Today is the first day for our new councils: Cumberland and Westmorland and Furness, take over the running of all the local services from roads to education, to social services to emptying the bins as well as lots of other services we can only imagine.
Of course, none of the services will actually change. The same bin lorries and bin men (and, round our way, the bin emptiers are all men and do a very good job), the same planning departments with the same staff, the same registrars for births, marriages and deaths, the same parks and cemetery departments. In fact, same old, same old.
Yes, the overall political leadership may have changed but there will be very little, despite us being flooded with letters and tweets, in what the man and woman on the street will see.
Of course, with all things the price goes up and all we can hope for is that the council tax we pay gives us value for money overall. I suspect this column will be revisiting this in the weeks and months ahead.
But let’s this week, focus on another burning issue: School inspections and Ofsted.
The tragic death of Ruth Perry, the headteacher of Caversham Primary School, following the downgrading of her school after an Ofsted report, brings into focus the role of the inspectorate and what their reason for being is.
This cat is too old to have experienced an Ofsted inspection when I went to school but everyone in the town knew the strengths and weaknesses of the schools and, in any case, you went to your local school regardless.
It was in 1992 that the common in section framework for schools was created with early inspections being carried out by local inspectors. Up to 2005, each school was inspected every six years and was given two months’ notice of the inspection dates.
This raised two key criticisms: Firstly, the actual inspection was disruptive to the everyday schooling, and, secondly, by giving notice, schools were able to prepare in a way that allowed some (not all, by any means) to present a picture of their school that was unduly favourable.
When change came and there was less notice of inspections, schools were encouraged to develop an ongoing understanding of their strengths and weaknesses in order for them to build on the strengths and address the weaknesses.
When the school was inspected by Ofsted, it was given one of four single word gradings: Outstanding, Good, Satisfactory or Outstanding. Bag an Outstanding or Good and the Inspectors wouldn’t darken the doors for five years whereas those deemed satisfactory or inadequate would receive more frequent inspections with little or no notice.
Ofsted continued to tinker with the framework including a change to satisfactory which became requires improvement. There was also the introduction of schools that were inadequate in more than one area where the inspectors did not believe the school had the ability to improve significantly, these schools could be placed in special measures when significant outside help was put in place. Others, where they was an expectation that it could recover, were served with a notice to improve.
Also, from 2001, Ofsted became responsible for inspecting childcare and childminding services and in 2007, it expanded to include further education (post-16) colleges.
Since 2015, Ofsted have carried out two types of Inspection: a section five, full inspection and a section eight, monitoring inspection. The latter were mainly used for monitoring those deemed either requires improvement or inadequate.
In the space of 30 years, Ofsted has changed so it is now unrecognisable to that introduced in 1992. In those early days the report was to inform parents, the school and the Government as to how each school was performing and, allied to various league tables (SATs, exam results, etc) provided league tables where each school started to compete against one another.
Speaking to a headteacher of a secondary school a few years ago, he told me that his focus was on lifting students in the D grade to a C. Improving that figure would have a significant impact on his league table position. Of course, that meant a A or B student would just be expected to maintain their own grade while failing students (E and F) would be left to, well, fail.
This headteacher hated having to do this but that is what league tables do. Just look at football managers – start falling down the table and you lose your job.
The vast majority of kids go to the school that services their catchment area – the local school good, bad or indifferent. Very few parents move house to get into a better school and even fewer lie to get their kids into a chosen school. So why do we persist in doing inspections?
The official answer is that a healthy regime of inspections leads to an overall improvement in education (although what that has to do with childminders is another question).
Really? Isn’t education rooted in the socio-economics of the area where the school is? In the more affluent areas we find schools that perform better than those who service areas of poverty where both parents have to work or on so-called ‘sink estates’ (not a phrase the cat likes)?
Indeed, looking at the overall attainment of students today, can anyone see a general improvement in education or are we continuing to fall behind other countries?
Without going on about the old days, how many parents spend time reading to their children? If they do, then they may well see both a happy child and one that does better in school. Stick them in front of CBeebies or on the PlayStation and they may not. How many parents have to spend all their waking hours working just to make ends meet?
And please, don’t even think of coming up with the tired old mantra, “if they can’t afford kids they shouldn’t have them”.
Groups of parents who get actively involved in their local school can be useful in terms of building trust and confident between parents, children and teaching staff.
If we are to have inspections then they must focus on helping the school to improve but a good education for our children comes about by developing the child through good parenting skills, worthwhile activities away from the computer screen, and recognising how many of our teachers commit over and above the basic requirement to deliver for our children.
Let’s celebrate that commitment and work with them. And don’t let any other teacher feel so devastated by the inspection to take their own life.
About Cumbria Cat
Born in Cumberland and, from today, is back living in Cumberland, having spent most of the past 50 years in some place called Cumbria, this cat has used up all nine lives as well as a few others.
Always happy to curl up on a friendly lap, the preference is for a local lap and not a lap that wants to descend on the county to change it into something it isn’t. After all, you might think Cumbria/Cumberland/Westmorland is a land forged by nature – the glaciers, the rivers, breaking down the volcanic rocks or the sedimentary layers – but, in reality, the Cumbria we know today was forged by generations of local people, farmers, miners, quarriers, and foresters.
This cat is a local moggy, not a Burmese, Ocicat or Persian, and although I have been around the block a few times, whenever I jump, I end up on my feet back in my home county. I am passionate about the area, its people, past, present and future, and those who come to admire what we hold dear, be it lakes and mountains, wild sea shores, vibrant communities or the history as rich and diverse as anywhere in the world.