Accountability

Graphically Exposing Ofsted Bias?

Over the years, Ofsted has consistently claimed that schools working in deprived or challenging areas – their pupils, staff and leaders – are duly recognised for the quality of work they do.  Often, using a graph very similar to the one below to justify their comments, they state how inspectors contextualise the inspection process.  My view is “leading a school with a large percentage of disadvantaged white boys is statistically a career-ender”.  Contextualisation is a myth. Continue reading →

Key Stage 2 Writing Assessments; There Has to be Another Way #ThursdayThunk

This month Year 6 teachers, up and down the land, will be submitting their Writing Teacher Assessments.  The Key Stage 2 Writing assessment process is currently a workload creation vehicle.  The outcomes are considered so dubious they are ignored; they pretty much count for nothing.  Independent writing means different things in different schools and the teacher assessment process is a tick box, recipe following nightmare.  There has to be a better way. Continue reading →

Ofsted #MythBuster – Speaking Truth to Power

If you amend the title slightly – speaking truth to power, discuss – you end up with the type of question I might ask when helping some of our Sixth Formers prepare for a university interview. They tend to dive straight in rather than dissecting the statement and starting a discussion around the two axes of the question; truth and power.

Continue reading →