Questions Need Answering!
Have you ever opened an email or a letter and wished you hadn’t? Or maybe you have answered the phone call that you really didn’t want to get!
If you have worked in Education then often the worst phone call that people dread coming through is the Ofsted one. It can throw the best of people in to mad frenzies pushing their stress levels through the roof. I like many others always saw Ofsted inspections as an opportunity to shine; to show them what the team were capable of. At College, staff thought I wasn’t normal because I would get so excited but to me all the questioning that the inspectors would do was good because when answering the questions, you could always put something in the answer that you wanted them to know that they hadn’t already asked.
I remember being in the Ofsted management meetings at Brave Kids Pre-School with Pamela Wharton. If I am crazy then she is my twin because there is nothing in those meetings that phases her. She simply remains calm and confident even when there are discussions about areas that could be a little bit better (may I add that there were not many of those discussions ☺). Pamela also does not see questioning as something to be afraid of, she thrives in that sort of environment.
Both Simon and myself love Pamela and recognise the value she brings to any table. It has been hard to not ask her to be a Trustee of One Church as we know the value that she brought to the Trusteeship of Brave Church. She is quality and has a depth of knowledge and experience that always backs up her words and she truly stands for what she believes in! We have really wanted her to embrace this new season without having to carry the weight of One Church at this time. This week we have called on her though as an advisor to the Trustees as some questions need answering; not by Ofsted but by the Charity Commission.
They have finally got back to us regarding our application and as part of their due diligence they do have questions that they want us to answer! Most of the questions were not ones that were actually on the Application form or they were questions wanting us to expand further on things that were written in our Constitution document. We didn’t draft Pamela in because we were in a panic, it just seemed silly not to bring her in; after all she has been an integral part of ensuring we have all the correct policies especially relating to Safeguarding.
We all took ownership of the questions and to be fair they weren’t onerous questions, they were just making sure that we had the right intentions. Sarah, Ben and Pamela went into Ofsted mode, they did not want to simply answer the question; they went above and beyond what they were asked to do. Simon and I did the same; it was time to detail everything that was on our hearts for the community and also show why we were the right people to do this. I think the email from Sarah would actually have been enough without the numerous amounts of attached evidence that we had all worked on but we wanted to give them everything! We are so so glad that we did as within 3 days of answering their questions, One Church had its very own Registered Charity Number.
We hid nothing from those asking the questions and we added nothing that is not our true intention.
We are so thankful and can now start to plan what the future of One Church will look like!
Simon & Valda
November 18th 2022
