ASCL comment on government response to ESC’s Ofsted report

Commenting on the government's response to the Education Select Committee's report on Ofsted's work with schools, Pepe Di'Iasio, General Secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said:

“The government's response to the call for an alternative to single-phrase judgements is deeply disappointing. Its solution is to ‘consider' the presentation of Ofsted reports rather than the system itself. This is despite all the evidence that these single-phrase judgements are the source of sky-high stress and anxiety, damaging the wellbeing of leaders and teachers, sapping morale and causing many people to leave the profession. They stigmatise schools and colleges making improvement more difficult to secure, and thus they do a disservice to children, parents and communities. The problem is not presentational; it is that the system is fundamentally flawed and must change.”