt from the blue, but arriving this early in the new term, on yet another new framework, it still felt brutal.

I'll be honest: as Vice Chair of Governors, I was anxious. I hadn't heard many reassuring things about the new inspection framework, and I felt for my staff and for the school.

As Vice-Chair, I head up the Curriculum Standards Committee, so it fell to me to pull together the briefing notes for the governors joining the hour-long meeting with the inspectors. Once that was done, I went into school to see how the senior leadership team was getting on.

What struck me was the buzz. Not panic, a calm, professional buzz. We squeezed into the Head of School's office, everyone with their laptops open, piles of papers and folders everywhere, and they were simply, steadily ticking through the agenda: which inspector would be with which team, on which day. Months of considered planning, quietly coming together.

It was a real privilege to watch this group of professionals ready themselves for what we knew would be an intense two days. I'm so proud of them and so proud of our pupils, who made us absolutely proud.

The inspectors remarked on how welcoming and confident the children were, and how good their behaviour was. My heartfelt thanks to the wonderful children who made that possible.

The inspectors spent over an hour with four of us governors, and they politely grilled us: how do we challenge the school? How do we monitor and triangulate what we're told against what's actually happening? I felt enormous pressure not to let the team, or ourselves, down!

I'm pleased to say it was, overall, a really positive experience. The inspectors were professional, personable and kind, and the feedback was genuinely constructive, the kind of conversation that helps shape practice and ongoing improvement. Having people come in to assess you is never easy, but it felt like a fair process.

The report will be published in six to eight weeks. We now wait for the call for the other school in our federation!