Amanda Spielman faced tough questioning from school leaders today as she defended Ofsted’s return to routine inspections during the Covid pandemic.

The chief inspector fielded a series of questions about the impact of the coronavirus and the challenges facing schools from the audience at the Schools and Academies Show in Birmingham.

Delegates loudly applauded Matthew Chancellor, deputy head at St Bede’s Inter-Church School in Cambridgeshire, after he told Ms Spielman that he “profoundly disagrees” that now is the right time to roll out inspections.

The government resumed Ofsted’s routine programme of graded inspections in September but it has faced accusations that it is not doing enough to take the impact of Covid into account.

Inspections: Ofsted given extra funds to check on every school by 2025

Controversy: Call to halt inspections over concerns about heads’ wellbeing 

Heads: Leadership union calls for schools to be able to halt Ofsted inspections

Mr Chancellor said: “I cannot explain to you how differently our school is operating during the Covid climate…I do think you should wait until we are back to normal a little bit more before you decide to go into schools and change judgements on schools, which would have a profound effect on them.”

Ms Spielman responded: “This is not about posing unrealistic expectations. This is about looking at how you are, looking at the context you have to work in. It is absolutely right that we are there looking at what children are getting.”

Another audience member asked if Ofsted will be reporting back to the government on the recruitment pressures school leaders are facing, saying: “We can’t get staff in some subject areas. My teachers are wanting leave - that is our biggest issue going forward.”

Ms Spielman said in response: “We have published many reports over the last year making the exact point of the pressures. This is a very important use of evidence we collect.

“We are a non-ministerial department, we are independent of ministers in Parliament. That principle has been there since Ofsted was established and it remains incredibly important.

Reinstating inspections ‘a ministerial decision’

She added: “The reinstatement of routine inspections was a ministerial decision - I cannot decide that.”

Another audience member told Ms Spielman that “headteachers are really struggling” and said “we are concerned we will have a real exodus of school leaders”.

Ms Spielman’s speech at the Schools and Academies Show came after it was announced that Ofsted would receive more than £23 million in extra funding to accelerate its inspections of schools.

It is now set to inspect all schools by 2025. 

This was revealed after repeated calls by school leaders for Ofsted inspections to be halted or for schools to be able to pause them on request because of the impact of Covid.

In her speech, Ms Spielman said: “Being here today is another marker of how far we’ve come, and how we’re slowly but surely regaining a bit of normality.

“But I know no one would say that we’re out of the woods just yet. I know this really isn’t ‘business as usual’. Many of you are coping with so much staff and pupil absence, doing your best for children at home, children in class, not to mention dealing with on-site vaccinations. So, first of all, I want to reassure you that we do get that. We know what you’re up against.”

She also defended accelerating Ofsted inspections.

“The long-term impact of the pandemic is still so uncertain. It is up to us, the whole system, including Ofsted, to make sure it is the best education possible. I don’t need to tell you how critical this period of recovery is. You know just how much children have missed,” Ms Spielman said.

The acceleration will start in September 2022 after scheduled inspections this year have taken place.

Ms Spielman says the plan to visit all schools by summer 2025 “gives schools timely assurance, up-to-date information for parents and will help the government how the recovery effort is going”.

She also commented on the lifting of the inspection exemption on “outstanding” rated schools, saying: “Some schools have not been inspected for close to 15 years. That is a long time to go without checking if children are getting a good deal.

“A lot of children have gone through their entire school education in that time and many parents have been left wondering if their child’s school is as good as the label.”

Before the exemption was introduced 10 years ago, Ms Spielman said, about one in 10 schools were judged to be “outstanding”, and now the figure is around one in five.

She added: “It just isn’t realistic to expect that every ‘outstanding’ school has maintained standards over so many years, so I do expect there to be some rebalancing of grades.

“‘Outstanding’ has to mean outstanding. A top grade signals a lot about a school, and it’s right that it should be a high bar.”