Ofsted wording replaced

[Newtonianmechanics]

www.thetimes.co.uk/article/no-more-inadequate-one-word-ofsted-rulings-could-be-ditched-mrdcn8lfh

This is behind a paywall but can get the jist from the headline. I think it would be great to get rid of the one word judgement and focus on strengths and areas of improvement.

Basically this.

I’ve been banging on about this. Still have OFSTED. Come in. Hold schools accountable. Great. Don’t give an arbitrary grade. Write a report of good things and things to improve. It will get rid of the ridiculous snobby my child goes to an outstanding school. The playing field will start to even out and people will start choosing their local schools again. OFSTED will be supportive then and welcomed.

An outstanding school that may well not have been seen for a decade or more.

This! We have 2 primary schools locally - 1 had been rated 'outstanding' in 2011, the other 'good' much more recently. Guess which one was oversubscribed? Until it was inspected in 2023 and was rated as 'requires improvement'....

I’m constantly amazed by people who will look at the Ofsted reports, ask people for their opinion, but not actually get up and go to look at the schools in the area. You cannot tell what a school is like unless you’ve been in the building, seen it on a working day and spoken to staff and children.

I’d never welcome Ofsted though. Far too scarred by the experience of multiple inspections in a school that was the most collegiate and supportive, but the demographic, level of need and way over average numbers of SEND were never considered in their judgements.

I hope it is strengths and weaknesses and not some other veiled grading graphic.

www.facebook.com/share/r/MUFoJTYarUyRJGvV/?

Terrible

I like a single word grading. It isn't intended to give the full picture but it conveys the lowest common denominator and then it's up to me as the parent to find out more.

But surely there is a report available that details strengths and weaknesses. In Scotland we have a letter that HMIE sends out to parents after an inspection detailing this and it is publicly available. Or do OFSTED not do this?

Wow.

It wouldn't help me at all as a parent or a teacher. I think its an insult to parents as ICT with Mr P says. It's toxic.

It does but people focus on the one word. Celebrate the one word. Take their own life over the one word. Like I said its toxic.

Heart goes out to Ruth Perrys family today.

The government have totally ignored the advice of the select committee.

Removing the grading would also avoid these ‘outstanding’ schools potentially failing children for 10 years. In the time that a school maintains it’s so called outstanding they can have a new head, all new staff and a completely different cohort of children and go uninspected for ages.

I think they should definitely remove it.

Did anyone expect this government to do otherwise? They were never going to admit that anything that happened under their watch was bad or needed reform. And yes, I know they didn't bring in the one word gradings, but after 14 years and much tinkering with education, this was one thing they really did need to do - and didn't.

I wish they would replace the one word with meaningful reports, see schools more often, put in meaningful support for schools in areas of weakness and use strong schools to support peers sharing best practice. We can dream.