Not Done With Ofsted

Maria Arpa

Wednesday Whisper

6 December 2023

This week

Plus…

Maria’s Midweek Mindfulness

and

The Wednesday Whisper

Not fit for purpose

The education inspectorate Ofsted has been branded “toxic” and “not fit for purpose” by an inquiry, claiming it needs a major reform after losing the “trust of the teaching profession”.

I and thousands of others could have given that feedback without a costly inquiry.

Anyone who has followed my blog for any length of time knows that I am highly critical of the mainstream education system to the point of giving up on State schools.

One of my absolute joys is to bring the Dialogue Road Map into schools. Experiencing the absolute wonder of children discovering there is a whole other way of communicating and watching them put it into action is to be savoured. But too many times, the schools are under-resourced to make the necessary changes to take a whole school approach, and against a backdrop of punishment, ‘consequences’, star charts and other mechanisms that promote individualism and competition under the stress of passing worthless exams and impressing an even more worthless inspectorate, I realised that in the end, we set the children up to fail. We show them something beautiful, they embrace the gift, and then it is taken away.

I have nothing but love and gratitude for the people who give it their all as teachers and support staff, but they are overworked, under-resourced and constantly under threat from an ‘inspectorate’ that can ruin careers.

At the point where the people being inspected, schools in this case, have to put on a show for inspectors because they know it is inherently unfair and punitive, we know that the so called ‘authority’ is bankrupt in trust. Anything we do that lacks trust is worthless.

So, if there is a school out there that truly wants to become a centre of learning based on the principles of restorative justice, healing with a trauma informed approach and nonviolence using the Dialogue Road Map and is prepared to make the time for a truly transformative process, and is willing to stand up to the system and is willing to sit with the growing pains of radical change with a Head Teacher who is willing to embrace a ground up community approach, I’d love to hear from you.

Last time I made this request in 2015, it was easier to find a prison willing to undertake this change than a school. That is now our project in Dartmoor prison.

Maria’s Midweek Mindfulness

The DRM shows us how to build a community based on the philosophy of nonviolence and the practical application of healing and transformative approaches to learning, communication and organising.

The Wednesday Whisper

How do you view authority both when you are the authority and when you are the recipient?

2 Comments

Neil Jackson
Posted 5 months ago Reply

If you have ever visited a school in recent years, they bear too much a resemblance to prisons. Fences block the kids opportunity to look outwards, Visitors have to have their photo taken for passes. School gates locked. Entry and exit strictly limited.

Inspections used to be quite long, a week I think, the two day inspections that superseded it were portrayed as an act of kindness to schools. Of course it results in less detail, a lack of context, and poorer inspections.
- Maria Arpa
  Posted 5 months ago Reply
  
  Hi Neil, I think prisons may be marginally better than schools. In prisons, the service users (prisoners) are consulted from time to time. In schools, children are not consulted as if their experiences don’t count. I’ve been on the receiving end of an inspection when I was chair of a PRU. The experience was worthless and their criticism of my inability to recite some meaningless policy was pitiful. My proactive approach devoting hours to sitting with the children and parents and truly listening was deemed inconsequential. That our survey of the students said that the best part of the school was the Teachers did not even register as important. As you know, my ability to laugh at such systems for their petty ridiculousness means I cannot take it seriously because none of this is helps to turn out loving, compassionate, rational decision makers who are both merciful and disciplined.

Not Done With Ofsted

Not Done With Ofsted

Maria’s Midweek Mindfulness

The Wednesday Whisper

Our New Instagram

Life After Prison

Donate

LinkedIn

Facebook

Our Case Studies

Contact Us

Neil Jackson

Maria Arpa