Who watches the watchers? | The most important idea in education

Hello friends

Two tasty morsels to kick-start the week of the summer solstice.

1. Who watches the watchers?

You may have noticed that Ofsted has been in the news a lot recently. This follows the tragic death of Ruth Perry, a headteacher who took her own life when her school was about to be downgraded from 'outstanding' to 'inadequate'.

The fact that we have a public institution that goes around calling hardworking professionals 'inadequate' and then legally requires them to publish such a humiliating label on their website is so appalling that it's difficult to believe that it ever happened - let alone that it happens still. And once you realise how subjective the inspection process is, the disbelief only deepens.

Last week, Ofsted announced a number of minor tweaks to their policies and practices in response to growing unrest within the teaching profession. But the one-word judgements are here to stay - for now.

One-word judgements are not the only dysfunctional thing about Ofsted - they are simply the most egregious. But there are many other ‘areas for improvement’.

Nobody thinks that schools should not be held accountable as public institutions responsible for the learning, safety and wellbeing of children and young people. But if we look to other countries with high-performing education systems, we can see that it really does not have to be this way.

For the last few months, I've been beavering away behind the scenes with a new group called the Education Policy Alliance, a grass-roots think tank dedicated to crowd-sourcing education policy.

Yesterday, we published our first consultation paper on Ofsted and accountability. This is an attempt to kick-start a conversation with a wide range of people - policymakers, researchers, psychologists, teachers, leaders, parents/carers, children and young people and others - about how we might create a more helpful, humane approach to school accountability.

Here's our shiny new website: educationpa.org

Here's the paper: How do you solve a problem like Ofsted?

And here's the survey: bit.ly/epa_ofsted

Please use the survey to share your thoughts and help shape our thinking as we write our policy proposal this summer. You don't have to respond to every question - just those where you have thoughts that you feel are worth sharing.

The consultation is open until July 31st.

2. Metacognition in action

This Friday 23rd June, I'm co-hosting a one-day workshop on metacognition, widely viewed as the most important idea in education - and, I would argue, in life.

There are still a few places available, and if you use the promo code REMET20 you’ll receive a 20% discount.

Tickets are available here: eventbrite.co.uk/e/metacognition-in-action-tickets-591350293647

And here's a blog I wrote recently explaining how metacognition will set you free.

OK, that's all for now. Have a fun solstice!

James