When people are asked to judge themselves some will be overly critical while others will give themselves a metaphorical pat on the back. The Levison enquiry seems to be saying that journalists are unable to regulate themselves because they are into back slapping in a big way. Women tend to judge each other harshly and I've noticed that so do teachers. Ofsted inspectors are almost always current head-teachers or ex-teachers and so I'm not surprised that they want to get rid of satisfactory. No teacher I know has ever been happy with a satisfactory rating. I thought satisfactory meant 'good enough'. Teachers inspecting teachers is such a bad idea. Teachers can never watch a lesson without mentally making corrections and it's trained into them to teach the person they are watching how to do it better. Unfortunately, this can be demoralising.
I'm hoping that this rephrasing will also mean that inspectors give less satisfactory grades and start to appreciate schools that are doing a good enough job.
I work in a school that was rated satisfactory in it's last Ofsted. The children love coming to school. They want to learn, they can think for themselves, they like their teachers (who are dedicated and hard working), have good friends, play instruments, sing in the choir, have sports clubs, and all sorts of other interests and opportunities in school. Whether they all make 2 levels progress I can't comment but they all seem to be happy. If that's not good enough then we live in a very sad world.
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