The use of single-word judgements to summarise school performance is not “wrong”, the chief inspector has said this morning.
Asked if she was advising the government on whether to change the single grading words used by Ofsted to describe its judgement of a school overall, Amanda Spielman said that she doesn’t “think they’re wrong”.
Her comments came during a question and answer session after a keynote speech at the Festival of Education this morning, during which she warned against schools being used as ”the first lever to pull in the face of any social challenge”.
Asked if she was advising policymakers on the use of single-word judgements, Ms Spielman said that parents “value the simplicity and clarity” of them, and pointed out that they were used by “all sorts” of inspectorates, including the CQC.
She added: “I don’t think it’s wrong to have these grades, and I also think it would become a problem if they became so wrapped up in so many words that it’s hard for parents and users to know what they need.”
Ms Spielman’s comments come after months of criticism of the Ofsted inspection process from school leaders and education policy experts, following the death of headteacher Ruth Perry.
Ms Perry’s family said she took her own life following an Ofsted inspection visit, which subsequently resulted in her school being downgraded from “outstanding” to “inadequate”.
Last month, the inspectorate announced a series of changes to inspection, including consulting on a new complaints process and depersonalising language describing perceived areas of weakness in school inspection reports.
Asked why inspectors refuse to discuss how schools can improve as part of the judgement process, Ms Spielman said the watchdog’s funding and remit to perform a wider role beyond diagnosing a school, which had previously been removed, could potentially be brought back “by a different government”.
Labour is proposing to replace single-word Ofsted grades with a school scorecard and has also said it would use weaknesses identified in inspection reports to send in regional improvement teams to schools.
Reflections and thoughts on the future of education
Ms Spielman used her speech partly to reflect on her time as chief inspector, revisiting themes of curriculum and the substance of education, which she spoke about in her first speech to the Festival of Education in 2017, after taking on the role.
She also addressed future challenges for schools and the accountability system, including driving up lower attendance rates since the pandemic, for which she says schools should receive “sustained support”.
She added that the accountability system “needs to evolve to keep up with the changes to how the education sector is organised”.
“More and more schools are part of multi-academy trusts. Many decisions are taken in individual schools, but that’s still where inspection happens. We’re already seeing the difficulties this is creating and it will need to be addressed.”
Ms Spielman also called for a “need to talk up teaching”, adding that she wants to “encourage optimism”.
“I’m certainly not downplaying the challenges, but we can’t afford to discourage the next generation of teachers. The public discourse around the profession really matters. Everything we’ve been through in the past few years underlines the difference that teachers make to young lives,” she said.
