REVEALED - Sex and our schools: Ofsted’s revisions to latest Handbook are mostly about sex

Forget “the 3 R’s”, these days schools seem to be judged by Ofsted on everything but

© Facts4EU.Org 2021

Do you remember when schools were judged on their academic standards? Ofsted seems not to

Facts4EU.Org inspects Ofsted’s new “School Inspection Handbook 2021”
in post-Brexit, post-Covid Britain

Part One - Sex, schools, and Ofsted (this report)
Part Two - Ofsted, wokery, and the need for a post-Covid, post-Brexit revolution

On Monday (28 Jun 2021) Ofsted released its latest “School Inspection Handbook for September 2021”. This outlines how schools will be judged in the new academic year. If readers thought that this 84 page document would mostly focus on academic standards, then we must disappoint them.

The revisions to this Handbook are fundamentally about sex. And there is comparatively little in the entire Handbook about what most readers might think of as being academic standards.

On the other hand if readers hoped that topics such as ‘gender reassignment’ for children now appear, then they will welcome the revisions.

© Ofsted / UK Government

What is Ofsted?

The full title of the Government’s independent agency in England involved in maintaining educational standards is “the Office for Standards in Education, Children’s Services and Skills”. Either directly or on contract Ofsted employs 4,100 people and it will spend £137 million this year.

Thanks to devolution, there are now four separate agencies covering the whole of the United Kingdom. Due to our very stretched funding Facts4EU.Org is only able to look at the agency for England: Ofsted, which describes its role as follows:-

“We inspect services providing education and skills for learners of all ages. We also inspect and regulate services that care for children and young people. Ofsted is a non-ministerial department.”

In Ofsted’s press release on Monday they said:

“The changes to the handbooks will take effect when routine inspection resumes in September. Inspectors will expect schools and college leaders to assume that sexual harassment, online sexual abuse and sexual violence are happening in and around their school, even when there are no specific reports, and to have put in place a whole-school approach to address them.”

How does Ofsted judge schools?

In the new Handbook itself, here is the key section on “The evaluation schedule – how we will judge schools”

"Inspectors will make judgements on the following:

  • overall effectiveness, and the 4 key judgements:
  • the quality of education
  • behaviour and attitudes
  • personal development
  • leadership and management"

Looking at one of these four – “Personal development”, Ofsted says this:

“This judgement focuses on the dimensions of the personal development of pupils that our education system has agreed, either by consensus or statute, are the most significant.”

On this list is:

“promoting an inclusive environment that meets the needs of all pupils, irrespective of age, disability, gender reassignment, race, religion or belief, sex or sexual orientation”.

In listing these topics alphabetically Ofsted has promoted ‘gender reassignment’ above ‘race’, ‘sex’ or even ‘sexual orientation’.

Observations

Is this our end-of-term report on Ofsted all bad? - No

There are good sections in the Handbook. For example in the ‘Personal Development’ section there is the following:-

  • “developing responsible, respectful and active citizens who are able to play their part and become actively involved in public life as adults”
  • “developing and deepening pupils’ understanding of the fundamental British values of democracy, individual liberty, the rule of law and mutual respect and tolerance”
  • “promoting equality of opportunity so that all pupils can thrive together, understanding that difference is a positive, not a negative, and that individual characteristics make people unique”

We agree with all of this. Our concern is around the overall thrust of a document which teachers know will be used to judge them when an Ofsted inspector comes to visit.

So was Ofsted right to announce its ‘sex update’ to the School Inspection Handbook?

The problems with the latest revisions to Ofsted’s School Inspections Handbook lie in its increasing interest in matters other than the proper maintenance of educational standards. For example it is troubling to read that “Ofsted does not specify… that tutor groups/form time must include literacy, numeracy or other learning sessions.”

Our concern is with the seemingly inevitable drift to the woke agenda, as with so many other areas of our national life.

Don’t miss Part Two of our Ofsted inspection special, in Facts4EU.Org’s Saturday edition

In Saturday’s edition we will reveal more information about Ofsted and education generally in a post-Brexit, post-Covid United Kingdom, and we will ask some very troubling questions. If you care about the future for our young people and our country, you don’t want to miss it.

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[ Sources: Ofsted School Inspection Handbook 2021 | Ofsted revisions press release June 2021 | UK Dept of Education and Science ] Politicians and journalists can contact us for details, as ever.

Brexit Facts4EU.Org, Thur 01 Jul 2021

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