Cutting the proportion of “outstanding” schools by half might be a “more realistic starting point for the system”, Ofsted chief inspector Amanda Spielman has said.

Ofsted has this term resumed routine inspections of top-rated schools after an exemption for “outstanding” schools that had been in place for most of the past decade was lifted.

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Currently around one in five schools are rated as “outstanding” by the schools watchdog.

Speaking to BBC Radio 4’s Today programme this morning, Ms Spielman was asked how many “outstanding” schools she expected to be downgraded now that they face regular inspections.

Ofsted keen to reduce the number of schools rated ‘outstanding’

She said: “I don’t know what it will fall to because judgments are made case by case. But before the exemption came in, before ‘outstanding’ became a one-way process, about one school in 10 was ‘outstanding’.

“So that proportion has doubled over the last decade. So I’m looking back at that and saying that might be a more realistic starting point for the system.”

Ms Spielman also compared the exemption on inspection for schools rated “outstanding” to the Michelin guide stopping its checks on the top restaurants - and the public reaction this would spark.

She said: “The government put [the “outstanding” exemption] in in 2010. We’ve gradually built up a lot of very old ‘outstanding’ grades, where we simply don’t know whether they’re comparable with new ones or not.

“I think an analogy I can use is to think about Michelin stars in restaurants - if Michelin carried on very systematically and rigorously grading new restaurants and just left all the old stars in place over time people would understand that a new star probably didn’t mean the same thing...or is more reliable than an old star.”

Ofsted’s chief inspector added: “My message to parents is, if a school that had an outstanding judgement 15 years ago now has has a good judgement. That is a good school - you should believe that.

“And if the judgement is now requires improvement or inadequate then at least everybody now knows that . . .and is putting a plan in place to help you sort out problems as fast as possible. So it’s a win win for everybody actually.” 

Ms Spielman also said that Ofsted had a new focus on “substance in inspection.”

And she claimed that Ofsted’s existing inspection framework is very good at taking Covid disruption into account.

This follows concerns that the inspectorate has not done enough to take account of the impact Covid has had on schools since its return to full inspections in September.

Last week, the two main school leadership unions criticised Ofsted inspections taking place during the Covid crisis.

Geoff Barton, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, has called for schools to be able to halt Ofsted inspections due to Covid. And Nick Brook, the deputy general secretary of the NAHT, has urged the government to put routine school inspections on hold.

Ms Spielman said today: “It’s very important at the moment that we properly recognise the challenges that have been facing schools and the tough choices they have had to make.”