Light on the Horizon?

What do the recent Ofsted changes mean for the profession?

Recently, Ofsted announced a timeline for changes that would be taking place from September 2024 and then rolling on up to September 2025, but what will they look like?

What are the initial changes?

To briefly map the changes out:

From September 2024, all single-word headline gradings will be scrapped, Ofsted will only call on Mondays to inform schools of an inspection that week and schools with an inspection raising a safeguarding concern will have judgements withheld and be reinspected within three months.

These changes will take effect as graded inspections resume from 23^rd September, allowing time for training and quality improvement before they recommence.

It is clear that Ofsted has taken on board some comments made. Those voices only grew louder with the tragic death of Ruth Perry, a headteacher who took her own life, an Ofsted inspection being a contributing factor. Each change that has been announced has significant implications for schools moving forward.

Single-word headlines scrapped

This was a significant promise made in Labour’s manifesto when it came to education so it should come as no surprise that this is one of the first suggested changes. The single-word headline for an inspection has been an ever-increasing contentious issue with schools, and indeed within many school communities. They argue that to attempt to sum an entire school up with a single word or two words is impractical, as well as impossible. School life, as all readers will know, is multi-faceted and extremely complex. Every school will have areas to improve and where there are schools that have more to improve than others, it does not mean that they don’t have areas of strength.

The argument for the single-word grading system was that it made it easier for parents to determine which school they would prefer to send their child to. However, in an education system where admissions are driven strongly by where you live, this seemed like shaky ground and indeed in the research gathered by Ofsted themselves, it was found that fewer than 4 in 10 parents supported the system. Not only this, but a 2021 Ofsted Parents Annual Survey indicated that only 59% of parents were even aware of Ofsted!

As such, a move in this direction is not only reasonable but surely a sensible decision.

The big question is – what will be in place instead? This will be a long process of reforming the framework (which begins in January 2025) and will move towards an ‘inspection report card’ model. The challenge for key decision-makers will be to not replace like-for-like, to not lead us to a place where schools just end up with more complicated hoops to jump through to get what people will then translate to ‘previous Requires Improvement’. Think about the GCSEs – they are now numbered 1-9 but wherever you look online you will find comparisons to the old A*-G grades. This must be avoided with any new Ofsted inspection framework.

Calls on Mondays

Honestly, I think that this one (compared to the single-word judgements) may go a little under the radar. As a senior leader in a primary school which is overdue an inspection, Summer 2024 was a terribly anxious experience. This anxiety was far more acute until around 2 pm on a Wednesday afternoon, as it was at this point that it was likely we were not to be inspected that week and had a few more days to work on our school improvement.

With this change, schools in this position will now not have almost more than half the week to be listening out for that phone call. There will be the opportunity to focus more on supporting the school to move forward more often rather than constantly looking over their shoulder for that ring on the phone.

This may seem like a fairly small change that might not have great significance, but for school staff to get back 40% of their working week without having to worry if they’ll get that phone call, I imagine this will have a great impact on the wellbeing of school staff.

Moving Forward

Following the Learning Review by Dame Christine Gilbert, in which she outlined that Ofsted had sacrificed the quality of inspections for volume, it would not be surprising to see adjustments to the school inspection system. There is a long way to go with some already suggesting this could be a false dawn. However, it is difficult after such a long period of time to not see these initial changes and be hopeful for more a supportive, developmental inspectorate which works with school communities to better the education of our children in this country.

The author

Matt Roberts

Matt Roberts is an Assistant Headteacher with leadership experience in KS2, Assessment, Curriculum, School Communication and Maths. He has completed an NPQH, co-leads the Maths Subject Lead Network in Trafford and is the host of the Primary Education Voices podcast which has also led to a publication with the same name by Routledge.