Legal News
Disruptive Pupils Bribed To Stay Away From Schools during Ofsted Inspections (9 January 2012)
Date: 09/01/2012
Disruptive schoolchildren are being bribed with incentives to stay away from the classroom during Ofsted inspections, according to recent allegations. It has been claimed that such tactics are being used in some schools to fool inspectors. Some schools have been even accused of “borrowing” staff from other schools to teach children, while requesting that their own teachers take sick leave and loaning artwork from other educational establishments to impress inspectors.
Schools are typically provided with two or three days’ notice that an Ofsted inspector is to visit. However, Ofsted have begun to carry out no-notice inspections on schools. Chris McGovern, who chairs the Campaign for Real Education and works as an Ofsted inspector, claimed that the tactics schools were using to trick inspectors were “utterly deplorable”. He added that any school caught out cheating the inspection process should go into special measures.
Ofsted claimed that it had received 38 complaints relating to the “conduct or activities” of schools during Ofsted inspections conducted between April to November 2011. A spokesperson from Ofsted stated that schools’ attendance records would reveal whether or not schools were excluding pupils during inspections. He added that inspections would expose stand-in teachers as having limited knowledge of the educational establishment in which they were teaching during the feedback stage.
Duncan Lewis’ childcare law solicitors can provide detailed, considerate advice to parents whose children have been bribed by their teachers to stay away from school during Ofsted inspections. The department can also provide legal support to parents on a range of other childcare law issues.