Outstanding schools’ teaching not good enough

Released 09/02/2012

A quarter of schools that were graded as “outstanding” by Ofsted are to be re-inspected Sir Michael Wilshaw has announced

Twenty-five per cent of “outstanding” schools will be subject to repeat inspections to their teaching.

Speaking at the London Leadership Strategy conference this week, chief inspector Sir Michael Wilshaw outlined plans to instil a “no excuses” culture in our schools.

A quarter of schools that were originally considered by Ofsted to be “outstanding” are being re-examined as their teaching standards only received a “good” rating.

The re-assessments will be carried out in an effort to ensure that a school can only be considered outstanding if its teaching also reaches the same high standard.

The development is part of a whole list of changes in the new Ofsted framework including the “satisfactory” grading being scrapped in favour of “requires improvement”. In addition to this, there will be a reduction of the areas schools are inspected on, from 27 categories to just four.

The new framework will also see a school being given no notice before an inspection takes place. Up until now, schools have had a few days’ notice to prepare before Ofsted arrives.

Sir Wilshaw said of the changes: “We have made progress. But, the quality of educational provision isn’t improving fast enough and the gap in outcomes between the richest and the poorest isn’t closing. Without a radical change now, we will see more social and economic division in this country.”

ASCL (Association of School and College Leaders) strongly refutes the allegation that schools serving challenging areas are “making excuses” for not achieving results equal to those in less deprived areas. Commenting on Michael Wilshaw’s speech outlining the consultation on changes to Ofsted inspection, Malcolm Trobe, deputy general secretary of ASCL said:

“Our big concern is the way that inspection judgements are being made. An inspection system is only fair when a good school in a challenging area has the same chance of a high grade as a good school in less difficult area. This is not about making excuses, it is acknowledging the challenges that schools in disadvantaged areas are dealing with, in addition to raising results.

“Ofsted is progressively making it even more difficult for schools and colleges in challenging areas to be rated good or outstanding. Inspection needs to be done in context.”

“We also hope that the chief inspector will recognise the damaging and demoralising effect his comments are having on dedicated professionals. The message that teachers and heads will take from today’s announcement is that chief inspector sees them as part of the problem rather than the solution. This is no way to improve our education system, nor to treat hard working professionals are doing the best for the young people in their care. It will only make it more difficult to recruit and retain good people in those challenging schools that most need strong leadership.”

Mary Bousted, general secretary at the Association of Teachers and Lecturers (ATL), said: “One has to wonder whether Ofsted knows what it is doing to need to make more changes to inspections less than six weeks since it introduced a new inspection regime. Instead of incessant fiddling with the way schools are inspected, Ofsted should focus on helping schools, particularly those in challenging areas, do the best they can for their pupils.”

“We want this discredited national system of inspection to end, and be replaced with local inspection and accountability that is linked to supporting improvement in schools.”

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