To think criticisms of the new Ofsted ratings are self-serving?

Quite. Why do they think it's possible to express meaningful judgements about complex things using single adjectives?

but a lot of the commentary about how stressful it is seems nonsensical

What is the source of your personal knowledge about how stressful Ofsted inspections are or aren't, OP, out of interest? Or do you just 'reckon' it isn't that stressful?

If you go to the consultation, they do ask if your opinion on a couple of other suggestions which are outlined in the consultation document. One is much more like your suggestion.

They clearly want this one though, but I assume if enough people say they prefer option 2 or 3, they might reconsider.

The isi literally goes with met or not met and the not met is all compliance on standards and safeguarding.

I commented that I thought the criteria were vague/subjective too.

What strikes me, knowing two Ofsted inspectors, is that the inspections are not impartial. The two I know are both ex teachers but have completely different views and preferences on education. One believes small primary schools cannot possibly provide a good range of experiences for children, and the other has a strong dislike of academies. I know they bring these beliefs to their work, and I have no doubt it influences their assessments.

As for the inspection on my son's school last year I agreed with their assesment that the school is good rather than outstanding, but they were totally unable to articulate why it is not outstanding or what needs to be changed, which would have been useful.

Basically I don't think they are worth much unless a school is really failing and this needs to be clearly stated.

This is the suggested grading format.

What a total and utter subjective piece of shit.

Can anyone seriously expect that Ofsted can distinguish between 'secure', 'strong' and 'exemplary' in any sort of reliable, comparable between different settings, objective and replicable by different teams way?

The word 'outstanding' has been utterly toxic to schools over the years. Now we're going to be jumping through hoops to get from strong to exemplary? The only people who are going to benefit from this are education consultants who are rubbing their hands together at the prospect of 'how to get exemplary' training courses and books.

There should be 3 categories max. 'Fine' 'Attention needed' where the school goes and makes some minor amendments' and 'Intervention' where external agencies get involved in the improvement process.

Stop turning educators into monkeys dancing for peanuts.

Pharmaceutical companies are audited by international agencies, including the MHRA, EMA, FDA, PMDA, ANVISA. Teams of inspectors visit for multiple days. Much more intense than an Ofsted Inspection, needs a very quick response to any negative comments or a warning letter will be issued, with a worse case scenario of a site being shut down and jobs lost. Inspection reports are publicly available online.

"Say that to her sister's face" - sorry this is exactly what I am talking about. It should be possible to have a sensible policy discussion regarding assessment of education without one side saying "oh so you want teachers to commit suicide do you?"

The police and the fire service are inspected by HMICFRS in a very similar fashion to Ofsted.

Exactly. This is it. Either the school is well run or it’s not.

if you’re spending an insane amount of time primping and zuzzhing then your faking it, which is why it’s stressful.
At most it’s updating and making sure you’re on top of paperwork. But months of prep? A wider issue.

also lots of other professions have ofsted like inspections or audits especially any publicly accountable role. Teachers aren’t special.

Sorry beat me to it much wittier too.

Er CQC for hospitals and nursing homes.
Ofsted for children's homes and local authorities.

It seemed to me that they’d replaced a one word assessment by 5 one word assessments

The whole system is wrong, it's set up like education is a marketplace and parents need to be able to compare schools and use their financial or personal resources to get their kids into a good one.

When actually all schools should be good and children should be able to just go to their nearest one.

What's the best way to ensure all schools are good? Support, advice, practical assistance - not judgements, ratings and rankings.

So apart from local authorities, colleges, schools, hospitals, care homes, prisons, what have the Romans ever done for us...

It would be better if Ofsted inspections were supportive and collaborative rather than combative, coming in to find fault and catch providers out.

It's not just in schools but in early years too - childminders stressed out that Ofsted will come on a day they have a clingy baby settling in and will mark them down as the crying stopped them providing enough learning activities for the other children.

If Ofsted came in and looked at practice, pointed out things that were going well and gave advice and offered support in areas that weren't so good - wouldn't that be more beneficial to children than just slapping a judgement on the school?

So much time is wasted doing stuff 'for Ofsted' and 'for evidence', preparing for inspections etc when that time could be better spent.

I don't see why we need judgements at all.

I think the people on here calling the profession’s discussion of Ruth Perry’s suicide in relation to Ofsted’s inspections “opportunistic” should say that to her sister’s face. The sister and educational professional that has been calm and measured in the midst of hideous loss.

Ruth Perry's death was a tragedy for her family, but I've never accepted it as an indictment of the school inspection or rating system; it's probably an indictment on society that someone would feel they must prioritise their job over their mental health.

Unions seem shocked that school inspections will continue. tbh, as a parent I don't want to read pages of waffle. I want a maximum 20 word summary or simple infographic.

Yep, they're called external audits 😁 The financial ones especially cause a bit of extra work sometimes but they're expected.

I think it looks a better system and the move away from deep dives is good in my view.

I can't really work out whether publishing the results does lead to greater accountability or not.

OFSTED is utter nonsense. There should be mini observations, zero warning. I worked in a school who were awarded a 'good' result which was an absolute nonsense, because the behaviour of the students was appalling. During the inspection, extra staff were deployed in the corridors/lesson changeovers, because of the extremity of the behaviour. After 25 years of teaching, I'd had enough after 2 years,

Eerm, every other 'of' of any hue. Water, energy, financial, transportetc. Healthcare professionals have CQC plus professional scrutiny

As a school governor I've been involved in many OFSTED inspections at two different schools.

In one school the HT and the SLT ran around like squawking headless chickens right before the inspection, and put the fear of God into both the teaching staff and the children.

In the other school, the HT and SLT were vary calm, very organised and actually looked forward to showing the inspectors how good they thought the school was.

These things are often down to how well the school is managed in the first place.

I work in the food industry and this is standard for food safety. External unannounced audits, with a single grade as an outcome which is publicly available.

Yes, I entirely agree. I think the grid system seems very sensible and does allow for more nuance, while also being very easy to see at a glance. I am quite impressed with it actually.

I was also very uncomfortable with how the tragic death of Ruth Perry was used in discussions about Ofsted's future. It felt very opportunistic to me.

I do think that external school assessments are an essential part of the education system.

Ofsted is flawed and always has been. It's horrible for teachers - the majority of who are hardworking and passionate. It's misleading for parents at best. The way it's done isn't in the interest of children or learning at all.

A proper culture of learning and continuous improvement is needed. Support from peers, LEA, advisory teachers, subject matter efforts, over a longer period builds greater improvements for schools and improves outcomes for children and teachers. There needs to be proper support for heads in particular - who are often excellent teachers but ill equipped for running a business which essentially a school is now.

I've read hundreds of Ofsted reports over the years - very rarely do I see one that reflects the schools I know.

Absolutely needs to be external reviews and assessment but Ofsted inspections are not the way to do it.