Ofsted boss Amanda Spielman defended the downgrading of hundreds of “outstanding” schools when she appeared before MPs today.
His Majesty’s chief inspector appeared before the Commons Education Select Committee, which was led for the first time by its new chair and former schools minister Robin Walker.
Here are the five main things she told MPs:
1. Decline in Ofsted ‘outstanding’ schools ‘may have happened many years ago’
Ms Spielman’s appearance came after Ofsted published new data showing that more than four out of five “outstanding”-rated schools have been downgraded in full inspections in 2021-22.
Ofsted started carrying out routine inspections of top-rated schools in September last year after an exemption was lifted. The data published today shows that 83 per cent of “outstanding” schools that faced a full inspection were downgraded - the majority of these by one inspection grade to “good”.
When asked about this, Ms Spielman said: “The ones we inspected last year in the main hadn’t been inspected for 13, 14, even 15 years - a great deal of time in which all of the staff, including the head, all of the governors, are likely to have changed, sometimes a number of times,” she said.
“So, at one level, there is no surprise that the profile doesn’t look extremely similar to what it did for those 300 schools all that time ago.
“It’s important to say that in many cases the downward shift … may have happened many years ago.”
2. Spielman rejects MP suggestion that Ofsted deliberately downgraded schools
Ms Spielman said in an Ofsted statement today that the outcomes of the graded inspections of “outstanding” schools showed that ”removing a school from scrutiny does not make it better”.
But, appearing before the committee today, she rejected the idea that the outcome of “outstanding” inspections was something Ofsted had “wanted to happen” to demonstrate the benefits of its inspections. This question was put to her by Conservative MP Andrew Lewer (Northampton South).
She replied: “Inspectors value their independence and impartiality. They guard that fiercely. And any suggestion from the top of Ofsted that there should be any kind of quota set or a sort of push on a particular kind of school would be met with absolute horror. I can assure you that there is nothing of the kind.”
3. Covid put Ofsted 1,000 inspections behind schedule
Ms Spielman told the committee that Covid disruption - including the impact of the Omicron surge at the start of 2022 - had put the watchdog around 1,000 schools behind schedule in terms of inspections.
At the beginning of the year, Ofsted invited schools to request deferrals of inspections if they were impacted by absence caused by the Omicron variant of Covid.
The watchdog also scaled back its inspections by not deploying serving school leaders who are contracted as Ofsted inspectors.
Ms Spielman said that, although Covid had affected the inspectorate’s schedule, this had been factored into its planning and she was confident that Ofsted would reach its inspection target of visiting all schools by 2025.
4. Previous ITT judgements were ‘uncomfortably high’
The session also touched on Ofsted inspections of initial teacher training (ITT) providers and the Department for Education’s market review of the sector.
When questioned about the number of “outstanding”-rated providers under the previous ITT framework that Ofsted had used, Ms Spielman said “the numbers had got too high, uncomfortably high”. The old framework had “perhaps looked at process not substance”, she added.
Ofsted began inspecting providers against its new curriculum-focused ITT framework from May last year.
Labour MP Ian Mearns (Gateshead) questioned why some ITT providers that had been rated as “outstanding” by Ofsted were then not reaccredited by the DfE to continue providing training.
Ms Spielman said the inspectorate had reviewed its judgements and was confident in them. She added that this was a question for ministers to answer.
5. Schools ‘urgently need’ transgender guidance from the DfE
Ms Spielman also told MPs that the new government guidance on transgender issues for schools being worked on by the DfE is “urgently needed”.
She warned the committee that there is currently “very limited guidance” available on the issue and said schools needed help navigating a “minefield”.
She also said that it was a “safeguarding risk” for schools to keep parents in the dark if their child is having “serious questions or doubts” about their gender.
