Ofsted’s new approach to ungraded inspections could risk creating greater inconsistency between reports, an academy trust sector leader has warned.
From this month, Ofsted’s ungraded inspections will see inspectors grouping subjects together into “focus areas” rather than doing separate “deep dives” into individual subjects.
Ofsted carries out ungraded inspections, formerly known as section 8 inspections, of “good” and “outstanding” rated schools. It is still carrying out both graded and ungraded inspections this academic year, even though overall inspection effectiveness judgements have been scrapped.
Ofsted deep-dive changes
In a speech to a Schools North East conference yesterday, Steve Rollett, deputy chief executive of the Confederation of School Trusts, outlined what he thought could be the pros and cons of this new approach.
Raising the prospect of risks, he said: “How is this going to affect consistency? This is a really important question because there are variables at play here, not only in the grouping of subjects that Ofsted inspectors put together in school X compared with the subjects put together in school Y but also the unique focus they look at within those subjects.
“Now that is not me saying it will be inconsistent, but I am saying that it is something that Ofsted needs to be mindful of - and maybe the Ofsted Academy [inspector training facility] will help it to address that.”
Mr Rollett added: “Inspectors are human.” They will have “particular areas that they are more confident on or particular areas they are more interested in, and they will want to go and look at those”.
He also identified some positives that could potentially result from the change, such as providing more flexibility for an inspection to meet a school’s needs and the potential for Ofsted to provide “a more nuanced view” of a school.
Mr Rollett said the change would also help to address the concerns of smaller primary schools that individual teachers were repeatedly having to do deep dives during one inspection because they were responsible for multiple subjects.
In July, Ofsted published a blog that said at least a couple of these focus areas will be related to a school’s quality of education, which will be inspected by grouping some subjects together.
It said that in a primary school, they’re likely to look at early English and early maths together to ensure schools are “getting these important basics right”. It added that they might look at another group of subjects from the wider curriculum.
Secondary school inspection process
In a secondary school, the inspectorate said that there could be “a focus on the core subjects and another focus on, for example, vocational subjects”.
Ofsted also said that it might focus “on a specific aspect across these subjects - for example, perhaps a school has been working on improving assessment”.
And it said that there will usually be one or two other areas of focus, which might be related to personal development, behaviour, attendance or something that includes all of these.
These areas will be decided on during an initial phone conversation and will be tailored to the school, the inspectorate has said.
An Ofsted spokesperson said: “Professional dialogue sits at the heart of ungraded inspections and means we can tailor our approach to each school’s context and priorities.
“Focus areas will be carefully crafted to capture the most important areas of leaders’ work. Our inspectors will be very mindful of doing this consistently and effectively. And our robust quality assurance processes, now further enhanced through our national hubs, will help ensure our work is always carried out to the highest standard.”
For the latest education news and analysis delivered every weekday morning, sign up for the Tes Daily newsletter
