Ofsted’s chief inspector Sir Martyn Oliver reiterated this week that scrapping one-word judgements “has to be a government decision”.
However, the Department for Education (DfE) maintains that they are “an important feature” of inspection reports.
The impasse caused the National Association of Head Teachers (NAHT) to pass an emergency motion at its annual conference in Newport over the bank holiday weekend pledging to step-up its campaigning work on the issue, including exploring “legal and industrial routes”.
Single-word judgements are under the spotlight following the suicide of headteacher Ruth Perry. The inquest into Ruth Perry’s death ruled that the 2022 inspection of her school “lacked fairness, respect and sensitivity”, was at times “rude and intimidating”, and had “contributed” to her suicide. The inspection had downgraded her school from outstanding to inadequate.
A damning Education Select Committee inquiry earlier this year identified a raft of problems with Ofsted’s regime and said single-word judgements were a key driver of stress and anxiety for school leaders.
In his evidence to the inquiry, Tom Middlehurst, an inspections specialist at the Association of School and College Leaders, said: “The single biggest impact that Ofsted could have on the wellbeing and workload of school leaders, college leaders and staff and teachers … is to remove single-phrase judgements.”
In their final report, the MPs on the committee called on the DfE and Ofsted to “as a priority, develop an alternative to the single-word judgements that better captures the complex nature of a school's performance”.
However, last month the DfE’s response to the report pushed back on the idea. It stated: “Ofsted’s overall effectiveness judgement is an important feature of Ofsted’s school inspection reports … the government’s view is that there are significant benefits from having an Ofsted overall effectiveness grade.
“In our view the priority is to look for ways to improve the current system rather than developing an alternative to it. This includes considering with Ofsted the presentation of its findings and grades, and opportunities to highlight some of the detail sitting under the summary grade.
“We agree with the committee that at least part of this is about increasing visibility of the graded sub-judgements that Ofsted makes in the key areas of quality of education; leadership and management; behaviour and attitudes; and personal development, alongside the overall effectiveness grade.”
Speaking at the NAHT annual conference, Sir Martyn confirmed that from this week we will see changes to the inspection reports website to show the full range of sub-judgements rather than just the overall grade for a school.
However, in his address, Sir Martyn argued that removing single-word judgements was not that simple.
He acknowledged to the NAHT delegates that the issue was the “elephant in the room”.
He said: “I know some of you would like us to make changes to our gradings, as part of a future system. I’m sure you’ll know that we can’t do that unilaterally.
“So much of the government’s school improvement system rests on our grades, that any changes would need to align with a bigger, wider remodelling of the whole accountability system. That has to be a government decision.”
Sir Martyn acknowledged that the current grading system had “strengths and weaknesses”. He continued”: “The case against the grades is that they are simple. That they lack nuance and can be a blunt summary of a complicated reality. The case for the grades is that they are simple. That they are unambiguous and give a clear picture, while more detail is provided in the sub-judgements and reports.
“So, there is no perfect answer, but it’s right the debate goes on and that we continue to challenge ourselves about the way we present information to you and to the public.”
The DfE’s refusal to commit to scrapping single-word judgements brought a quick response from the NAHT with an emergency motion tabled at the conference.
The motion, which was passed unanimously, instructs the union’s executive to “explore all campaign, legal and industrial routes to secure necessary changes to inspection to safeguard leaders’ lives”.
It adds: “(The government’s) tin-eared defence of discredited and reductive single-phrase judgements, and its unwillingness to enter into any meaningful consultation or negotiation, poses a real and present danger to the mental health, wellbeing and lives of school leaders and teachers. Should another tragedy happen in the future, it will be ministers who need to answer for their decisions.”
Also commenting on the DfE’s response to the select committee report, Pepe Di’Iasio, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said: “The government’s response to the call for an alternative to single-phrase judgements is deeply disappointing. Its solution is to ‘consider’ the presentation of Ofsted reports rather than the system itself. This is despite all the evidence that these single-phrase judgements are the source of sky-high stress and anxiety, damaging the wellbeing of leaders and teachers, sapping morale and causing many people to leave the profession.
“They stigmatise schools and colleges making improvement more difficult to secure, and thus they do a disservice to children, parents and communities. The problem is not presentational; it is that the system is fundamentally flawed and must change.”
It comes as Ofsted’s consultation – the Big Listen – is due to run until the end of May. It is part of the inspectorate’s on-going reforms in response to the outcry over its role in the death of Ruth Perry.
Changes introduced so far include mental health training for all inspectors, new procedures to allow inspections to be paused and of “rapid returns” to schools judged “inadequate” due solely to ineffective safeguarding, and changes to complaints procedures.
Ofsted says it has received more than 15,000 responses so far and will assess these over the summer. It has promised to announce “further measures” in the autumn.
- Ofsted Big Listen: www.gov.uk/ofstedbiglisten