Union suspicion at increase in East Lancashire school inspections

7:00pm Thursday 15th November 2012 in News Photograph of the Author By Lisa Woodhouse, Assistant picture editor

SCHOOLS in Lancashire have seen a dramatic increase in the number of Ofsted inspections carried out this year.

Sceptical union bosses believe this is part of the Government’s plan to force academy status on ‘failing’ schools.

But the independent body said it is revisiting those school classified as ‘satisfactory’ under the old grading system.

Ofsted has scrapped the ‘satisfactory’ category, and those schools are now classed as ‘requires improvement’.

Since September the number of inspections has more than doubled, increasing from five a week on average to as many as 13 across primary and secondary schools.

The Government has drawn up a hit-list of 36 ‘failing’ primary schools in Lancashire, including 19 in East Lancashire, which ministers refuse to release.

Lancashire NAHT secretary Les Turner said: “Rossendale, Pendle and West Lancashire are most vulnerable.

In a leaked letter from Lancashire County Council to secondary school headteachers, an officer said there had been an ‘unprecedented’ number of secondary school inspections taking place over the last two months.

At the end of October, there had been more than 13 Lancashire secondary schools inspected since September.

It said: “As expected, Ofsted have prioritised their resources into inspecting satisfactory schools.

“Of the 12 schools previously judged satisfactory in Lancashire, nine were judged good under the new framework.

“A smaller proportion of Lancashire schools to date have been judged to ‘require improvement’ than nationally.

“In two of the three Lancashire schools where this judgment has been made, inspectors have acknowledged focused leadership, high expectations, good quality planning, strong governance and evidence of impact and therefore recommended ‘light touch’ monitoring.”

And primary schools are being similarly targeted. Mr Turner said: “If each school is independent, it will break down the Lancashire local education authority.

“The government seem to think that if you take a school out of local authority control and privatise it then standards will improve in the school. This is not the case.”

Comments(11)

vicn1956 says...
7:22pm Thu 15 Nov 12

What other workplace has to put up with these roaming gangs?

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mavrick says...
7:37pm Thu 15 Nov 12

The government is on course to completely destroy public services, The response from the unions is pretty poor. Perhaps a national withdrawal of labour like the people on the continent. How much longer are we going to tolerate this coalitions attack on every form of public service, The NHS, education, local authorities. Time to stand up to them, Remember they had no mandate to do any of this.

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Chris P Bacon says...
7:55pm Thu 15 Nov 12

mavrick wrote:
The government is on course to completely destroy public services, The response from the unions is pretty poor. Perhaps a national withdrawal of labour like the people on the continent. How much longer are we going to tolerate this coalitions attack on every form of public service, The NHS, education, local authorities. Time to stand up to them, Remember they had no mandate to do any of this.
Well said.

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liddle 'un says...
9:08pm Thu 15 Nov 12

Seems like working for the public sector gets more like real life every day. Useful to keep teachers on their toes (and that goes for all public servants).

Of course the jewel in the crown in all this will be the unwinding of their grossly expensive pension arrangements, funded in the main by hard working private sector taxpayers (many of whom cannot afford a pension for themselves, let alone paying for somebody else's).

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sueysuey1 says...
9:34pm Thu 15 Nov 12

Don't we want to know if our tax is being well spent and our children are getting the best education? After all that's what ofsted do and those schools who fail our youngsters, and there are many, should be accountable

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DEO VOLENTE says...
9:51pm Thu 15 Nov 12

Unions? As we all know the unions are powerless, weak and no longer relevant. They are also collectively very bad at choosing political leaders, an example being "Ed Milliband". Thats right the unions choice who wants One Nation! The problem is "Eddy" old boy is that if we were ever unfortunate enough to have "New Labour" in power that would equate to a "Non- Nation". We can however take joy in the fact that with "Ed" the unions choice at the helm this is unlikely to happen, Thank God. To continue there is nothing wrong with school inspections.They highlight failings and improve standards which can only be a good thing. As for the present government very well done so far!

Deus Vobiscum

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Darwen Malc says...
9:53pm Thu 15 Nov 12

Just why should all these institutions, like schools, councils, the NHS be treated differently to any other 'business'. If all businesses were run like public services, they'd have all gone bust years ago. The public services are NOT sacred cows and should be subject to investigation to ascetain whether they are being run efficiently and producing results, and if not, be forced to implement efficiencies without any interference from the trade unions whom only ever seem to want to withdraw labour therby affecting the very public that they are supposed to be serving.

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mavrick says...
10:17pm Thu 15 Nov 12

Darwen Malc wrote:
Just why should all these institutions, like schools, councils, the NHS be treated differently to any other 'business'. If all businesses were run like public services, they'd have all gone bust years ago. The public services are NOT sacred cows and should be subject to investigation to ascetain whether they are being run efficiently and producing results, and if not, be forced to implement efficiencies without any interference from the trade unions whom only ever seem to want to withdraw labour therby affecting the very public that they are supposed to be serving.
Malc that is the point, they are public services and not private business. The public sector do many things very well in fact far better than the private sector. Just look at care homes in the private sector. There is no problem checking the public are getting value for money, The NHS is the one the coalition has chosen to undermine on the pretext they are over funded. Sorry not true. you can not take £20 billion out of any organisation and expect it to carry on.
The problem is we need trade unions more now than ever before, but the confidence is not there. In short we need public services more in a recession than ever. The coalition have savaged the personnel who work for the public sector, except of course for their own highly paid advisers who are paid from the public purse. Who's numbers have increased more than ever despite them saying it would cut the numbers down. The other comments on here are not worthy of reply

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jack daniels says...
7:09am Fri 16 Nov 12

liddle 'un wrote:
Seems like working for the public sector gets more like real life every day. Useful to keep teachers on their toes (and that goes for all public servants).

Of course the jewel in the crown in all this will be the unwinding of their grossly expensive pension arrangements, funded in the main by hard working private sector taxpayers (many of whom cannot afford a pension for themselves, let alone paying for somebody else's).
Hate to burst your bubble but people work hard in the public sector too. Remember that the next time your house is robbed; your bins are emptied; your poor are housed; your vulnerable children/elderly/dis
abled are rescued from misery and your children are educated.

It feels like you haven't got a clue about the real world so I suggest you crawl back into your little world before you get a dose of reality

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old greybeard says...
8:58am Fri 16 Nov 12

Darwen Malc - we saw in the Olympics how the public sector had to step in to rescue the private sector yet again - G4S for example. This happens time and again. If the public sector was run like the private sector, none of the services would be delivered, but the shareholders would make money..
There is a strange language in education - satisfactory which means up the mark, doing the job, good enough, now becomes not good enough. Banks and businesses continue to lose money and are propped up by the public sector, by our taxes.

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liddle 'un says...
7:20pm Fri 16 Nov 12

jack daniels wrote:
liddle 'un wrote:
Seems like working for the public sector gets more like real life every day. Useful to keep teachers on their toes (and that goes for all public servants).

Of course the jewel in the crown in all this will be the unwinding of their grossly expensive pension arrangements, funded in the main by hard working private sector taxpayers (many of whom cannot afford a pension for themselves, let alone paying for somebody else's).
Hate to burst your bubble but people work hard in the public sector too. Remember that the next time your house is robbed; your bins are emptied; your poor are housed; your vulnerable children/elderly/dis

abled are rescued from misery and your children are educated.

It feels like you haven't got a clue about the real world so I suggest you crawl back into your little world before you get a dose of reality
Since you have chosen to depart from rational argument and resort to personal attack, I will respond as follows:

I am not clear what benefit I may obtain from the suggested "dose of reality" and your rather strange list of state benefits which seem to have little or no relevance to myself?

"Remember that the next time your house is robbed"

Nothing worth stealing

"your bins are emptied"

Quite capable of going to the tip myself

"your poor are housed"

Don't have any poor friends/relatives

"your vulnerable children/elderly/dis abled are rescued from misery"

As above

"and your children are educated"

no children in state education

Have I offended your sensitivities because: a) you are on the dole, b) you work for the state, i.e. dole by proxy or c) you are a rabid left wing loon?

Through your shaky grasp of reality, do you see decent, hard working, private sector taxpayers forming a bottomless pit to be mercilessly exploited?

I look forward to your response.

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