Ofsted has at last admitted that it is not achieving the improvements it should under the current inspection framework and therefore needs to change. What accumulative feedback to Ofsted has identified is what we largely already knew: that many schools tended to narrow the curriculum in favour of teaching to the test.
It found that:
- Ofsted’s current model is driving too much workload and much of it falls on the shoulders of classroom teachers.
- Ofsted inspections focus too much on outcomes, which places too much weight on test and exam results.
- Ofsted inspections haven’t placed enough emphasis on the curriculum.
For a long time, Ofsted has placed too much weight on test and exam results when they consider the overall effectiveness of schools. This narrow focus leaves teachers with little time to work on a well-rounded education for their pupils. This is due to the cumulative impact of performance tables and inspections, and a fear of the consequences should there be a poor outcome. It has increased the pressure on school leaders, teachers and indirectly on pupils to deliver good data above good education and ahead of individual children’s needs.
Ofsted now wants to bring inspections back to the substance of young people’s learning and treating teachers as experts in their field by making some sweeping changes, designed to bring several benefits to schools:
- Judgements will be made by shifting the focus from results to what is being taught and how schools are achieving a good education – although outcomes will still be taken into consideration.
- The shift away from outcomes would make it easier to recognise the good work done by schools in areas of high disadvantage, where the quality of provision is of a good standard.
- Schools should feel empowered to put the child first and will be rewarded for doing the right thing by their pupils. This contrasts with attempting to achieve good results at the cost of personal development and the delivery of a broad and balanced curriculum (as the chief inspector of Ofsted, Amanda Spielman, said in her speech to the Schools NorthEast summit: ‘Those who are bold and ambitious and run their schools with integrity will be rewarded as a result’).
- Workload should decrease among teachers, as currently schools inevitably feel they must do an enormous amount of recording and collating of information to present during the inspection. The intention is that a focus on substance will help to tackle excessive workload.
- Schools should feel supported by Ofsted, rather than judged by them, and this should enable a greater number of schools to become outstanding.
The new thinking is that when it comes to assessing a school, Ofsted should complement, rather than intensify, performance data. It should reward school leaders who are ambitious for their pupils, rather than those who jump through hoops to get results. Therefore, the new framework will place greater emphasis on the substance of education and actively discourage unnecessary data collection.
Ofsted said it will consult on the introduction of a new judgement for ‘quality of education’. This will replace the current ‘outcomes for pupils’ and ‘teaching, learning and assessment’ judgements with a broader, single judgement.