An incoming Labour government would consult on replacing Ofsted inspection grades with a school scorecard, shadow education secretary Bridget Phillipson has told headteachers today.
Speaking at the Association of School and College Leaders’ (ASCL) conference this morning Ms Phillipson said that families and schools “deserve better than a system that is high stakes for staff but low information for parents”.
Her speech follows recent calls to scrap or review Ofsted’s overall inspection grades by ASCL and the Confederation of School Trusts respectively.
The shadow education secretary said that giving parents “simple information in the form of a report card will better enable them to get an understanding of where a school is performing well and where they can do better”.
Labour plans for Ofsted changes
In her speech this morning, she said: “I do not believe it is right that we give children, parents and staff a one or two word judgement on their school. It is simplistic, it hides the variation in the quality of our schools, and the pace of their improvement.
“So, Labour will move away from the system of headline grades to a new ‘report card’, that tells parents, simply and clearly, how well their school is performing.
“Parents and schools deserve better than a system that is high stakes for staff but low information for parents.”
She said that trigger points for intervention will always feature as part of inspection “because Labour will never stand by as children are failed”.
During her speech, Ms Phillipson also talked about the inspectorate having a team of inspectors with the right experience of school phases for the job.
She told headteachers: “Primary schools should be inspected by experts with experience in primary education, secondary schools by experts with experience in secondary schools.”
Annual safeguarding review
The party also plans to introduce a new annual review of school safeguarding, saying the safety of children is too important to be left to infrequent inspections, as part of plans to overhaul Ofsted across its full range of responsibilities.
However, the safeguarding checks would still be carried out by Ofsted under Labour’s plans and routine school inspections would still be able to look at safeguarding concerns.
This follows the scandal of sexual harassment in schools exposed by Everyone’s Invited. Subsequent Ofsted visits found that more than 90 per cent of girls had been subject to sexist language, sexual harassment and online sexual abuse from other students.
At ASCL’s conference today, Ms Phillipson said concerns about children’s safety and wellbeing are being “missed” owing to “infrequent” Ofsted inspections of schools.
She added: ”Full inspections which come round rarely; ungraded inspections with the inspectors calling in for less than a day - it isn’t working. Problems fester, unnoticed, unchecked, uninspected.
“In just two days, inspectors are being asked to look at everything: at safeguarding, at sports lessons, at teacher development and trigonometry, at attendance and at attainment. And this means not only that mistakes are made but things are missed.”
Announcing plans to introduce the new annual review of safeguarding, health and safety, attendance and off-rolling, Ms Phillipson added: “These are ongoing issues that affect every school. They are not issues that can be left for infrequent inspection.”
During a question-and-answer session at the ASCL conference yesterday, Ofsted chief Amanda Spielman was asked for her verdict on a number of the union’s proposals for inspection reform.
When asked what she thought of the ASCL’s call for inspection grades to be scrapped, she said that it depended on what purpose a government wanted inspection to serve.
Labour’s announcement follows two pieces of research that have led to questions about the reliability and relevance of Ofsted inspection grades for parents.
The first study found that male Ofsted inspectors were more likely than females to give higher grades to similar primary schools. This study, carried out by Dr Sam Sims, Professor John Jerrim and Professor Christian Bokhove, was based on inspection findings under a previous inspection framework.
In a separate study, the same academics analysed how useful an Ofsted inspection grade and report were to parents who were considering a secondary school for their child.
It found that an Ofsted inspection outcome can be years out of date by the time a child is attending that school and that it is not an indicator of the future academic performance of a pupil there.
In her speech today, Ms Phillipson is expected to say: ”The next Labour government will bring a wind of change to our education system...and drive forward reform of education and of childcare as part of our mission to break down barriers to opportunity.
“Because I am determined that, under Labour, the focus will again return to how we deliver a better future for every child, through high and rising standards in every school.
“I will make no apology for being demanding for our children and I want parents to be part of that wind of change through our classrooms: partners in the push for better.”
Gibb says Labour is ‘going soft on education standards’
Responding to the announcement, school standards minister Nick Gibb said: ”Labour’s decision to go soft on education standards betrays our children.
“Labour are siding with the unions instead of parents, watering down the educational standards that families rely on.
“Keir Starmer and the Labour party will do and say anything if the politics suit them, even if it means our children are left behind.”
Sir Michael Wilshaw, the former Ofsted chief inspector, said: “Ofsted is not just there to provide a commentary. It is also there to provide a spur to schools to drive standards higher.
“This risks lowering standards in schools and is a distraction from where attention should be focused: on raising the attainment of the most disadvantaged children in our country.”
