ofsted what to expect

[MattDLEA]

No call yet but its immanent.

 

Just wondered what if anything I need to now about them coming in ( other then all the staff been in a panic)

In my other school they just asked me to be on call... while they were in but that was that. I didnt get called in.

 

My other school as asked me to go in when they come in.

I'm an outside contractor so just provide IT support ( and coding club ) other then just been about to fix technical problems is there anything that they would possibly ask me?

[rich_tech]

Had two inspections here with Estyn so far, one where I was in fully employed in role and they never spoke to me in any capacity other than technical, in the run up to it, it was nuts really with a fair amount of work getting things ready and swapped out as needed.

 

When they attended, the only thing I was involved in was getting their laptops onto Guest WiFi and one of the inspection team had a failure on their brand new HP laptop and it was stuck going through the repair function for Windows 8.1 and doing a file/disk check, which one of the SLT thought was something to get me involved in, though I wouldn't touch another schools equipment and just gave advice there.

 

Other than that I was just on call and it was eerily calm for that week when they were in

[dry]

Ofsted week will coincidentally be the same week all teachers decide to use IT resources, thus giving them someone to blame should they get bad feedback from the inspection (or is that me being cynical?)

 

I've been told that I need to know the proper safeguarding procedure as inspectors are likely to quiz non-teaching staff on this if they happen to catch you in the corridor. Lines of referral, school contacts, who's responsible, what to look out for etc.

[JRowley]

Nothing really changes for IT, you wont specifically be inspected and potentially will never meet or see an inspector. Just be ready for the staff to lose their minds and forget how to do everything.

[pete]

I've been asked about future plans, eSafety, what I think of 1-to-1 device schemes etc.

 

But mostly, peace and quiet for a few days.

 

Give everything a once-over to make sure all is well, gently enquire with whoever's responsible for eSafety and safeguarding if they need any help/refreshing on how the school handles those topics from an IT perspective etc.

 

You're mostly a comfort blanket / tiger rock during Ofsted inspections.

[MattDLEA]

@pete future plans as in school IT ware or winning the lotto and moving to a sunny beach?

 

Whats the stock eSaftey answer . And we are 1 to 1 ipads through out the school

[Arreks]

eSafety I'd imagine.. AUP, filtering, resources on the website bla bla bla

[MattDLEA]

so Swurl soothwall with pupils going through the very filtered port / teachers bit less filtered ect

[Oaktech]

I've been through 3 ofsted in 2 schools and aside from them wanting the wireless password I've had minimal contact. I did once get asked for a high level overview of our DR procedure but that has been it.

 

I suspect you will have a quiet time of it as all of my staff have shied away from tech during ofsted.

 

I've made sure printers are stocked with paper, spare toners are available for everything, I have spare chargers and a couple of acceptable laptops on hand as spares and the website is fully up to date.

 

Other than that, I'd just let them get on with it and respond promptly to anything you're called to.

[pete]

eSafety I'd imagine.. AUP, filtering, resources on the website bla bla bla

 

Yeah this really. Data Protection came up in the past too. It's basically a "how are we protecting kids/data and is it joined up between IT and eSafety person/pastoral side?"

 

Regarding the 1-2-1, it was back in ~2011 and before vendors started ramping up their funding deals for 1-2-1 deployments.

 

I think my response was something along the lines of "The "this is my tablet, there are many like it, but this one is mine" approach works better* than a "here's a class set of tablets, take one then hand it back at the end of the lesson", but we've worked out how much it would cost to implement and the opportunity cost is too high at present."

 

*actually usable by the kid when they need/want to use it, responsibility for the kit on their head.

[HarryMonkey]

Having worked in schools for nearly 20 years I've seen a fair few Ofsted inspections but have never been called upon once, not even for the wireless password.(Long may it continue).

[witch]

Having worked in schools for nearly 20 years I've seen a fair few Ofsted inspections but have never been called upon once, not even for the wireless password.(Long may it continue).

 

15 years in my case- but ditto

[hallb15]

As @witch and @HarryMonkey said - been working in schools for several years and been through many Ofsted inspections but not once been asked anything. We are due an inspection anytime soon and the general consensus is that it will be before the end of term as the new framework comes into effect in September.

[DCUK6]

As long as your esafety policy is up together and the servers dont crash on the day then i havnt had a issue before.

 

This year they are checking that your web filter supports https on google images though. Make sure safe search cant be disabled.

[pickman]

Just had them. Spoke to the kids about web filtering and e safety.

 

Didn't speak to me at all (I'm the esafety officer) but do have a very good CP Team who are well up on the subject

 

Otherwise was a very quiet two day for me [emoji3]

[SovietRussia]

Had two inspections here with Estyn so far, one where I was in fully employed in role and they never spoke to me in any capacity other than technical, in the run up to it, it was nuts really with a fair amount of work getting things ready and swapped out as needed.

 

When they attended, the only thing I was involved in was getting their laptops onto Guest WiFi and one of the inspection team had a failure on their brand new HP laptop and it was stuck going through the repair function for Windows 8.1 and doing a file/disk check, which one of the SLT thought was something to get me involved in, though I wouldn't touch another schools equipment and just gave advice there.

 

Other than that I was just on call and it was eerily calm for that week when they were in

 

Estyn visited us recently and I very kindly fixed their Macbook which had broken!

[mthomas08]

Arrrr Batten down the hatches Ya Skurby sea dogs, Ofsted be comin.

 

Yes, we've had the call.

[elsiegee40]

Arrrr Batten down the hatches Ya Skurby sea dogs, Ofsted be comin.

 

Yes, we've had the call.

 

Good luck me hearties!