Inspection time.

The school my daughter works at has been visited by OFSTED. She has been spluttering indignantly about people completely changing the work they had planned for a class because the inspectors were coming in. It was ever thus and, I suspect, it always will be until they decide that inspectors really can just drop in on a school without any warning whatsoever. My daughter’s school had the three day warning they can give now. They seem to have got through the experience quite well on the whole though.

Imagine how they might feel if they were the junior school visited by the queen as part of the Diamond Jubilee celebrations that are building up nicely. Apparently the children had been reading a book called “The Queen’s Knickers” and had a corner of the classrooms set up as the “Royal Laundry” with royal bloomers hung on a washing line.

The jubilee celebration preparations are going ahead apace with a concert planned involving Sir Cliff, Sir Elton and Sir Paul among others. The whole thing is being coordinated by Gary Barlow, formerly of Take That. Goodness me! I remember the days when I used to drive past his family’s house in Oldham and see teenage girls sitting on the wall in the hope of seeing him. Hasn’t he done well? I wonder when he will become Sir Gary.

We discussed inspections the other day in the Italian class when Mario Monti’s comments about employment came up. Adalgisa suggested that maybe there should be an organisation that could drop in unannounced on governments and grade their performance. Maybe it could be called OFGOV!

With all the shenanigans going on in various parts of the world, goodness knows, we almost certainly need one.