The strange world of Ofsted
The long awaited inspection finally came – on the last two days of term. This seemed a particularly cruel way to go about it and makes one suspect the motivation behind all this to be less than supportive – unless of course they are simply uncaring and unaware of the rhythms of a school term, which also would be criminal!
Anyway – I have also had reason to think again a lot about Louis MacNeice’s Prayer before Birth and the tone seemed appropriate to the situation:
prayer before Ofsted
they have not yet arrived
let not the queen’s tall servants come near mind
i fear that HMI may with their targets shoot mind
with observations quell mind
with missed judgements rule against mind
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let them not forbid
lessons tangential winged -
full of discoveries in thoughts unlisted
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forgive mind the compromises she will make
with their quantified take
on the ineffable mystery
which they carelessly bury
beneath the fake, the PC,
the bureaucratic weight
of their need to slake
their need to control
the possibilities
of wonder and despair
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may mind refuse to rehearse
their lessons, their parts, their cues
their crushing plans, initiatives –
thinly disguised rules
for quiescence lulled
by the flimsy markets of variety
where mind dims
a little more
each day
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let not the merciless midges of measurement
damn mind to passive mediocrity
with the last feeble twitches of a social conscience
choking on satisfactory hypocrisy
which frees the heart for selfishness
arse covered by risks assessed and targets met
<>
let not mind turn
murmur-less to dust
Yes, what can one say but yes! I recall the Inspectors of the Audit Commission when I was in Local Government; their dead hands could be smelt months before they arrived, and , like the undead when they were there, they were implacable and more dreadful in the dead flesh even than in the imagination. Bite into a juicy apple and remember that you are alive – and that they are dead.