Ofsted will begin trials of its new approach to inspections at volunteer schools in the first week of next term, the watchdog announced today.
The inspectorate said this will allow it to “informally test elements” of its new inspection framework, which is set to be introduced in September 2025 as it moves to a report card system.
The inspectorate has announced that its official consultation on its new framework will be launched “later in January”.
Later in the term, in parallel with this consultation, Ofsted will formally pilot the new approach in schools. The watchdog said these pilots will help to refine and improve the proposals.
Following the consultation, and any changes to the proposed approach, Ofsted will then run further pilot inspections of a range of volunteer providers to test its final inspection model.
The announcement comes after proposals for a new report card system of inspection reports were leaked to the Financial Times. These proposals included schools being judged across 10 different categories with a five-point scale.
Tes revealed that teaching and curriculum could be inspected separately under plans shown to sector leaders last month.
School leader unions have raised concerns that Ofsted and the Department for Education appear to be “engaged in a headlong rush” to create a new inspection system against a tight timetable.
Timing of Ofsted trial ‘makes no sense’
A union leader has warned that trialling its new approach before the consultation has been launched makes “no sense” and appears “preconceived”.
“It makes no sense for Ofsted to start trialling a new approach to inspection before it has even launched its consultation,” said Paul Whiteman, general secretary of the NAHT school leaders’ union.
“School leaders will be left concerned that Ofsted has a preconceived view of what their new inspection approach will look like and that any consultation will only be used to make peripheral changes at best.”
Julie McCulloch, director of policy at the Association of School and College Leaders, echoed Mr Whiteman’s views.
“It is sensible and right to pilot any new approach, but we would question how genuine and open a consultation exercise really is if Ofsted will be simultaneously piloting their preferred approach,” she said.
Inspectors to be seconded into schools
Ofsted also revealed today that inspectors will be seconded to different education providers in order to boost expertise in the watchdog’s workforce.
This announcement came as part of Ofsted’s first monitoring report, as requested by Dame Christine Gilbert in her independent review of the watchdog in September.
“We will introduce secondments for inspectors to spend time working in providers. This will make sure their practice remains current, especially focusing on working across groups of providers,” the report says.
Ofsted will also carry out surveys of inspector expertise and experience to “match inspectors’ specialisms and experience to the area they inspect”.
This work will be done as part of the flagship Ofsted Academy, which Tes revealed will also act to “crack down” on consultants using “pirated” Ofsted materials.
Subject and phase expertise were identified as teachers’ top priorities to ensure that inspections are accurate, according to polling published this week by Teacher Tapp.
The inspectorate says it has completed 42 of the 132 commitments made in response to the Big Listen consultation and to Dame Christine’s review.
Today’s monitoring report is the first in a series that will continue until all the actions have been completed.
Ofsted’s strategy delivery unit is now responsible for completing actions in its response to the coroner who led the inquest into headteacher Ruth Perry’s death and a report from the Commons Education Select Committee. This process is called the Ofsted 2025 programme.
Last January coroner Heidi Connor issued a prevention of future deaths report, following the inquest finding that an Ofsted inspection contributed to Ms Perry’s death.
The headteacher took her own life after an inspection that led to her school, Caversham Primary in Reading, being downgraded from “outstanding” to “inadequate”.
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