Why schools in poorer areas should be spared Ofsted inspections for a few years - Yorkshire Post Letters

In today's Yorkshire Post (October 28, page 4) I read a report of praiseworthy comments made by ex-DfE head Jonathan Slater. I agree wholeheartedly with his insistence that schools in poorer areas with high numbers of struggling families and children should be spared Ofsted inspections for a few years, particularly whilst we go through the agonies and upheavals of the transition to Ofsted's latest new wheezes (scorecards instead of one-word judgements).

Jonathan Slater says Ofsted don't help; they get in the way. This is so hugely, tragically, true. Their main purpose (apart from justifying their own salaries) is to provide ‘evidence’ for the government of the day to try to convince voters that it is improving schools - which nobody believes in any event.

Schools in affluent areas can cope, just about, with the Ofsted onslaught; less fortunate schools cannot.

But if only Jonathan Slater had come out with these remarks when he had the power to make a difference. He would have been cheered to the rafters by the entire teaching profession and by a good many parents.