i see little point in going out of the way to indulge in an ofsted request that will have little to no effect on the childrens later lives
Unfortunately it’s not quite so simple in real life. If Ofsted mark you down, putting you in special measures especially, it can effect the school immediately and for several years ahead.
Firstly, you have to get outside assistance from consultants to fix the problems, regardless of whether you had already identified these yourselves and had put plans in place. The consultants cost quite a lot of money.
Secondly there is usually a ban on recruiting newly qualified teachers. Since teachers are given a salary increase just for sticking around, more experienced ones are more expensive, regardless of the quality. Good teachers usually make schools happy and rewarding places to be, and they are often reluctant to move to schools in special measures.
Thirdly, but less important these days with rising birthrates and immigration, you could lose pupils to other schools, with parents rightly not wanting to send their children to a school deemed to be failing. Schools get a lump sum and a per child payment, but don’t get much cheaper to run with 23 in a class instead of 30.
Having said all that, I still believe Ofsted are great in principle, we definitely need external quality assurance for our schools.