Part 2 of 2 - Ofsted Inspection and Judgement Day

[Read Part 1 here]

Monday morning came round very fast and I got to school at 7.30am, the Ofsted team were expected at 8am.

The morning went very well with the first lesson observation graded as outstanding. One of the changes in the new framework is that the lead inspector will give you feedback throughout the day so we knew things were going well.

My Chair of Governors interview was scheduled at 2.30pm but I asked one of our teachers and the inspector whether they minded me observing a dance lesson at 2pm with them.

The lesson was outstanding and clearly the inspector was impressed. However, I am convinced they are trained not to show it through their body language.

Now it was my turn to come under scrutiny; everything so far was good – maybe even outstanding – so I didn’t want to let down the side down on safeguarding or governance.

I decided to bring in my Vice Chair as I figured two heads were better than one. I explained that I had been the Chair for 104 days, taking over from Chair who was in that position for 15 years. I communicated that I was passionate, committed, enthusiastic and a fast learner.

I also shared I had only been a School Governor for 470 days but was a lifelong learner. He set my mind at ease saying it’s not how long you have been a Governor or Chair, but what you bring to the role and how you approach it.

The first question the inspector asked was about how the governors effectively monitored the school.

This was my chance to impress; I reeled off the SEF, SIP reports, Head Teacher reports, School Development Plan, safeguarding monitoring, governor visits, governor training and RAISE online data.

I gave examples of the school’s strengths and areas for development without the need to refer to my notes.

The three roles we fulfil as governors are accountability, strategic view and critical friend. I gave examples how we fulfil our obligations in each of each of those areas.

We moved on to safeguarding and we were quizzed about safer recruitment. I had just completed my Online Safer Recruitment course on CWDC so I felt comfortable discussing it.

Finally, we were on the home straight and only Governor Safeguarding monitoring to cover off.

Luckily, I had completed a Governor Safeguarding visit in November based on the Ofsted inspector’s guidance for inspecting schools. This is a public document as I used back in November to monitor our school.

I gave a copy of my report to the inspector which seemed to go down very well. I had survived the Chair of Governors interview with no questions I couldn’t answer! Phew!

Many interviews and lesson observations later the inspector called together the Head Teacher, Senior Teacher, Vice Chair and myself into the Head’s office to deliver his judgement.

Drum roll please……

With a broad smile he said that he had judged our School to be outstanding overall! He explained we scored 23 sections as “Outstanding”, 2 as “Good” and nothing below good.

My Vice Chair and I were personally very pleased that governance and safeguarding were among the 23 sections that were regarded as outstanding!

The only disappointment was that we couldn’t tell anyone for 3 weeks.

Well now we can and here is our report!

The report says more than I could ever say in this blog.

If you are due an Ofsted inspection soon I’d be happy to answer any questions or give advice.

Sean Whetstone
Chair of Governors
Polesden Lacey Infant School
Sean.Whetstone@gmail.com

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