OFSTED Attack Teachers

Posted by Paul Dix on 14 September 2010 | 0 Comments

Tags: , , , ,

So as we gear up for huge cuts across Education OFSTED decide it would be timely to attack teachers and in turn attack the most vulnerable children:

‘Thousands of pupils are being wrongly labelled as having special educational needs’  Ofsted says.

Well done OFSTED. Marvelous.  The government will be pleased to have the ammunition as they continue to cut services for children and schools. The public enjoy a bit of teacher bashing and patronsing (“teachers are well intentioned”…etc) the profession makes the inspectorate appear to have status. Brilliant. Credits all round. No doubt we will be soon hearing calls for all teaching assistants to be sacked as they clearly have nothing to do.

Trouble is the sample size for this survey was 345 children and the figures in the media have been scaled up from this. Hardly world class research. In fact I would ask any of my students presenting work with such a small sample group to go away and do some more work. Quite apart from the flawed research the way that OFSTED makes these pronouncements directly to the media makes them appear shifty and  ‘politically motivated’. If the inspectorate wants to engage in a meaningful dialogue with teachers to improve education we are ready to talk. Without the front-page headlines and TV appearances. It is almost as if they enjoy the attention.

Not to worry anyway as OFSTED have the solution to this problem, ‘They just need better teaching’. Thank goodness for the inspectorate. OFSTED have seen what we have all missed. Where would we be without them.? Actually Mr Gove, when you are looking for savings there might be another quango that you could throw onto the bonfire. A quango that no teacher would miss. This would leave the inspectors free to go back to the classroom and demonstrate to us all how easy it is to give support to children with additional needs in classes of 30/35.
 
Paul Dix

0 comments | Read the full post