Prospective PM Michael Gove in his wisdom as Education Secretary decided it was a good idea to remove Outstanding schools from the inspection cycle.
Years later it turns out that might not have been such a good idea.
“Ofsted revealed yesterday that inspections of exempt schools carried out between September and December last year, before it was ordered to step up its efforts, resulted in just 23 per cent maintaining their top grades. Of 117 schools inspected, more than one-third were rated “requires improvement” or “inadequate”.”
The DfE says that this means their system of triggering inspections when concerns are raised is working - but this relies on concerns being raised and acted upon, and given that some schools went from Outstanding to Inadequate, for how long was this decline overlooked? This is especially concerning in the case of flagship teaching schools who would not be getting funding and resources had they been reinspected sooner.
schoolsweek.co.uk/ofsted-downgrades-dozens-of-outstanding-schools/