Ofsted’s new visits to schools to check on pupils’ return to education this term will fail to reassure most parents or help schools to learn from each other, a union boss has claimed.
Nick Brook, the deputy general secretary of the NAHT school leaders’ union, has said that by the time the inspectorate produces its major report on its findings next year, it will be “far too late” to help schools to improve.
He has also questioned Ofsted’s rationale for publishing letters after the visits it makes to schools.
The inspectorate has said the letters will allow parents to understand what is happening inside their child’s school.
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But Mr Brook said that because only 5 per cent of schools will actually get a visit this term, most parents will not benefit from this exercise.
Unions and governors have already urged Ofsted to rethink its decision to produce letters containing school-level findings, which they have said will add to the pressure on school heads and make the process feel like an inspection.
Ofsted is set to produce an overall national report next year on the return of schools but will also produce three interim monthly reports on its school visits along with the other areas it inspects on from next month, Tes understands.
Mr Brook said: “The vast majority of parents in this country will receive no letter of reassurance from Ofsted as only 5 per cent of schools will be visited.
“Ofsted has said that it will take them 38 working days to process these letters, meaning that parents will wait nearly two months after the actual visit before they receive a letter.
“Put simply, Ofsted’s plans appear off-the-pace, in all aspects.”
Writing for Tes, Mr Brook said that he was not criticising HMIs, and added that feedback from the pilots had showed they were acting with “empathy and professionalism”.
However, he added that schools are in crisis-response mode - and any intervention now needs to help not hinder.
He added: “If Ofsted are to visit schools, then the most obvious way that they could add some value would be to identify interesting practice and share this, in real time and in sufficient detail, with other schools as rapidly as possible.
“Yet there are no real plans to do this. At least not this year. By the time these insights become public, I suspect schools will be dealing with a whole different set of issues.
“Our understanding from the pilot visits is that the evidence is being gathered - reams of it - but plans to share this across the sector appear underdeveloped and half-hearted, to say the least.
“We have been told that that this evidence and insight will be distilled down into short monthly HMCI commentaries, with a fuller evaluative report coming some time in 2021. This is too little information, coming far too late to be useful - to schools, government or indeed parents.”
Ofsted was approached for a comment.
