Ofsted inspectors are “not focusing enough on teaching quality”, a former chief inspector told MPs today.
Sir Michael Wilshaw, who led the watchdog until 2016, also told the Commons Education Select Committee that Ofsted inspections had moved too far away from data and that it was “ridiculous” that some schools with terrible outcomes could receive a “good” inspection grade.
Former schools minister Lord Jim Knight and experts from organisations - including the Education Policy Institute, the National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER) and University College London - also appeared at the committee’s latest evidence session in its inquiry into Ofsted’s work with schools today.
Here are six key findings from today’s session:
1. Ofsted not looking at teaching quality enough
Sir Michael told MPs he was concerned that Ofsted inspections are not sufficiently focused on the quality of teaching in the classroom.
He told the committee that the quality of an education system is “very much dependant on the quality of teachers and the quality of teaching in our schools”.
He added: “My worry having been around a lot of schools since I retired is that inspectors are not looking as much as they should at the quality of teaching in the classroom.
“Yes, they are focusing on the curriculum and the schemes of work, and so on and so forth, but they are not spending as much time in lessons as they should.
“If judgements are going wrong, it is because they are not looking as much as they should at the quality of what children are receiving in the classroom.”
Sir Michael told MPs that as an ex-headteacher he worries far more about the quality of teaching than he does about the curriculum.
In 2014, Ofsted stopped grading teachers’ individual lessons and instead moved to give general feedback following lesson observations.
Ofsted gathers evidence from lessons as part of its current inspection framework, which judges the quality of education through the intent, implementation and impact of the school curriculum.
2. Ofsted move away from data leading to ‘ridiculous’ judgements
The former Ofsted chief raised concern about the impact of the current framework, telling MPs today that it was “ridiculous” that schools with negative Progress 8 scores and “terrible results” can receive “good” inspection judgements.
Sir Michael added that when he was chief inspector, Ofsted “stuck closely in all our inspections” on “what the data was telling us”, adding that “facts don’t lie”.
He said: “I think what is happening at the moment, what I see as I go around the country, is that Ofsted has moved too far away from the data.
“The judgements are much more subjective on the curriculum and so we have got the ridiculous position of schools with really low progress scores - minus progress scores - and terrible outcomes getting a ‘good’ judgement.”
Sir Michael also told the committee that he no longer believed in single-word inspection judgements, as Tes revealed earlier this year.
Ofsted moved to a more curriculum-focused system in its current inspection regime introduced in 2019. This involved carrying out a series of “deep dives” into the way separate subjects are being taught to assess a school’s curriculum.
Dr Sam Sims, lecturer at UCL Centre for Education Policy and Equalising Opportunities said that views on curriculum are a “subjective judgement call”. However, he recognised that it is an “important” part of inspection.
He also said that Ofsted needs to release more of its own inspection data, adding that “it’s quite remarkable to me that a publicly funded body in 2023 doesn’t release their data in a secure and safe way to qualified researchers”.
3. Schools not ‘taken to task’ on off-rolling pupils
The issue of off-rolling - the practice of removing a pupil from the school roll without a formal, permanent exclusion, according to Ofsted’s own definition - was also raised.
Natalie Perera, chief executive of the Education Policy Institute, asked why schools had not been “taken to task” for the practice after Ofsted promised to crack down on it with its current framework.
“Is that because it isn’t happening? Or is it because it’s not actually being investigated in school inspections? We don’t know,” she told MPs.
4. Concern over ‘abysmally’ short inspection reports
Sir Michael described the school inspection reports that Ofsted currently produced under the current framework as “abysmally short”.
He said: “They are very short and very perfunctory, not very detailed and really don’t give parents a true flavour of strength or weakness.”
Commons Education Select Committee chair Robin Walker said that the length of Ofsted inspection reports was a criticism that MPs had heard previously.
5. Reduced capacity of Ofsted inspections
The reduced capacity of Ofsted inspections was also discussed by the committee.
Dr Sims highlighted that the amount of Ofsted inspectors involved in an inspection has reduced over time.
He said: “Decades ago, it wasn’t uncommon for 12 or 13 inspectors to show up for the week.” He added that that meant inspections have gone from involving up to 75 working days to sometimes now being only one or two.
He said this impacts the amount of evidence inspection teams can gather about a school.
Carole Willis, chief executive of the NFER, highlighted the challenges for inspectors in trying to cover everything in the inspection framework and suggested the new Chief Inspector will want to look at whether inspections should be longer, or whether there should be a narrower focus to increase their reliability.
6. Inspectors don’t have the ‘expertise’ to inspect MATs
Lord Knight questioned whether Ofsted had the expertise to be able to inspect multi-academy trusts (MATs).
Ofsted has repeatedly called for the power to be able to inspect MATs and Labour has said it would bring in trust inspections.
However, Lord Knight said that Ofsted inspectors ”do not have the expertise around how MATs themselves work”, and added: “There is a job of training to be done on that.”
But Lord Knight, who is the chair of the trust E-ACT’s board, told MPs that responsibility for Ofsted outcomes should sit at trust level.
“Why is it that Ofsted judgements are career ending for headteachers and yet the people who are paid really big bucks get away with it?” he asked.
