OFSTED, Tears & Education!

This week started and ended badly.
My school, the school I work in has been placed in special measures by OFSTED. At our last inspection, under the Labour Government, we were out standing now, under a Tory government we are now in special measures. The inspection criteria has changed and if you don’t do well in one area it has a domino effect on all the other areas. One area we failed on was a procedural thing. We had been following the local educational authority procedure, as we had done for years, on our Criminal Record Bureau checks and when OFSTED came in they said we should be following their guidelines but nobody bothered to tell us. I could go on and on but I feel like it was one almighty stitch up to fulfil a political agenda. The sad thing is though I haven’t even mentioned the education of our children yet and the whole inspection didn’t feel as though it was about Education just keeping up with the latest policies and guidelines.
On Monday evening we had a meeting for parents. The LEA, all the school staff and our governing body were there. It was hideous. A small but very vocal group of parents had amassed themselves together and then proceeded with a character assignation on my boss, The Head Teacher. Anybody who has read my blog in the past will know how brilliant, inspiring and generous I think my boss is, so to hear some of the venom directed at her in a public meeting was awful, hurtful and bought me to tears. One parent stood up to them and accused them of a fifth century witch hunt wanting her head on a spike, responded by saying move your children to another school if you are not happy, he reminded them this person they were attacking was a human being and whatever had happened did not deserve to be attacked and bullied. The person who stood up to them was my brother and I was so proud of him. As a member of staff we can’t put our point of view across, there wouldn’t be any point as i would only be accused of making excuses. but my brother said everything I wanted to say. The problem is these people are at the top of their professional game and throughout their adult lives have never had anybody question them or say no. They come into school demanding things that benefit their children and when their ideas are not actioned, most of the time due to governmental constraints, they are incensed. They were certainly unhappy that somebody dare question them.
I love my school. Yes there is always room for improvement as there is in any area of life. However we work hard and tirelessly to educate the children. The attack on my boss was also an attack on my school and its ethos and mission statement. It hurt a lot and between us we have shed a lot of tears. I am passionate about my school and wish everyone could see all the dedication, expertise, care and enthusiasm every single member of staff gives to every single child in our wonderful school.