Food and Events

They use the same methods and examine many of the same features. There are two main types of independent school inspection. Most schools use a system devised by the Independent Schools Joint Council, in which retired members of Her Majesty's Inspectorate lead teams of headteachers and senior teachers from the independent sector.A minority of schools in the Headmasters' Conference, which includes all well-known public schools, have a separate system. One biology teacher realised that his inspector knew nothing about the subject, but he just maintained the smile and kept his mouth shut.Other subject teachers had to give a syllabus to an inspector who, like a child who hasn't done his prep, had "left his at home". Friday arrived, there was an afternoon of debriefings for heads of department and the inspection team dashed for their cars.For the rest of the term there was silence while we waited for the final report which was "confidential to the headmaster and the chairman of the governors". A summary of the full report would be given to parents and those with a need to know, presumably the individual teacher.We could not believe what we read.

The summary bore no relationship to the school in which we work. Some of us thought that the inspectors had muddled the reports and that we had received the report of another school. Some heads of department had to go to the head to protest that the report said the exact opposite of what they had been told during the debriefing. Ten middle-aged men were paraded by the head who mumbled the usual felicitations and wished them well in their labours.

There were a few introductory comments, which no one heard, and we all went about our business walking on nails and sporting plastic smiles.For the next four days, classes were observed, prep books scrutinised, mark books scanned and questions evaded.An atmosphere gradually emerged where relations between inspectors and teachers became complimentary and cosy There were a few shocks. Within a week said plans materialised from thin air, carefully outlining our work for the next term and the past year. Rumour quickly became a tidal wave of conjecture and there matters rested until the day the team arrived.We were all ushered into the assembly hall, curious to see what they were like. The piles of prep books and pyramids of GCSE coursework were attacked immediately. The sight of a senior department head reduced to tears on the television screen was enough to make us all start asking questions, but there were precious few answers.At staff meetings, the head was first evasive and finally said that a deputy head was going to be in charge of the preparation phase. We were so confused after the preparation that it would have been better if we had be left in complete ignorance. Instead of fact, we had rumour.Somebody heard somewhere that the inspection team would be looking at all of our marking.

One teacher taped it and the cassette went the rounds, surreptitiously, as if it were some sort of snuff video.That was when the panic set in. Each association has its own needs and within these the requirements of urban day, rural boarding, single-sex, coeducational, preparatory or secondary schools will differ, but inspection teams could be so composed from wider resources that still greater objectivity and expertise are conferred.Ofsted is monitoring inspection systems: there will be suggestions for improvement, possibly as discussed above, but no one should doubt that the principal independent associations already conduct the vital exercise of inspection in anything but a secretive and uncritical fashion.Tony Evans is chair of Headmasters' Conference,and head of Portsmouth Grammar School. The trouble was that no one really knew what was going to happen, even while it was happening.We had seen a television programme about a comprehensive school in the Midlands that had been ripped apart by a team from Ofsted. In implementing such a sensible recommendation, independent schools would nevertheless need to recognise the diminishing number of HMIs and the already stretched resources of Ofsted.Moreover, it is fair to mention that former heads can be sharper in their criticism than HMI, as independent schools have experienced.The most powerful recommendation that the different independent associations could make is that their inspection systems become unified, combining the strongest features from each. The protection of diversity and distinctiveness can be guaranteed only if the independent sector undertakes its own critical self-assessment, except in cases where Ofsted sees fit to intervene.Indeed, in many respects, independent inspections will be more thorough in scope than the Ofsted format after September 1997, when the latter will concentrate only on core subjects and up to four selected additional subjects.Constant improvement and scrutiny of the quality of learning have become unwavering objectives of independent inspections, and the high calibre of inspectors and practising classroom teachers with sharp insight into the independent school has drawn praise from observers from HMI and Ofsted.Far from being anodyne and comfortable, the ISJC's inspections have been critical of certain aspects of high-performing schools.

The grid can be presented in as fine a detail as necessary.The technique has existed since the early days of national accounting and has been widely used for developing countries. In our view such a meeting seems wise, and where this is impracticable, as in boarding schools, a consultative questionnaire could be offered. It is only reasonable to remind ourselves that, since they pay the fees, independent schools' parents may rapidly register their discontent by withdrawing their children.Yet the independent sector, as with the full publication of examination results to parents, is frequently in the vanguard of progress, and the fact that the performance of its schools at GCSE and A-level is predominant has not lulled such schools into any sense of complacency.Certain criticisms have been levelled at the format of independent inspections and positive suggestions that might enhance the system will not be disregarded.First, the objectivity of independent inspections has been called into question, and such a doubt may be the understandable reaction of an outsider. This may be compounded by the fact that reports are not uniformly published in full and because parents may not see the minute detail but receive a summary in which the main findings are outlined. Full reports are, however, available, but experience indicates that a more succinct format is preferred.Ironically, reports can be more incisive and less inhibited in practice if those with proper professional insight receive them and act upon them in confidence. The effect of a report drafted for public consumption is all too frequently that it becomes bland and generalised, avoiding contentious issues.