Destination Education
00:29:48 · Scott Crawford, Ruth Benny
[00:29:48] S1: I don't know actually, I should really find out. It's probably one of those things where it doesn't really have an origin, Okay. Just sort of [00:29:57] S0: I love the idea of chapel. If I was to ask the students, if I was to walk around and ask the students, we did this actually in June, we tried to sort of vox pop and one word to describe Lancing, it's hard for you to predict but what would you like for them to say, to describe not the school itself but their experience at Lancing, what are some of the words that you would like them to use? [00:30:26] S1: I find trimming things down to one word is really difficult. [00:30:32] S0: That's why we did it. [00:30:33] S1: I think I'd certainly hope that you will get fulfilling, fun, stimulating, enjoyable, there's a lot of happiness in the school, I see lots of smiling faces when I wander around and I think I would want to hear some of that come back. That doesn't mean they're happy all the time, but the modal average mood should be that they're happy and enjoying [00:30:57] S0: Yes, the we had a lot of fun, exciting, busy, that came That's up a lot as good. I don't know if you still are, you were an inspector for the ISI, are you still? [00:31:10] S1: I still am. [00:31:11] S0: You said there was some sort [00:31:13] S1: of gravitas. It's a great privilege.
00:31:13 · Scott Crawford, Ruth Benny
[00:31:13] S1: of gravitas. It's a great privilege. [00:31:15] S0: A number of the heads that we've had on here are... It's hard, I advise parents to read those reports but they are dry. How do you interpret what you see as an ISI inspector? What takeaways should a parent take from those reports and how do they interpret that for their own benefit in choosing a school or even deciding whether even boarding is right for their child? Do you have any advice for parents? [00:31:44] S1: I think it can only be one part of a bigger investigation into the school. By its nature, an ISI inspection, and of course I'm speaking not as an inspector because I can't speak on behalf of the ISI, this is more as a head. What the inspection report will let you know is that your children are going to be safe in that school and the school is compliant and they're doing all their health and safety checks and their safety recruitment checks and all those sorts of things are in good order. I think it's true that over perhaps the last decade or so the amount of detail in inspection reports has decreased a little bit and it's focused more on the compliance. So it's quite difficult sometimes to get an impression of what lot of detail into what lessons are going to be like, but quality of education going to have some representation in those reports. So I think you have to triangulate it with a visit, asking lots But of
00:31:44 · Scott Crawford, Ruth Benny
[00:31:44] S1: I think it can only be one part of a bigger investigation into the school. By its nature, an ISI inspection, and of course I'm speaking not as an inspector because I can't speak on behalf of the ISI, this is more as a head. What the inspection report will let you know is that your children are going to be safe in that school and the school is compliant and they're doing all their health and safety checks and their safety recruitment checks and all those sorts of things are in good order. I think it's true that over perhaps the last decade or so the amount of detail in inspection reports has decreased a little bit and it's focused more on the compliance. So it's quite difficult sometimes to get an impression of what lot of detail into what lessons are going to be like, but quality of education going to have some representation in those reports. So I think you have to triangulate it with a visit, asking lots But of [00:32:45] S0: I imagine we don't have anything like that in Hong Kong. Was funny I was talking to someone, they even have it in The Middle East. There's obviously an external body that inspects schools. We don't have anything like that in Hong Kong. But as an inspector, I imagine the report that we read, I think it runs to something like six pages or It must be such a summary of what you write up on the
00:32:45 · Ruth Benny, Scott Crawford
[00:32:45] S0: I imagine we don't have anything like that in Hong Kong. Was funny I was talking to someone, they even have it in The Middle East. There's obviously an external body that inspects schools. We don't have anything like that in Hong Kong. But as an inspector, I imagine the report that we read, I think it runs to something like six pages or It must be such a summary of what you write up on the [00:33:07] S1: The inspectors are there for three days, depending on the size. A school like my school might have six or seven inspectors come to visit for three days. They will see a huge number of lessons. They will try and speak to about a third of the school. I'm really impressed by the number of kids that we get to see when we are inspecting. They will have a really good picture of what the school is like. I think one thing parents could do, which would be quite interesting, is to look at the recommended step for a school. So when the inspection report is published all schools need to have a recommended next step. As a prospective parent I like to go into school and say, so what are you doing about that? This is your suggestion, what is the school doing to develop that aspect? Because that will tell you something more about how they are responding to the inspection and how they are trying to make the school better. Fundamentally that's what the inspection framework is about, it's working with schools to identify opportunities to make them even better places. [00:34:07] S0: It's not intended for parents is it? It's intended for the schools to use But that
00:34:07 · Ruth Benny, Scott Crawford
[00:34:07] S0: It's not intended for parents is it? It's intended for the schools to use But that [00:34:13] S1: parents must read it? [00:34:14] S0: They must because a couple of schools failed on really simple things in recent times. Although they don't do them often enough, is it every four years? [00:34:22] S1: Every three in [00:34:22] S0: a house, There's [00:34:25] S1: just been a recent change to inspections from this point forward where schools will no longer be awarded what was called a significant strength. So that language has been removed from the inspection report. So if parents are looking at inspection reports from this point onwards and don't find a significant strength, shouldn't worry. [00:34:44] S0: Why have they done When they did offset as well, took away those number? Everybody knows anyway, there's something else [00:34:50] S1: to do. You have to ask the ISI. [00:34:52] S0: And I wasn't going to ask, but since we're on the topic of dry reports, Charities Commission and looking at the financial health of a school, I mean, gosh, I spent a few hours last night, but every school that I plugged in, pretty much my AI bot of choice told me that it was in a vulnerable financial position. Is there anything that parents should be looking for? Some easy metrics by which they could evaluate the financial health of a school? Because we have to take this so, so seriously. If we recommend a school to a parent and it closes down in six months or one or two years, that would just be the worst outcome possible.
00:34:52 · Ruth Benny, Scott Crawford
[00:34:52] S0: And I wasn't going to ask, but since we're on the topic of dry reports, Charities Commission and looking at the financial health of a school, I mean, gosh, I spent a few hours last night, but every school that I plugged in, pretty much my AI bot of choice told me that it was in a vulnerable financial position. Is there anything that parents should be looking for? Some easy metrics by which they could evaluate the financial health of a school? Because we have to take this so, so seriously. If we recommend a school to a parent and it closes down in six months or one or two years, that would just be the worst outcome possible. [00:35:40] S1: No, and we're finding that parents are looking at those freely available charity commission reports. I mean there's always the baseline, the school spending more and expending more money than it is bringing in? And sometimes that happens for very good reasons, because they're doing a large piece of capital expenditure and that's all part of the plan. You'd want to look at the reserves to see what the school has in its bank. And I'd be interested too in knowing how much the school is doing in terms of its fundraising. Does it have an active development office? Does it have a commercial function, many schools now will be running separate commercial branches to try and offset fee income, something that we do at Lancing that's the sort of thing that I would be looking for when I'm casting my eye through this.