Amanda Spielman will describe mounting controversy over Ofsted’s new inspections as “a few wrinkles and teething issues” when she speaks at a conference tomorrow.
Ofsted’s chief inspector will tell the ResearchED Birmingham conference that those who don’t like its new model of curriculum-focused inspections are a “small and vocal minority”.
The watchdog has faced high-profile opposition since the launch of its new inspections with major multi-academy trust leaders calling for the framework to be rewritten and a teaching union leader warning that it has created a “tsunami” of extra work in primary schools.
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Both the NAHT school leaders’ union and the National Education Union have described the experience for their members as being “brutal”.
And leaders of the Harris Federation, Outwood Grange Academies Trust and the Inspiration Trust have claimed the new inspections are penalising schools who choose to extend GCSE teaching over three years and will not work for disadvantaged pupils.
Tes revealed earlier this week that the row between the MAT leaders and the inspectorate has prompted the Department for Education to intervene with a public letter from education secretary Gavin Williamson expected to be sent to Ms Spielman emphasising that academies have the freedom to make their own decisions over curriculum.
However, Ms Spielman is expected to tell the ResearchED event in Birmingham that “feedback from many directions is telling us that the inspections are nearly always working well”.
In a section of a speech seen by Tes, she will add: “Of course there are have been a few wrinkles and teething issues - among several thousand inspections, how could there not be? - but we take all feedback very seriously, and work fast to address issues.”
This comes despite Mary Bousted, the joint general secretary of the National Education Union, warning that the watchdog’s new curriculum-focused inspections with deep dives into particular subjects is creating a “workload tsunami” for staff in primary schools.
Ms Spielman is expected to allude to the campaign launched by the Headteachers’ Roundtable group to “pause” Ofsted by urging school heads to no longer work or support their staff to work as inspectors.
She will say: “An invitation to our contracted Ofsted inspectors to resign doesn’t seem to have prompted a single resignation that we can find, nor are we noticing people reducing their commitment.”
Ms Spielman is also expected to indicate that Ofsted will say more about how it intends to refine the implementation of its new inspections when she speaks at the Association of School and College Leaders conference next weekend.
Ofsted launched a new inspection framework in September last year, with an increased focus on the curriculum and less weight given to exam results compared with past inspections.
Harris chief executive Sir Dan Moynihan has described the curriculum-focused inspections as a “middle-class framework for middle-class kids”.
Sir Dan, Martyn Oliver of OGAT and Dame Rachel de Souza of Inspiration Trust have backed calls for the inspection framework to be changed to remove a “de facto preference” for schools to run key stage 3 over three years.
Ms Spielman is expected to say: “We do know there is a small - and vocal - minority who don’t like the new model, or who haven’t been happy with their experience of it or with their outcome. But overwhelmingly the schools who have been inspected are positive about it.”
Ofsted has said previously that it does not have a preference for the length of KS3 but the watchdog’s new inspection handbook says inspectors will look at whether a curriculum has been narrowed by a school shortening its KS3.
