School governors ‘more interested in dealing with lunches, uniforms and plumbing in the loos’ than boosting standards, Ofsted chief claims

RSS Feed

School governors ‘more interested in dealing with lunches, uniforms and plumbing in the loos’ than boosting standards, Ofsted chief claims

June 17th, 2012

FAKE NEWS for the Zionist agenda

By
Tammy Hughes

PUBLISHED:

10:42 EST, 16 June 2012

|

UPDATED:

10:43 EST, 16 June 2012

Ofsted Chief Inspector Sir Michael Wilshaw says some school governors have their priorities wrong

School governors can be more interested in dealing with lunches, uniforms and ‘plumbing in the loos’ than boosting standards, Ofsted chief inspector Sir Michael Wilshaw suggested today.

He warned that some governors have their priorities wrong, and that their main focus should be on the quality of teaching in their school.

In the last full year of inspection, school governance was rated no better than satisfactory in almost two fifths of the schools visited, Sir Michael said.

And this hasn’t improved much on five years ago.

In a speech to the National Governors’ Association in central London today, Sir Michael said: ‘Some governors would prefer to focus on familiar territory and easier issues – school meals, uniform, the plumbing in the loos. These should not be your main priorities.

‘The quality of teaching is the single most important factor in the quality of the school. It is your job to know how good it is and where the weaknesses lie.’

Sir Michael cited a recent report by the Sutton Trust charity, which works to improve the chances of young people from disadvantaged areas, that said for poor pupils, the difference between a good and bad teacher is a year of learning.

‘So rather than lunches and loos, your main focus should be on the quality of teaching in the school, the leadership of teaching and learning, the progress and outcomes for pupils and the performance management of staff, including the headteacher,’ Sir Michael told delegates.

‘You all know that if these things go well, the culture of the school will also be good and it is very likely that your school will get a good inspection judgment.’

Focus: School governors should be concerned with raising standards than more trivial issues says Ofsted boss Sir Michael Wilshaw

Focus: School governors should be concerned with raising standards than more trivial issues

He added: ‘You must make sure that your energies are focused on the most important issues – and not on those that are peripheral to the progress and achievement of pupils.’

Sir Michael repeated a previous suggestion that school governors could be paid, arguing that something ‘radically different’ needs to be done to recruit the best people to the job.

The chief inspector also used his speech to insist that Ofsted’s new inspection regime is not trying to catch schools out.

Under the new system, to be introduced this September, the ‘satisfactory’ rating will be scrapped and replaced with ‘requires improvement’.

‘We’re not in the business of catching schools out retrospectively,’ he said.

‘So, schools rated “satisfactory” at the end of August 2012 will have a clean slate before being inspected by the end of the academic year 2013/14.

‘However, those schools already with a “notice to improve” will only have one more chance.’