School inspection shake up announced
The Schools Minister has announced that the Ofsted system will be changed to more frequent but “lighter touch” inspections.
In a written statement David Miliband said that the chief inspector, David Bell, and the Department for Education have agreed a simplified inspection scheme which will “reduce bureaucracy and deliver an intelligent accountability framework.
“This new relationship will put a premium on ensuring effective and ongoing self-evaluation in every school combined with sharper edged, lighter touch, but no less rigorous external inspection.” he said.
Future inspections will be shorter, but at more frequent intervals, with schools being given two to five working days notice, compared with the current six to ten weeks.
The DfES claims that trials of the new process has shown “a stronger link between school improvement and the reports produced by inspectors.”
Reaction from the education community has been mixed.
The general secretary of the Secondary Heads Association (SHA), Dr John Dunford, said: “I strongly welcome the Government’s adoption of the notion of intelligent accountability, as set out by the Secondary Heads Association last year. Heads now look for a more intelligent approach to measuring school performance than publishing league tables of the proportion of pupils gaining five high grade GCSE passes.”
“SHA has long advocated quality assurance of schools, with inspection as a validation of school self-evaluation. For this reason, we welcome the new inspection proposals, which represent a more constructive and professional system than the present visit by a large team of part-time contracted inspectors.”
Dr Dunford is however concerned that there are no proposals for changing the terminology of “special measures” and “serious weaknesses” in discussing schools, claiming these are “redolent of the Woodhead era of punitive inspection.
“SHA proposed that inspectors should report such schools as ‘causing concern’ and ‘subject to re-inspection’. We are very strongly opposed to schools being placed in special measures after one very brief visit by a small number of inspectors.”
The head of education at the NUT said that the fundamental problems with schools inspections have not been addressed.
John Bangs argued: “The high stakes nature of inspections has not changed. No matter how much the Government claims to trust schools, these changes do not reflect that trust.
“Schools and individual teachers still face the prospect of failure based on a narrow focus.
“There seems to be no reduction in the paper work demanded, just less time for the schools to prepare it. This will force schools to re-focus their attention on to the inspection when the education of their pupils should be at the centre of their work.
“The pressure can only lead to further demoralisation among teachers.”
