{"id":6531,"date":"2015-12-16T07:20:40","date_gmt":"2015-12-16T07:20:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/?p=6531"},"modified":"2015-12-16T07:20:40","modified_gmt":"2015-12-16T07:20:40","slug":"ofsted-tries-to-find-some-backbone-at-the-dfe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/2015\/12\/16\/ofsted-tries-to-find-some-backbone-at-the-dfe\/","title":{"rendered":"Ofsted tries to find some backbone at the DfE"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Here are two recent letters written by the Ofsted Chief to the DfE Secretary of State about the problem of unregistered schools: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gov.uk\/government\/uploads\/system\/uploads\/attachment_data\/file\/475553\/Advice_letter_from_Sir_Michael_Wilshaw_Her_Majesty_s_Chief_Inspector_on_unregistered_schools.pdf\">November<\/a>\u00a010th and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gov.uk\/government\/uploads\/system\/uploads\/attachment_data\/file\/484458\/151211_HMCI_to_Secretary_of_State_advice_note_on_3_unregistered.pdf\">December<\/a> 11th. \u00a0They do not make good reading either in terms of the problems reported, or the willingness of the DfE and LEAs to address them.<\/p>\n<p>At one Birmingham\u00a0unregistered school, Ofsted\u00a0Inspectors found:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\uf06e \u00a0squalid conditions, including three single mattresses covered in filthy sheets in one room and no running water in the toilet areas<\/li>\n<li>\uf06e \u00a0lesson timetables demonstrating that provision was made for at least 20 hours a week<\/li>\n<li>\uf06e \u00a0clear evidence of segregation, with separate classrooms for boys and girls<\/li>\n<li>\uf06e \u00a0no evidence of appropriate vetting checks being carried out on staff<\/li>\n<li>\uf06e \u00a0pupils being taught a narrow curriculum that was failing to prepare them for life in modern Britain<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The\u00a0inspectors were so concerned by what they had witnessed that the Ofsted Regional Director requested an emergency meeting with senior officers from Birmingham City Council, which, while recognising the urgency of the situation and the need to gain access to the premises, advised Ofsted that it did not have the automatic powers of entry commensurate with its duty to safeguard children.<\/p>\n<p>Happily, Ofsted has these\u00a0powers under section 97 of the 2008 Education and Skills Act, and they turned up with the police just to be sure. \u00a0 Sadly, this tale is even murkier than outlined here\u00a0\u2013 details in the letters.<\/p>\n<p>One thing's sure \u2013 these benighted, exploited children\u00a0were not learning anything about COP21\u00a0and\u00a0climate change is these so-called schools.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Here are two recent letters written by the Ofsted Chief to the DfE Secretary of State about the problem of unregistered schools: November\u00a010th and December 11th. \u00a0They do not make good reading either in terms of the problems reported, or...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":237,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[2,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6531","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-comment","category-news-and-updates"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6531","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/237"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6531"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6531\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6531"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6531"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/edswahs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6531"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}