{"id":224768,"date":"2025-02-03T00:01:00","date_gmt":"2025-02-03T00:01:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/schoolsweek.co.uk\/?p=224768"},"modified":"2025-02-02T20:19:37","modified_gmt":"2025-02-02T20:19:37","slug":"five-grades-11-areas-ofsteds-report-cards-plans-revealed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/schoolsweek.co.uk\/five-grades-11-areas-ofsteds-report-cards-plans-revealed\/","title":{"rendered":"Five grades, up to 11 areas: Ofsted’s report card plans revealed"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Ofsted has unveiled its plans for \u201cfairer\u201d school report cards with a five-point grading system across up to 11 areas, the end of ungraded inspections and increased monitoring of under-performing schools.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But unions have warned the new model is \u201cworse than single-word judgments\u201d, which were scrapped last year, and will cause \u201cyet more misery\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The changes<\/a>, announced in a consultation launched today, were prompted by a coroner\u2019s ruling in 2023 that an inspection of Caversham Primary School in Reading \u201ccontributed\u201d to the suicide of its headteacher, Ruth Perry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Ruth
Ruth Perry<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Ofsted<\/a> chief inspector Sir Martyn Oliver<\/a> said he believed the system will offer a \u201cmore balanced, fairer approach\u201d, with more room for \u201cnuance\u201d than the \u201cbinary\u201d one-word judgements.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis process will give fairer, more rounded, better information, both to the school and to parents, as well as taking into [account] the context of a school and the individual strengths and areas of improvement.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You can read a full explainer on the changes here,<\/a> and a Q&A with Oliver here.<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ratings: from \u2018causing concern\u2019 to \u2018exemplary\u2019<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Under the proposals, new \u201creport cards\u201d will be used to assess schools and convey their performance to parents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Instead of single-word judgments, Ofsted is proposing to now rate schools across up to 11 different areas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Every school would be judged on leadership and governance, curriculum, developing teaching, achievement, behaviour and attitudes, attendance, personal development and well-being, inclusion and safeguarding.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Those with early years provision or sixth forms would receive an additional grade for each area.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Across all areas but safeguarding, schools will be given one of five colour-coded judgments: exemplary (in dark green), strong, secure, attention needed, or causing concern (in red).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

In safeguarding, schools will be deemed to have either \u201cmet\u201d or \u201cnot met\u201d their requirements.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As well as these headline grades for each area, Ofsted will publish short descriptions summarising their findings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Monitoring inspections for \u2018attention needed\u2019 schools<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Ofsted also wants to more frequently monitor schools that are under-performing. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Schools with at least one \u2018attention\u2019 needed rating will get monitoring inspections, but they will focus only on those areas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Oliver said this would \u201ccheck that timely action is being taken to raise standards\u201d. If schools have improved, they won\u2019t have to \u201cgo through the rigmarole\u201d of a full inspection and the rating will be upgraded.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBut if they don’t improve and they haven’t made an acceptable standard of education, we will clearly and unapologetically call it out as we are going to raise standards for this new way of working,\u201d Oliver added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Schools falling into a \u201ccategory of concern\u201d will still be identified, and eligible for government intervention. The Department for Education is expected to publish details of its intervention plans today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Schools will be placed in \u2018special measures\u2019 if any area (except leadership) or safeguarding is a concern, *and* leadership is also a concern. Those schools will get six monitoring inspections over 24 months.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A school will \u2018require significant improvement\u2019 if any area (except leadership) or safeguarding is a concern, but leadership is not. These schools will get five over 18 months.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The inspectorate will free up resources for more frequent monitoring inspections by scrapping ungraded inspections.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Oliver said he was \u201cconfident that we can deliver our plans”. He also hopes to announce more “exciting things to improve our inspection model going forward\u201d after the government spending review.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

More information on schools\u2019 demographic<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Inspections and report cards will also give more context on a school’s setting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They will include data on elements such as children from disadvantaged backgrounds, those with SEND, pupil outcomes, absence and attendance, and information about the local demographic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Oliver said he wanted providers \u201cto take the most difficult, the most disadvantaged, the most vulnerable children, and say that they know that Ofsted will have their back if they do that difficult work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt’s clearly nonsense if the inspectorate and regulator is at any point an excuse for people to avoid our most vulnerable children, and that\u2019s something I\u2019m very clear about,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Curriculum deep dives will also be scrapped and new toolkits to help schools understand what inspectors look for in each area will be published. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Every school will also be asked to nominate a senior staff member to work closely with the inspection team, a model employed in further education inspections. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

‘Worse than single-word judgments’<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

But unions have been heavily critical. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pepe Di\u2019Iasio, general secretary of the ASCL leaders\u2019 union, said the proposed report cards were \u201cworse than single-word judgements\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ofsted and the government \u201cappear to have learned nothing from the death of headteacher Ruth Perry\u201d, he added, and said the new system will lead to \u201cyet more misery\u201d for the profession.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The new system would be \u201cbewildering\u201d for teacher, leaders, and parents and that teachers \u201cwill vote with their feet by leaving\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Daniel
Daniel Kebede<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Paul Whiteman, general secretary of school leaders\u2019 union NAHT, said retaining sub-judgments \u201crisks replicating the worst aspects of the current system and will do little to reduce the enormous pressure school leaders are under\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Daniele Kebede, general secretary of the National Education Union, said the proposals \u201cwill make matters worse, not better\u201d. He said Oliver \u201chas failed to deliver\u201d the changes needed, and \u201chas ignored the voice of the profession\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHe has set a course for Ofsted to remain just as out of touch as before, just as crude in its assessments,\u201d he said, saying the proposed grading scale \u201cmaintains the current blunt, reductive approach that cannot capture the complexity of school life nor provide more meaningful information to parents\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It comes after Schools Week<\/em> reported the concerns of whistleblowers from inside Ofsted, who warned report cards had been \u201ccobbled together at ridiculous speed\u201d<\/a> and that leaders had ignored concerns from experienced staff.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Positive response from pilots, says Ofsted<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

However, Lee Owston, Ofsted\u2019s national director for education, claimed on Friday that across six trials conducted at schools so far, the \u201coverwhelming\u201d response to the proposal has been \u201cvery, very positive\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe purpose of those trials was to get reaction in terms of what it is that we’ve written what it is that we’re proposing, and of course, we have made adjustments and tweaks.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Oliver added that following the trials he believes the proposal \u201cwill be met from parents and providers with a great deal of interest\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAnd there’ll be some concern, but also a tremendous amount of excitement, especially in the methodology of all of the things we’re going to propose,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The consultation will run for 12 weeks until April 28, with more pilot inspections due to be carried out in coming months, before a report and more trialling in the summer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A new inspection framework will then be introduced in September, with the return of inspections after the summer break delayed until November to allow for trialling of the new model and inspector training.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ofsted claims ‘fairer’ model will better identify schools’ strengths, but union says it’s ‘worse than single-word judgments’<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":314902,"featured_media":224720,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"post-theme":[],"class_list":["post-224768","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t