Where to begin...

As I watch the CBBC drama 'Summerhill' episode 2, the suited inspector waiting in the classroom, whilst another goes into the woods... it brings back the emotions and memories of the actual inspection.

I was the science teacher and Shack Houseparent at the time of the 1999 Ofsted Inspection. The inspector, Cliff Gould, HMI in charge of secondary school inspection for England, who observed my lessons was a day late and kept on using his mobile in response to enquiries about a new Ofsted report on racism in schools. The Ofsted lead inspector, Neville Grenyer, HMI in charge of independent school inspections for England, watched my lessons before Cliff arrived. Nearly every one of my lessons was observed during those three days.

The meeting, to review the school's three year plan and policies, over-ran by an hour. As a curriculum adviser for the school I had helped oversee the creation of the plan and of new school policy statements. During this meeting the two inspectors stood up out of their chairs in anger as I stated that their values were different from those of the school.

I ran from the meeting to my science lab, across the field, it is an out building. Cliff was waiting for me at the door. My heart sank. The lesson was a follow-on from the physics of radio waves. I had promised the two enthusiastic students that I would cover their questions this lesson. That missed hour was my time to research the answers... rather foolish planning.

I watched the field from the science lab windows whilst scanning the A-level text hoping for answers about the reasons for the different behaviour of different lengthed radio waves. I crossed my fingers, maybe my students were too busy, maybe they were reading, or climbing trees...

The bell rang out the start time of lessons, the field was empty. I waited with that stress of knowing but hoping it will not happen. There they were walking across the field. My only hope was I could teach the last lesson again and they would play along... I felt doomed. These two students were the most academic in the school, slightly competitive and they would not care what I looked like infront of an inspector.

After fifteen minutes of the lesson, struggling against their questions, their failure to accept listening to the same lesson again... I gave up and suggested they leave. This was one of the statistics of failed lessons in the final report.

This reminds me of the lesson on kidney function that also ended in the report...