Lady Lanfranc, who has survived more OfStEds than most in four years as a supply teacher, advises de-demonising them! At one of the schools which was being inspected while she was there, the staff apparently modified the lyrics of the "Teddy Bears' Picnic" to "OfStEdibears..." - among themselves only, of course.

In my years in Banking, we got used to being examined by internal auditors, external auditors, the Bank of England, the Federal Reserve, IMRO, SFA, etc etc, almost invariably without notice.

Auditors, examiners and inspectors are only doing their job, if you are doing yours properly, you should have nothing to fear. Unless they are doing an Andersen, they perform a useful function, and should not only inspect, but make constructive suggestions for improvement.

Only the incompetent and the fraudulent should need to fear examination of their work practices. Assuming that you fall into neither of those categories, relax!!

Alan