Those who follow the national news will’ve heard last week that Ofsted, the official body that regulates schools and those who care for children and young people, announced new-style inspections, where they’d be arriving at a school with just minutes notice.
Before the change, schools would receive notice a few days prior notice of a visit, giving leaders and staff time to prepare. According to national media reports, some in the teaching profession are unhappy with Ofsted moving the goal posts with this new style of inspection.
Medina College one of the first
This is the first week that the new style inspections have taken place and the Isle of Wight was chosen to be included.
An email sent from the school’s headteacher, Nathan Thomas, to staff – leaked to OnTheWight – gave details of the inspection. OnTheWight has chosen to leave out much of the detail of the email, but felt the following information was in the public interest.
Medina College ‘received the call’ during breakfast club on Thursday (whilst the head was joining in and competing on the Wii against a pupil) advising that the Inspector was due to arrive in the next ten minutes.
The Inspector spent the day observing classes and focused on one of the areas for improvement from the school’s inspection in March of last year.
Headteacher thanks staff
In an email to Medina College staff last night, headteacher, Nathan Thomas, thanked them for their support during the day.
He pointed out the challenges facing them during the Ofsted visit, saying that “February is statistically the worst month of the year for behaviour”, adding that the “penultimate week of half term is always the worst week for behaviour”.
It sounds as though everyone coped very well with the visit, Mr Thomas finished his email by saying
“Next time let’s get excited about a ‘good’ with outstanding not a [Requires Improvement] with good!”
Comment from Medina
We approached Medina for a comment on the inspection early this morning and received the following statement this afternoon,
Nathan Thomas, Headteacher at Medina stated,
“As with all OFSTED inspections, I am not able to comment on any outcomes of the visit until I have received the final written letter from OFSTED.
“This really was an unannounced observation, the inspector called the school ten minutes before he arrived!
Having been through the process I felt it was positive and will support Medina as we move quickly towards the ‘good’ judgement staff, parents and students desire and deserve.”
Medina College also confirmed that the Inspector explained this inspection was not triggered by any concerns.
Update 8.Feb.14 – Made it clear that the email was leaked to OnTheWight.
Image: Tim Parkinson under CC BY 2.0
