Commenting on the launch of Ofsted’s consultation on how it
inspects schools, early years settings and further education and
skills providers, Dr Mary Bousted, Joint General
Secretary of the National Education Union, said:
“Ofsted makes bold and ambitious claims for its new inspection
framework, but the National Education Union remains deeply
sceptical about whether these will be realised.
“The uncomfortable truth for Ofsted is that the practices it
deplores - the narrowing of the school curriculum and teaching to
the test - have been the results of its own enforcement, through
inspection, of a range of narrow measures to judge school
quality.
“None of these narrow accountability measures are being
abolished. Schools will still be measured on the percentage of
their pupils following the EBacc, GCSE results, progress 8 and
attainment 8.
“Added to these quantitative measures, Ofsted intends to make
qualitative judgements on the curriculum. Ofsted’s own research
shows that those HMI doing the trial inspections asked how they
could make curriculum judgements in the time available for
inspection. How complex, detailed, value-laden judgements will be
made consistently across England’s 20,000 schools is the
fundamental question – and one that Ofsted cannot answer.
“Ofsted’s reputation as a reliable arbiter of school quality is
gravely damaged. Government ministers are well aware that Ofsted
judgements on schools are overwhelmingly based on the
characteristics of their pupil intake rather than the education
they provide.
“The NEU believes that there is no more time to tinker with
Ofsted. England needs a new system of school accountability – one
that keeps good teachers and school leaders in the profession,
working to improve the life chances of our children and young
people.”