Sometimes it’s the little things that make a big difference. The shop cashier who greets you with a smile; the school where tea and coffee are provided for staff.

And sometimes, it’s the small things you didn’t even know you needed that are most welcome - at least, so it seems to be with the tweak made by Ofsted from this academic year to make sure all pre-inspection calls take place on a Monday morning.

The lingering sense of unease while schools are “in the window” has long been of concern, and yet such a simple tweak has made such a difference. And it was a tweak that hadn’t even crossed my mind as a possibility.

A new rhythm to the week

It was common to hear headteachers refer to breathing a sigh of relief when they reached Wednesday afternoon, knowing the proverbial wolf had been kept at bay for another week.

But spending half of every week on tenterhooks is no way to live, nor to run a school. In fact, it can be debilitating - particularly when the inspection timeframe seems to have such slippage: for many schools, it can be months or even years of waiting for the call.

Of course, shifting the “deadline of doom” to Monday lunchtime doesn’t make all worries disappear, but it certainly changes the tempo of the week.

No longer do out-of-school events have to be shifted to the end of the week, nor senior staff restricted from visits and other activities for fear of being out of reach when the time comes.

And whatever we might think about the madness that it was ever thus, the system remains high stakes, and being ready for the call is an important part of meeting those standards.

But the feeling of pressure can’t be good for school improvement, nor for the atmosphere of a school. Hopefully, by loosening the grip of Ofsted on the school timetable, we might see schools feeling more able to try things out or move away from the constant feeling of being “on guard”.

For me, it means my Monday evenings now can be less about updating the self-evaluation form and more focused on things that matter, whether that’s preparing my phonics group or precious time with my own family - or maybe just a better night’s sleep, which will benefit both school and home!

Unintended outcomes

That said, it’s early days and the change may well have unintended consequences in other ways.

For example, knowing the call won’t come after Monday lunchtime, also means inspectors will almost always visit on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. What knock-ons might we then see?

Does the headteacher now feeling more relaxed on a Tuesday morning, also feel confident to let their part-time deputy work only the latter half of the week?

Might we see preparation, planning and assessment (PPA) in some schools shifted around so every class has its usual classroom teacher for possible inspection days, even if that’s not the best model for pupils or the teachers?

One might even imagine a less principled leader considering shifting support-staff hours to the days when inspectors are most likely to call - or shifting off-site learning to move more challenging pupils out of the way…

A new era

There are always ways to play the system - as ever there were. We might be past the days of months of notice and the smell of fresh paint before every inspection, but it’s always an error to let those outliers ruin things for the many.

For every headteacher who might be tweaking the timetable or shuffling staffing, there could be ten or more who are able to sleep just that little bit more easily through the middle of the week.

Maybe with more shifts in the right direction, we might eventually reach the position where the threat of inspection isn’t such a consequential prospect but, in the meantime, this small change to the timetabling might just have made a big difference to some schools, and that can only be a good thing.

Michael Tidd is headteacher at East Preston Junior School in West Sussex