Ofsted - culture warrior?

Well, here's a thing. 

This is all about the American School in London (ASL), a lavishly funded school in St John's Wood that educates the children of the American great and good of London: diplomats, ex-pats, international businessmen - you can imagine the sort of thing. 

There are plenty of schools of this kind. London has some (not all of which start with the word "Lycée") and they are commonly found in other international cities such as Brussels, Geneva and New York. These schools offer children who reside in one country the chance to be educated in the curriculum of another country, typically their parents' country. 

Let's consider for a moment what this kind of school is for. It offers some practical benefits, such as allowing children to fit more easily into a new school, or into university, back in the 'home' country. But surely the core promise that these schools make to the people who pay their fees is this: if you send your children to us then they will be brought up in their own culture - they will be as steeped in it as is reasonably possible - so that, despite the distance from your homeland, and despite the peer pressure on them to fit in with the culture of your hosts, your children will be truly American (or French or British or whatever the case may be).

As the ASL is providing education in the UK, it is subject to British regulation. But that's not a problem: Ofsted inspected ASL and declared it 'Outstanding' in 2009, 2013 and 2018. If one were paying the fees of £30,000 a year (or even simply claiming them as part of one's ex-pat package), one would hope so too. I would imagine that keeping children in touch with American culture has not tended to present any difficulties for educational standards: perhaps Ofsted gave ASL a little leeway about the lack of "U"s in their spelling bees, and looked the other way when they taught the American War of Independence by calling it the Revolutionary War and getting the goodies and baddies confused, but I doubt that anything more than that was required.

Times change and cultures change, which means that the task of keeping children in touch with the culture of another country changes. What does it mean to keep children in touch with the culture of America nowadays? We know the answer to that: social justice. 

But, in an exciting twist to the story, Ofsted is having none of it. It inspected ASL again in December 2021 and has just issued a report rating it 'Requires Improvement', i.e. a demotion of two grades. 

Here are some quotations from Ofsted's report:

"In other areas of the curriculum, the approach is not as balanced. This is particularly where teaching places more emphasis on the school’s social justice programme than on the acquisition of specific subject content. In lower-school social studies, pupils spend much time repeatedly considering identity (including analysing their own characteristics) rather than learning, for example, geographical knowledge.  ...  

... ‘Affinity groups’ provide opportunities to discuss world issues. Memberships to most of these are open to all, but the school has limited some to under-represented groups in the belief that this represents positive action on behalf of these pupils. However, some parents and pupils feel that this approach is divisive when seen alongside some teachers’ stridently expressed views on social justice. 

Many aspects of pupils’ behaviour and attitudes are commendable. This makes a significant contribution to their learning. Pupils are diligent and serious-minded, and show remarkable levels of maturity. However, significant numbers in all parts of the school said that they feel uncomfortable giving their viewpoints in class. This is particularly the case when pupils’ views do not chime with opinions presented by teachers. ...

Workload is generally well considered by leaders and by trustees. Again, however, recent inschool training and required staff reading have been disproportionately dominated by social justice issues. ...

...

 While recognising the importance of promoting equalities, a significant minority of parents and pupils told inspectors that a culture has developed where alternative opinions are not felt welcome. In some classrooms, teaching has not allowed for questioning or for the balanced presentation of opposing views. Leaders and trustees should ensure that teaching does not preclude tolerance of those with different views, particularly where specific partisan or political views are presented."

A common source of comic effect is to create a contrast between the form or style of the text and its content. Perhaps the most common example is in news parodies like The Onion, where humour is extracted from the use of journalistic tropes to describe, for example, the mundane but relatable misadventures of "Area Man". But we see the same device used often: the heroic epic about something as everyday as mowing the lawn, for example, or a bureaucratic attempt to reduce some extraordinary event to the fit into the boxes prescribed by an official form. I'm sure you know the sort of thing. 

I was reminded of this kind of comic writing as I was reading Ofsted's report. It is written in the prose style of modern officialdom: the smooth and patronising euphemisms used by ombudsmen and councils keen to do the 'on the one hand, on the other hand' thing. One imagines the inspectors watching a geography lesson in which a teacher passionately deconstructs white privilege at length, and all the while the inspectors note that the students are not picking up on the chief exports of Nigeria or the main rivers of Venezuela.

But there is a passage in the report which leaves comedy behind and instead gives us a brief and occluded glimpse of something perhaps more like a quiet tragedy.

"Before this inspection, trustees had already acted in response to recent events at the school. ... Leaders and trustees had recognised that, in some cases, the academic freedoms allowed have been misused. ... The school is undergoing a significant change of leadership, and this provides opportunities for further action. Nevertheless, evidence from this inspection showed that opinions among parents, staff and pupils remain fractured. Much more work is needed to unite this school community."

The revolution will not be televised. But its fractures, divisions and "opportunities for further action" will be soberly recorded in the appropriate official forms.