No Thank You, Ofsted
- Ted Dunphy
- Jun 27, 2024
- 7 min read
Argonaut Learning Hub
“Bake in the Excellence. The Future is Now”
Cold Comfort Lane
Lower Cookehill
27th June 2024
Sir Martyn Oliver
His Majesty’s Chief Inspector
Ofsted Headquarters
Dear Sir Martyn
Your inspectors left us six days ago. I understand their report will arrive sometime in the next few weeks.
The timing does not concern us.
Nor, for that matter, will the content cause us any anxiety.
Indeed, it will be of little interest to us.
Two paths diverged
We discovered during the inspection that we did not sing from the same hymn sheet as your three inspectors.
We disagreed about what is meant by education, curriculum and preparation for life.
They completely failed to grasp the meaning of, and the process we use to implement our slogan, “Bake in the excellence. The Future is Now”.
They were uneasy with our approach to teaching.
We run a bespoke individualised learning program in all our teaching activities.
The programme covers all the necessary knowledge, understanding, skills and active participation in what constitutes effective learning and personal growth.
There is built in provision for correction, guidance and tutoring as well as for extension work.
As the name implies, an individualised learning programme does not demand that every student be in the same group, in the same room, or even in the same building, at the same time every week. This leads to what uninformed outsiders might perceive as disjointed lesson sessions.
In fact, each lesson is part of a holistic interlocking range of personal activities, individual research, joint learning, blended learning and team working with schools in Australia, New Zealand, and the UAE. Each student is guided, supported, monitored and moderated in tracked provision directed by our staff.
Students are assisted by a group of volunteer retired teachers recruited from the local communities who are delighted to act as coaches, one-to-one tutors, role models and discussion and learning buddies.
Your inspectors, not having seen anything like this before, chose to categorise the activities they saw as chaotic.
Our written records, testimonies from the students, teachers, parents, volunteer retirees and our outstanding examination results and further education placements testify to the success of the programme.
This evidence was disregarded because it did not fit with their framework of traditional teaching scenarios.
Feedback difficulties
Our biggest disappointment, however, was with the formal feedback of final judgements.
We were told the feedback information was confidential until the final written report was published.
I explained we could not agree to such an unreasonable suggestion. Doing so would go against the ethos of our community and undermine our values.
Accordingly, I gave our governors and the school community a full account of the inspection judgements, as they were reported back to me and a member of senior staff.
The editor for last week’s Parents’ Newsletter wrote a detailed account and analysis of the feedback based on the notes taken at the meeting by the senior staff member.
The lead inspector told me such actions violated the confidential nature of the feedback. I thanked her for this astute observation. I said I fully realised what I was doing.
As a sign of our goodwill and honest intention, I offered to send her a copy of our annotated account of her feedback, along with a copy of all notes taken by staff and students during the inspection. She refused my offer.
She had already refused to share her notes of the inspection activities and those of her companions that she alleged underpinned their unverified, and some would say, off-the-mark judgments.
As one parent pointed out, even a criminal accused of the vilest of crimes is entitled to hear in open court the evidence behind the charges laid against them. She spoke from experience.
Without those notes, we cannot have confidence in the validity of the judgments made.
For these reasons, we withhold our assent to the conclusions reached by your team.
We will not recognise the published report unless it is accompanied by all the written notes the inspectors took.
School Consultative Assemblies
One issue of great concern was the lead inspector’s refusal to give the feedback in front of the assembled school community as we requested, with all staff and students together. Openness characterises all our activities with our students.
As a half-way measure, we asked that she present their findings to the two Student School Assemblies who are well versed in hearing evidence and know how to ask questions to ascertain meaning and relevance.
Your team declined to appear before the Assemblies.
Our school is the students’ place of learning. It is their education and their future we deal with. They are at the centre of all we do. They are our stakeholders and we always bring full transparency to our dealings with them.
We test everything we do in the congregations of the Student School Assemblies and the Staff and Parent School Assembly.
We borrowed the idea from the Irish government’s approach to major changes in legislation where they use Citizens Assemblies to hear evidence from experts and subsequently present proposals to guide the Irish government’s legislation.
Evidence-based approaches
Posting unsubstantiated unverified judgements about us across the internet is unacceptable in this community that values integrity and makes decisions based on clear evidence.
Our evidence-based approach to teaching and learning is yet another example of our approach that was misunderstood.
We live by the expectation that each person has the right to hear first-hand the judgments about them and to probe the evidence base of such judgements.
The lead inspector had already objected to the presence of our student observers, who accompanied her and her companions on the activities they visited.
When she told a Year 10 student, “go away, child”, the “child” replied, “you are inspecting us, so it is valid that we inspect you inspecting us. A form of meta-inspection.”
Your representative seemed confused as to the meaning of “meta-inspection”. She told the young person she was being “too smart for her boots”.
Calling a fifteen-year-old “child” is an issue you might want to raise with your employee.
Assembly responses
An extraordinary joint meeting of the two Student School Assemblies three days ago unanimously accepted the motion that we withhold recognition of your written report unless it is accompanied by a full collection of unredacted notes and observations that underpin the judgments.
At a packed meeting of the Parent and Staff School Assembly yesterday evening, the resolution of the joint Student School Assemblies was adopted and unanimously passed.
They delegated me to inform you officially that the judgements on this inspection are insecure, and we will not recognise them unless accompanied by the full written evidence base.
The Parent and Staff Assembly unanimously resolved that any retaliatory action on your part will lead to them appealing directly to the European Court of Human Rights on the grounds that we, and especially the young people, were not properly involved in the inspection process and were presented with judgments without being able to view the evidence on which they were based.
As one parent graphically and vehemently put it, “this shonky Sheila inspector is worse than a dunny rat and has a kangaroo loose in the top paddock.”
He is of antipodean origin and retains his colloquial usage of the English language.
A ‘shonky Sheila’ is what he calls an underhand woman. The other phrases speak for themselves.
We will not make a formal complaint as this will waste your time and ours.
Next step
You may imprison us in some Academy Trust because we don’t accept your unsubstantiated judgements.
In our view, that would be like imposing a new fiddler to play a different tune that does not resonate with the tune we believe should be played in our community. Our own tune resonates with our staff, with our parents, with our community, and above all with our young people whom we serve.
Your team should have at least listened to the tune.
Respondent
Mrs Fatima Murphy, our lead caretaker and a qualified and retired aerospace engineer, will deal with any queries you may have.
She plays a key role in our school. As well as being the lead on maintenance, cleaning, hygiene and security, she uses her after-school sessions on experimental rocket design to contribute significantly to the development of students with dyslexia and milder forms of autism – a fact your inspectors failed to explore.
Fatima volunteered to liaise with you in order to give me more time to be with our young people, giving them the best start in life.
She still clings to the quaint traditional view that my work as head teacher is more important than hers, which is why she volunteered to be our liaison officer with you. She says her years working in the aerospace industries equipped her to deal with the many undesireable varieties of inhumanity she has met.
She asks that any contact with her should be between the hours of 1800 and 1900.
You are our inspiration
Your own organisation is regularly and frequently vilified, sometimes without proof. You know how we feel.
We draw strength from your refusals to accept judgments without an evidence base when directed against you and your valuable work.
We will do our best to follow your example.
Yours respectfully
Jessica Martins
Privileged to be leader of the Argonaut Learning Hub
© Ted Dunphy
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Disclaimer
I am not connected in any way with the Birmingham Diocesan Education Service or the Catholic Education Service. The views expressed are my own and are based on experience, research and evidence.
The experience comes from teaching in and working with Catholic schools around England over many years.
The research is based on the past three years investigating Catholic school websites in countries around the world, but especially in England.
An evidence-based approach challenges and refines the learning from the experience and the research.
I strongly support Pope Francis’ concept of synodality as a way of finding truth. I invite you to have your say and be listened to.
Ted Dunphy
Tel: 44 (0) 1527 894659
Mobile: 44 (0) 7891 179180
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