A senior Ofsted official told MPs today that it “isn’t right” for a school that uses the “appalling” practice of off-rolling to get a “good” rating from the watchdog.
The comments from Gill Jones, Ofsted’s deputy director of early education, appear to contradict the inspectorate’s decision to rate the Discovery Academy in Stoke-on-Trent as “good” despite inspectors having found that off-rolling was taking place at the secondary. That verdict, earlier this year, has previously been defended by Ofsted officials.
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Ms Jones was today asked by Ian Mearns, a member of the Commons Education Select Committee, about the inspectorate’s attitude to off-rolling - the practice of removing children from a school’s roll primarily for the school’s own interest.
Mr Mearns said: “There is clear evidence that schools have off-rolled pupils in the mainstream [and] are still getting ‘good’ ratings from Ofsted. How can that be right?”
“It isn’t right, if that is the case,” Ms Jones replied.
Mr Mearns did not mention the specific case of Discovery Academy, which was highlighted by Tes earlier this year, and it was not clear whether Ms Jones knew about the case.
The Discovery inspection report said that 10 pupils in Year 11, who were on the school’s roll but attending “good”-quality alternative provision, were transferred to the alternative provider’s roll in January 2018.
“This was not in the pupils’ best interests,” the report said, adding: “This constitutes off-rolling according to Ofsted’s definition.”
The report said that the off-rolling was done with “procedures agreed with local schools and the local authority (LA), and therefore with the full knowledge of these partners”.
However, it added: “Leaders and LA officers could not provide inspectors with any convincing reason for this practice.”
The report judged that the leadership and management of the school required improvement.
Sarah Robinson, the chief executive of Alpha Academies Trust, which runs the school, said at the time that the decision on when pupils were removed from the school roll was based on a city-wide agreement, which aimed to give pupils the best chance to be able to return to mainstream education.
Ms Jones comments at the committee hearing contrast with Ofsted’s defence of its “good” judgement for Discovery Academy.
Ofsted’s education director Sean Harford said on Twitter at the time that “Leadership and management identified as the issue that needs to do better. The quality of education, including the work of teachers, is good. Won’t be saying anything more as the report speaks for itself.”
Today, Ms Jones went on to say that off-rolling was a “key” part of Ofsted’s proposed new inspection framework.
“Where we find evidence on the ground that that’s [off-rolling] then clearly it is one of the things that would take a school into lower judgement and sometimes to be made ‘inadequate’,” she told MPs.
“Of course, we agree that off-rolling, particularly of children who are vulnerable, of children with mental health difficulties, autism etc, is appalling and Ofsted does not stand by it.”
Ms Jones was appearing before the committee to give evidence for its inquiry into special educational needs and disabilities (SEND). She confirmed that the inspectorate’s investigation into 300 schools that have high levels of off-rolling will explore how many of the affected children have SEND.
