The Association of School and College Leaders has today published
The Future of Inspection, a discussion paper seeking to fuel a
debate that ultimately leads to a fairer, more constructive
approach to school and college inspection.
The paper contains suggestions for both long-term and short-term
changes to the inspection system. Proposals for immediate change
are:
- Remove overall graded judgements.
- Tell schools and colleges in which
academic year they will be inspected, and review the inspection
cycle timeframe.
- Publish Ofsted inspector training
and associated training materials.
- Undertake an internal review of how
pupil voice is used during inspection.
- Update the inspection handbook and
reporting to better reflect the role of trusts in school
effectiveness.
The proposals for long-term changes, which should only be
introduced following thorough piloting and analysis of impact,
include the removal of all graded judgements, to be replaced with
a narrative description of a school or college’s strengths and
weaknesses in different areas. Currently, as well as getting an
overall grade of either outstanding, good, requires improvement
or inadequate, schools are given individual grades in four areas:
quality of education, behaviour and attitudes, personal
development and leadership and management. Removing these has the
potential to end the unhelpful and misleading practice of
reducing a school or college’s performance in key areas to a
single word or phrase, and to instead give parents and other
stakeholders a more nuanced understanding of what a school or
college is doing well and how it could improve.
Geoff Barton, General Secretary of the Association of School and
College Leaders, said: “Graded judgements are a woefully blunt
tool with which to measure performance, failing to account for
the different circumstances under which schools operate. Negative
judgements come with huge stigma attached and create a vicious
circle that makes improvement more difficult. We know from
speaking to members that the punitive inspection system is
contributing to the recruitment and retention crisis in education
by adding to the pressure school leaders are under, and by making
it more difficult to recruit high-quality staff in the schools
which most need them.”
Tom Middlehurst, Curriculum, Assessment and Inspection Specialist
at the Association of School and College Leaders, said: “We
appreciate the need for an independent inspectorate, and
acknowledge the current Education Inspection Framework has some
positive aspects. But many school and college leaders feel the
framework is flawed and Ofsted risks losing the trust of the
profession. We think that, if implemented, the changes put
forward in this paper could help win back that trust and produce
an inspection system that is just, reliable and in the best
interests of children and young people.”
Julie McCulloch, Director of Policy at the Association of School
and College Leaders, said: “Although these recommendations do not
yet represent formal ASCL policy, the paper has been produced
following consultation with ASCL Council – our policymaking body.
Our hope is it will be a useful contribution to the dialogue for
policymaking now and in the future and we would welcome feedback
from across the sector.”
ASCL will be actively seeking further views on the future of
inspection throughout 2023. We will be discussing the ideas in
this paper with our members and other experts through a series of
roundtable discussions and other events.
