OFSTED's Impact

Unreliable Reporting

OFSTED's failings make their reports are unreliable.

• Parents may be misled into choosing the wrong school for their children. Where OFSTED misleadingly understates a school's overall effectiveness, parents may choose not to send their children to a good school. Similarly, where OFSTED misleadingly overstates a school's effectiveness, parents may send their children to a school that does not realise their children's best potential.  

Undermining School Standards

OFSTED's conclusions are often unbalanced or wrong. As a consequence:

• Where OFSTED has misunderstood the workings of a school, the school may be compelled to withdraw successful teaching practices for its students. 

• Critical OFSTED comments and reports often undermine confidence in headteachers and staff. OFSTED often delivers misleading reports that fail to reflect schools' overall educational standards. Its practices are frequently bullying, Invalid criticism and inappropriate inspection practices inevitably undermine the quality of education a school can deliver.

• OFSTED's narrow focus often causes schools to change their practices. Innovation is discouraged for fear of OFSTED criticism. Schools frequently complain that they feel compelled to prioritise bureaucracy over academic and social excellence.

Mental Health of Staff and Students

OFSTED has absolute power to change a school's outcomes. In its position of power, school heads and staff cannot defend themselves against OFSTED's pervasive incompetence and bullying practices. They have the power to cause the conditions to sack any staff member without proper recourse.

Most schools have a responsibility to students far beyond their academic achievements. Schools have been pushed to take a leading role in sustaining students' mental health and wellbeing. The range of individual needs is overwhelming. Schools have woefully inadequate financial and professional resources for the task. Yet most schools develop a remarkably creative and compassionate framework to support their students' needs. The framework is complex and delicate. It is very carefully attuned to the needs of its students.. 

OFSTED inspectors have no remit to understand or assess the effectiveness of the school's unique framework. As a consequence, OFSTED's reports may trample the delicate nature of the framework that headteachers and staff may have devoted their entire career to develop. This can be devastating to headteachers in particular, They may be put in a position of having to implement procedures that they know will undermine the wellbeing  of students.

• Inspections are frequently confrontational, unjust and misleading. It is abusive and detrimental to the mental health of school staff.

• Whenever staff need to pay attention to their own compromised mental health, it necessarily diverts some of the attention they could otherwise devote to the mental health needs of their students. Accordingly, student mental health and wellbeing is compromised when OFSTED's actions undermine staff mental health wellbeing.    

• OFSTED takes no responsibility to protect the mental health of staff. Since OFSTED is an organisation directed by the Department for Education, its inappropriate practices may constitute abuse by the government.