Four in five school leaders lack confidence in Ofsted inspections, the prospect of which is leaving heads feeling “sick, stressed and terrified”, a report has warned.
In a new survey by the NAHT school leaders’ union, 85 per cent of respondents said they were “unconfident” or “very unconfident” in the watchdog.
When asked to describe in one word how the thought of their school’s next Ofsted inspection made them feel, the top five words school leaders cited were: “anxious”, “sick”, “stressed”, “terrified” and “dread”.
The NAHT surveyed 1,890 school leaders for their report, which has been released on the same day as Ofsted’s annual report - the last report for outgoing chief inspector Amanda Spielman.
Commenting on the findings, Paul Whiteman, NAHT general secretary, said: “This is a pretty damning indictment of how far Ofsted has lost its way.
“Far from driving school improvement, inspections are seen as inaccurate, unreliable and of little use to parents or schools.”
“Unfortunately, the only conclusion that can be drawn is that Ofsted is broken. This must be a wake-up call to government, and the number one priority for the new chief inspector when he starts in January.”
The NAHT report also highlights a number of other concerns its members have about Ofsted.
Heads don’t believe Ofsted handles complaints ‘effectively’
Almost all school leaders (95 per cent) did not believe that Ofsted deals with complaints about the “accuracy of inspection judgements effectively”.
A similarly high proportion (92 per cent) disagreed with the statement that “Ofsted deals with the complaints about the conduct of inspectors effectively”.
Ofsted launched a consultation on improving its approach to handling school inspection complaints earlier this year but is yet to publish the findings.
The watchdog proposed to replace its current three-step complaints process with a system that would allow schools to complain formally and to an independent adjudicator more quickly, but many have insisted that an independent body is needed to challenge inspections.
Ofsted pressure has the biggest impact on school leader wellbeing
“Ofsted pressures” were reported by school leaders as having had the greatest impact on their mental health over the past year, the survey has revealed.
Mr Whiteman said that the “appalling impact” of the inspectorate on the health and wellbeing of school leaders and all school staff really “cannot be underestimated”.
“It is by far the biggest source of stress reported by our members, and we know is a serious barrier to those considering taking up headship.
“There is a sense that Ofsted inspections - and the anticipation of them - can truly take over a school leader’s life.”
It follows findings by the charity Education Support that the proportion of school staff, college staff and senior leaders reporting stress is the “highest ever recorded”, as reported in their Teacher Wellbeing Index earlier this month.
It was suggested to MPs at the recent Ofsted inquiry that scrapping single-phrase judgements would be the “biggest change” to the wellbeing of school leaders, but a narrative-style approach to inspection reports was rejected by ex-school minister Nick Gibb as too “opaque”.
Inspectors’ capability to ‘accurately evaluate a school’ in doubt
When asked if inspectors are able to fully understand and accurately evaluate a school in the time they spend on site, only 12 per cent of respondents said yes.
The majority of school leaders (78 per cent) also did not agree that inspectors fully understand the schools they inspect, and an additional 10 per cent said that they did not know or weren’t sure.
The survey also found that just 7 per cent of respondents agreed that Ofsted inspectors have “sufficient expertise to reliably inspect different school types and phases”.
Earlier this year, Tes revealed that four in 10 senior Ofsted inspectors have never been a head, and that the watchdog does not know how many inspectors have taught particular subjects or worked in primaries, secondaries or special schools.
Few think Ofsted’s framework is ‘appropriate’ for all schools
Only a very small proportion of school leaders (5 per cent) thought that “Ofsted’s single framework and methodology is appropriate for all school types”.
The education inspection framework (EIF) came into force in September 2019, with a more curriculum-focused framework headed by Ms Spielman to give less weight to exam and test results.
Ms Spielman’s successor, Sir Martyn Oliver, was one of a number of trust chief executives who raised concern about the impact of the framework on schools serving deprived areas that were focused on academic results.
An Ofsted spokesperson said: “Children only get one chance at an education, and inspection ensures that standards are high for all children.
“We always want inspections to be as positive an experience for headteachers and school leaders as they can be.
“After every inspection we ask schools whether they believe the inspection will help them improve. Nine out of 10 say it will.”
