mjj

Quick question:

Is there an Australian equivalent to OFSTED? Is there a government organisation that inspects/rates state schools similar to the OFSTED agency here in the U.K?

Cheers,

MJ

Wendy

Short answer - no

Vash the Stampede

Correct. Each state tends to have its own assessment structure, and there are a number of non-government bodies (including some non-profit organisations) which assess and measure schools through a variety of methods.

For example, the Australasian School Competitions (run by an Australian independent body) regularly assess up to 1.7 million students from the following countries: Australia, Malaysia, New Zealand, Brunei, Papua New Guinea, China, Fiji, Hong Kong, Singapore, South Africa and Vanuatu.

If you are home-schooling, you will be periodically visited by a representative from the state education department, to ensure that you are providing a standard of education which meets the state government requirements.

Wikipedia has an excellent overview of the Australian education system, available here.

oliverandlisa

Woohoo! we are 'expecting' ofsted at school any time soon... but this will be my last one (visa pending)

Lisa.xx

Wendy

I never read the reports from OFSTED

My son attends a really good school according to OFSTED but he brings home some stupid homework that my 5 year old could do, he's 13 !!!

Whatever happened to homework books all they seem to get is worksheets

oliverandlisa

Thing with Ofsted is they only show a snapshot of a particular school on a particular day. Thankfully (in my opinion) the system has recently changed.

Lisa.xx

Vash the Stampede

My missus is a schoolteacher; I'm beginning to understand why she's not exactly dead keen on OFSTED herself!

Swerv-o

Homework books are too expensive. Mind you, at the school I work at, there is no money to produce worksheets, so homework often consists of things like "Watch something on the news about...", "Revise for this test..." or "Think about this subject..."

In my opinion, Ofsted reports don't give the whole picture. I have worked in a range of different schools, some good, some bad, and the Ofsted reports offer little or no real insight into the functioning of the school. My school has no money for anything - to prepare resources, replace broken or faulty equipment and to upgrade out of date or destroyed text books. However, in the recent Ofsted inspection, the place received a 'satisfactory' grading. Is this the sort of place any sane parent would wish to send their child?

Many Ofsted decisions are politically motivated, and have little or no reflection on the professionalism and commitment of the teachers that work at a school.

S

Wendy

I'd gladly go out and buy exercise books for my kids rather than them bring home tatty bits of paper that get lost anyway. Mind, then you'd get those that couldn't afford to wouldn't you.

Don't get me wrong I think most teachers do a brilliant job and it's one I don't think I'd like to do, but the political side of it is rather naff IMHO.

redlion

Thanks Vash, ive just spent the last hour looking through stuff from this link to Wikipedia, it really is an excellent link and there are tons of links from this too. ta!

Nev. karma on its way to you

Vash the Stampede

Thanks mate; my pleasure.

Issie

Thanks Vash for that link....have been researching schooling the last few weeks and this will help a lot.

Vash the Stampede

Cheers.

DebraH

tell me about it - we had them do a surprise visit last thursday and they came back yesterday to finish off, phew glad thats all over with

oliverandlisa

The Gits! but at least it was before easter hols, glad its over for you...

Lisa.xx