Staff at Capital City College Group (CCCG) are shocked and appalled at the announcement of an Ofsted monitoring visit.

Teaching staff across CCCG have moved mountains to ensure that our students continue to receive the education they deserve. At a time when many are looking after their children through home schooling and taking care of sick members of their families, staff are doing all they can to meet the needs of their students.

Despite putting their physical and mental health at risk they have continued to go the extra mile to help their students reach their goals.

Ofsted must realise the anxiety and stress that their visits have on all staff in the sector in normal times. To announce an inspection in the midst of a pandemic that has so far claimed over 120,000 lives demonstrates either how out of touch Ofsted has become or that the organisation does not care about the wellbeing of staff and students.

The educational value of such a visit is very dubious. The idea that an inspection, whilst all teaching has moved online, can measure the development of teaching and learning at the college since the last inspection, made when full face-to-face teaching was taking place, will hold no credibility.

This visit, rather than help our struggling students and communities, will only serve to deepen the cynicism of those working within the sector towards Ofsted.

There are many other ways for Ofsted to provide support and advice in the middle of a public health crisis rather than through a miss-timed inspection to crudely measure the progress of a college.

We call upon Ofsted to pause all inspections until we are back in September 2021.