Ofsted have received a generally negative reaction from teachers and leaders as they unveiled the finalised plans for their new inspection report cards.
Following a consultation on their plans, Ofsted has now produced final plans which include a number of changes from the original proposals. The inspectorate said it had listened carefully to feedback from parents and education professionals. The number of core evaluation areas inspected will reduce from nine to seven, namely: inclusion; curriculum and teaching; achievement; attendance and behaviour; personal development and well-being; and leadership and governance. There will still be five overall grades, but these have been renamed, and will now be: exceptional; strong standard; expected standard; needs attention; and urgent attention.
Ofsted says independent polling from YouGov shows strong parental support for the new approach to grading, with almost 7 out of 10 of parents surveyed saying they prefer the new-look report cards to Ofsted’s current inspection reports. Nearly 9 out of 10 parents said the report cards are easy to understand. However reaction from the schools sector has not been positive. On publication of the finalised plans the NAHT union ran a snap poll of its members, which received more than 1400 responses. 91 per cent of leaders opposed Ofsted’s new inspection approach, with almost two thirds (62 per cent) strongly opposed. Meanwhile 91 per cent of respondents said they thought the changes to inspection would have a negative (33 per cent) or very negative (58 per cent) impact on their wellbeing.
Commenting on the poll findings, Paul Whiteman, general secretary of school leaders’ union NAHT, said: ‘School leaders’ comprehensive rejection of Ofsted’s new inspection plans shows that the small-scale changes they have made to their original proposals have not done enough to alleviate concerns. This the result of Ofsted’s failure to properly listen to and engage with teaching professionals, or to learn lessons from other jurisdictions where high stakes inspections have been abandoned in favour of more measured and supportive forms of accountability.’
The overhaul of inspections was prompted by the death of Reading Headteacher Ruth Perry – Ofsted received significant criticism from the coroner in her subsequent report. However Perry’s sister, Professor Julia Walters, called the changes ‘an overcomplicated mishmash’. She said that instead of being a new system, the final proposals are ‘a cosmetic rebranding, tweaking and expansion of the same unreliable and punishing system as the one before. It still includes many of the risks that teachers and headteachers fear, without significant benefits or safeguards’.
Meanwhile, Pepe Di’Iasio, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, commented: ‘Inspections should do two things – provide parents with an accurate reflection of a school’s performance while doing so without placing an excessive burden on staff. Ofsted’s plans achieve neither objective. The tweaks made to its proposals following the consultation period are just that – minor and cosmetic changes to a flawed rationale. To make matters worse, the planned introduction of this system is far too rushed and gives schools little time to prepare for a huge change in how they will be inspected.’
Ofsted has said that inspections will return on 10 November this year, but only for schools that have volunteered. Routine inspections will return no earlier than 1 December, but may be pushed back to the new year if there are enough schools volunteering for inspection.
There were also some more positive response to the plans. Jon Coles, the chief executive of United Learning, England’s largest academy trust said: ‘It is important to our school system, to parental confidence and ultimately to the success of children that there is high-quality, trusted, independent and rigorous reporting to parents about the quality of their local schools. I am pleased that the new inspection framework looks set to provide this.’
Writing on X, Stuart Lock, chief executive of Advantage Schools commented: ‘It is very clear that [Ofsted] have spent plenty of time and engaged expertise to try to balance rigour, inspecting in the interests of pupils and families, and ensuring that it is professional. They’ve changed where they saw fit. I welcome the new framework’.
His Majesty’s Chief Inspector, Sir Martyn Oliver said: ‘Children deserve the best possible education; their parents deserve the best possible information and education professionals deserve to have their work fairly assessed by experts. The changes we are presenting today aim to achieve all 3 of these things. Our new report cards will give parents a clearer understanding of the strengths and areas for improvement at the places where their children learn. We will work with the professionals in schools, early years and further education to help them showcase the best of what they do – and help them identify where they can improve.’
Full details of Ofsted’s plans can be found at https://tinyurl.com/mr8ee3pv and https://tinyurl.com/9e3bfhx8
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