Ofsted’s plans to shake up school inspection to focus on the curriculum will increase workload and could add to the recruitment and retention crisis, two high-profile school leaders have warned.
Jules White, the leader of the WorthLess? campaign, and Stephen Tierney, the chair of the Headteachers' Roundtable group, have written to chief inspector Amanda Spielman to voice concerns about the plans.
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Ofsted is planning to change the way it inspects schools with a new quality of education judgement focused on curriculum.
The letter to Ms Spielman warns that the proposed changes will increase workload – particularly in primary schools – and says that Ofsted retaining its four inspection grades is “hugely problematic”.
Last week Tes revealed that the grassroots campaigns Headteachers' Roundtable and WorthLess? had raised concerns about the majority of proposals for changing school inspection in the new Ofsted framework.
It also follows Mr Tierney’s decision to leave the profession this year citing the pressures of a “pernicious accountability system”.
Now a new joint letter from Mr Tierney and Mr White to Ofsted’s chief inspector says: “The current retention and recruitment challenges are in part driven by teachers’ and school leaders’ excessive workload. The new inspection framework will not address this and may well exacerbate the situation.”
It adds that Ofsted's plan of holding school leaders to account for "workload issues we do not have control over is untenable”.
The heads suggest that Ofsted’s preferred curriculum will require primary schools to make major changes.
It adds: “With respect to inspection of primary schools, recent Ofsted documents (on primary science) suggest substantial curriculum changes are required. The preferred curriculum is one that is more rigorous and vertically integrated than is currently the case outside of the core subjects of maths and English.
"There are considerable implications for this at a practical level – employment of teachers, their professional development and processes for curriculum development – which many school leaders and governors may not yet fully appreciate.”
Ofsted has said repeatedly that it does not have a preferred approach to curriculum.
The heads' letter also calls on Ofsted to develop systems to assess the impact of funding cuts on schools.
This comes after Ms Spielman told the Education Select Committee last year that the inspectorate had not seen evidence of funding cuts affecting the quality of education coming through in inspection reports.
The letter says: “Headteachers agree that real-terms cuts have had a profoundly negative effect on our schools. The lack and uneven funding of schools, whilst maintaining a common standard for all to reach, lacks a fundamental logic and basic fairness.
“Ofsted need to develop systems to assess these issues and also consider the impact of ongoing funding disparities that have been maintained under the new National Funding Formula.”
The heads also claim that “far greater work is required on how effective school leadership is scrutinised and judged”.
And it suggests that the focus on off-rolling could penalise schools who carry out managed moves of pupils to alternative provision which could encourage schools to exclude pupils.
Ofsted has been consulting on a new inspection framework that places greater emphasis on the school curriculum and the overall quality of education provided.
The inspectorate is proposing to replace the separate teaching and learning judgement and pupil outcomes judgement within school inspections with a quality of education grade that also looks at the intent, implementation and impact of a school curriculum.
Other proposed changes in the new framework include inspectors arriving on site at a morning’s notice to prepare for inspections the next day; extending short inspections of good schools to two days; and separating pupils’ behaviour and personal development into separate inspection categories.
The consultation on the new Ofsted inspection framework closes at the end of tomorrow.
