Is It A Requirement.....

[ToraToraTora]

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cyezpgwn833o

....for OFSTED "inspectors" to be rude officious, thoughtless Molochs?

[Prudie]

An example of when offence is the best form of defence. A lot of OFSTED inspectors are ex teachers who couldn't cope with a classroom.

[mushroom25]

those that can, do. those that can't, teach. those that can't do either become OFSTED inspectors.

[Dagman]

I have to say teachers can and do. I work with them, very capable people and I find the previous statement somewhat offensive!

[Prudie]

Dagman I taught for 10 years and am well aware of what teachers in a classroom do however that saying is famous and has been around for decades in one format or another, hardly offensive. In my day it was:

Thse who can do

Those who can't, teach

Those who can't teach, teach teachers

The fact remains that very few OFSTED inspectors were once superb teachers. If they were they'd have stayed doing it, teaching is a true vocation.

[Dagman]

I agree Prudie, not heard it before tho! We had an Ofsted visit during an exam session, she marched in, put her handbag on a working student's desk, clip clopped around, disturbed all, must have been 75+, where do they get them from and who gives them the job? 

[Omg21]

I've been through a few Ofsted inspections as a teacher and as a school governor and have found that the inspectors vary.  Some have been extremely officious but others have been very nice. 

[andy-hughes]

As OMG points out - you get different people in all walks of life, from the wonderful to the horrendous - and that applies within OFSTED as in any other area of prefessional endevour.

It's very easy to poke fun, and apply cliches, as previous posters have done, but I have some insight to offer.

My wife was an OFSTED inspector for twelve years, having been a teacher, a Deputy Head Teacher, and then an Inspector after her retirement from full-time education.

She always saw her role as being a help to any school, you bolster its good practices, and offer advice and insight into correcting the bad ones, and I believe she performed her tasks well.

Since she is sill an educational consultant, she still encounters OFSTED Inpsctors on a regular basis, as she did when she worked in teams with them, and as an individual.

And her response would be, that as in all walks of life - some Inspectors are wonderful, some are utterly dreadful, some should not be allowed to inspect a bird's nest, much less a school.

But it is unfair to tar all with the same brush because of the failings of the few, and ignore the good work completed by the many.

Sadly, good performance in anything is not recognised to anything like the same degree as bad performance, and the link perfectly ullustrates that fact.

Let's bring it closer to home - there are AB'ers who are kind, considerate and helpful, and there are AB'ers who are horrible, nasty and mean.

That's life.

[andy-hughes]

A further observation - It is hardly appropriate for a Minister Of Education to suggest that she advocates violence against individuals employed by her Department.

I think her job is to find ways to reduce and eliminate violence in schools, not come across like some nasty thug with threats of harm to people doing their job, however badly.

The woman is a disgrace.

[10ClarionSt]

If she'd been doing her job properly in the first place, they might not have been so forthright. She said:

//But when you're kind of trying to run a school//

Only "kind of trying". I suspect the inspectors noticed she was only "kind of trying", instead of doing it.

[1ozzy]

Well, now I know what Moloch means.

AB is so educational😆