Ofsted chief inspector Amanda Spielman has said that she does not expect the inspectorate to return to graded inspections in January.
The inspectorate is due to return to routine school inspection in the new year, but schools are still waiting for an announcement on how this will work or exactly what Ofsted will be doing.
At the launch of Ofsted’s annual report today, Ms Spielman revealed that she does not expect the watchdog to return to graded inspections next month.
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She said: “I know some of my audience will see the impact of Covid as a reason why we shouldn’t return to inspections for a while yet, and I know school leaders have been looking for certainty.
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“I am expecting the government to make an announcement about this very soon, as this is ultimately their decision. I am not expecting us to be doing graded inspections from January.”
When pressed on this after the launch event, she said she hopes the education secretary, Gavin Williamson, will make an announcement on the return of Ofsted inspections soon.
She said she wanted to find “a way of working” that recognises the pressures schools are facing during the pandemic.
Last month she told the Schools and Academies Show that Ofsted will not carry out a “frenzy” of inspections to catch up when it returns.
Ms Spielman had also said Ofsted would make a “gradual” return to inspection next year.
Ofsted’s acting national director of education, Chris Russell, said that when full inspections do return, the watchdog believes the current inspection framework is the right “vehicle to use”, but added that it might need to be modified to take the Covid-19 pandemic into account.
Yesterday Paul Whiteman, the general secretary of the NAHT school leaders’ union, urged Ofsted not to use graded judgements or its current framework when it does return.
