Last term, the inspectorate announced a series of small reforms to its existing practices and complaints procedures in response to growing anger over the impact of inspection on school staff.
An Ofsted consultation (2023) over some of these reforms closes on September 15. However, school leaders have already said that the proposed changes went “nowhere near far enough”.
The proposals include extending on-site dialogue during inspections, to “help address any issues at an early stage”, introducing a new opportunity for providers to contact a senior HMI the day after an inspection if they have concerns, new arrangements for formal challenges to inspection outcomes, and allowing complainants to escalate concerns to the Independent Complaints Adjudication Service for Ofsted at an earlier point.
However, one reform not currently on the table is the removal of one-word judgements which many headteachers see as “reductionist” and “misleading”. There have been calls for some time to move to narrative judgements.
This view has strengthened since the case of Ruth Perry. The 53-year-old took her own life ahead of the publication of an Ofsted inspection report that was due to downgrade her “outstanding” school to “inadequate”. A petition calling for an inquiry into the inspection has now reached around 245,000 signatories and counting.
The inspection report at Ruth Perry’s school – Caversham Primary School – rated the school as good in every area except leadership and management, which was rated inadequate mainly due to safeguarding concerns of the inspectors. As such the overall rating was automatically inadequate.
The Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL) raises the issue in its response to the Ofsted consultation, which it published on Tuesday (September 5).
It came on the same day as incoming Ofsted chief inspector Sir Martyn Oliver was appearing before the Education Select Committee for his pre-appointment hearing.
During the interview, the issue of one-word judgements was raised by MPs. Sir Martyn admitted that it needs to be looked at in a bid to increase trust in the system, even stating that he had some “formative thoughts” on the issue. However, he added: “I want to actually talk to the experts who are delivering on the ground and have been doing it for years.”
In its response to the consultation, ASCL welcomes the proposed changes as “a step in the right direction” but says that more must be done “to create a fairer inspection system that has the trust of the whole profession”.
Tom Middlehurst, ASCL’s inspection specialist, said the current complaints system was “extremely convoluted”. He added: “These changes are very welcome but represent only modest improvements to an inspection system that all too often produces judgements which are unreliable and unfair.
“The single biggest positive change that could be made is the removal of the overall effectiveness grading, which is often the largest point of contention in any complaint. These judgements can be reductionist, misleading and damaging to the mental health and wellbeing of staff.
“Switching to narrative judgements, which identify a school or college’s strengths and weaknesses, would build much-needed resilience into the inspection system and be far more informative for parents and other stakeholders. Ofsted and the DfE must consult on this change as soon as possible.”
ASCL’s consultation response expands on the point: “Schools and colleges in areas of low socio-economic advantage are more likely to be graded requires improvement or inadequate. These providers are therefore more likely to use these processes. This makes it even more important that the new processes are introduced and that their impact on schools and colleges, particularly those serving more disadvantaged intakes, is carefully monitored. This also heightens the importance of a consultation on single-phase judgements, as the current inspection system disproportionately disadvantages providers serving poorer communities.
“We strongly urge Ofsted and the DfE to consult on the removal of single-phase judgement as soon as possible. An open consultation would allow both providers and users to comment on the impact of these.”
The National Association of Head Teachers (NAHT) also has one-word judgements in its sights.
In an article for Headteacher Update's autumn edition – due out on September 22 – discussing the teachers’ pay settlement and his union’s next steps, NAHT general secretary Paul Whiteman said he would be continuing the fight for workload and inspection reform.
He writes: “Increasing workload, and high-stakes, single-word graded inspection, are placing dedicated education professionals under intolerable stress.
“Our members have told us that the government’s offer, for now, is an acceptable compromise. But we will not be letting up in our campaign for improvements on workload and inspection. We will be pushing for concrete proposals on both.”
Following the 6.5% pay settlement for 2023/24, Mr Whiteman also warned that the NAHT will be pushing for “further progress in improving pay for 2024/25”.
- ASCL: Changes to Ofsted’s post-inspection arrangements and complaints handling, consultation response, September 2023: https://tinyurl.com/fc5her3k
- Ofsted: Open consultation: Changes to Ofsted’s post-inspection arrangements and complaints handling (consultation closes September 15, 2023), June 2023: https://bit.ly/3J7J0o4