Former school inspector rates own home schooling 'atrocious'

School inspector Andrew Jeffrey attempting to home-school his children

"Atrocious" is how former inspector Andrew Jeffrey described his own home schooling attempts in a tweeted fake Ofsted report, adding the school "requires improvement".

His "mocksted" rating describes barely dressed teachers in dressing gowns and underpants.

His "pupils" had been found playing Fortnite by way of a geography lesson.

The post resonated with parents, as millions struggle to home school their children amid the coronavirus epidemic.

Mr Jeffrey, who lives in Brighton, has been home schooling his children, Ben, nine and Dan, 16.

The challenges and demands of this prompted him to tweet a message of support to other parents also juggling working with home schooling.

The image tweeted by Mr Jeffrey

Mr Jeffrey said "not in a million years" did he expect his tweet to go viral: "Home schooling is rewarding as I like teaching, but challenging, as I hope my Ofsted tweet made clear."

Mr Jeffrey decided to tweet the report to try to give parents a boost and make them feel a bit better about themselves and less guilty.

Mr Jeffrey was trained by the Independent Schools Inspectorate, whose framework and training are "virtually identical" to Ofsted.

He worked in schools around England for a number of years before setting up his own maths consultancy business.

The sign in former school inspector Andrew Jeffrey's window

"Home schooling is totally different from class teaching," said Mr Jeffrey, adding that he hopes parents have developed a new-found respect for teachers: "It definitely hasn't changed my opinion, which was formed long before lockdown.

"I think the nation should be unbelievably grateful to teachers at the moment."

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'Refreshing'

The tweet has resonated particularly with those parents lucky enough to be able to work from home, who have set about scheduling their jobs around the demands of their children's education. One parent described Mr Jeffrey's self-deprecation as "refreshing".

Parents have been searching online for support in the form of humorous social media posts.

Messages like, "if you see my children picking weeds and crying in the garden, they're on a field trip", received thousands of likes.

Mr Jeffrey said his own effort seemed to have been universally well received.

It even got a thumbs up from the ultimate arbitrator, Ofsted itself.