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More than nine in 10 school leaders (92 per cent) have rejected Ofsted’s plans to introduce a five-point graded judgements across eight to 10 different areas in its new report cards.

A snap poll by the NAHT school leaders’ union also found that almost all respondents did not think Ofsted will make meaningful changes as a result of the consultation launched this week.

Ofsted is set to close its consultation at the end of April and plans to launch its new inspections from November this year, but the NAHT is now urging it to go back to the drawing board to rethink its plans.

The poll, launched the day after Ofsted made its announcements, has attracted more than 3,000 responses including more than 1,900 individual free text comments citing concerns - totalling more than 100 pages - in under 48 hours.

‘Lengthening the stick to beat us with’

One leader said: ‘They have done incredibly well to make a stressful and blunt approach to school inspection even more stressful and blunt. It will increase inconsistency, drive up workload and create exponentially more stress on headteachers and leaders.”

Another said: “I cannot see how this new inspection model will have any positive impact on schools and especially the pressure faced by leaders. Feels like lengthening the stick to beat us with.”

Ofsted launched a consultation on Monday for a new framework and report card system which would see schools be graded across at least eight areas on a five-point scale.

These are: achievement, behaviour and attitudes, leadership and governance, curriculum, developing teaching, personal development and wellbeing, attendance, inclusion and 51����. Where applicable, schools will also be rated on their sixth form and early years.

Under the plans, schools would be given one of five grades for each of these categories apart from 51����, for which there would be a binary judgement of either “met” or “not met”.

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• Linked: What are inspectors set to judge schools on?
• Interview: Sir Martyn Oliver defends report card plan

The grades that Ofsted is proposing to award are: causing concern, attention needed, secure, strong and exemplary. Overall single word judgements will not be given to schools.

NAHT general secretary Paul Whiteman said: “When these proposals were leaked at the end of last year, we warned that they would not work. Rather than rethinking the plans, Ofsted is pressing ahead with a model that has attracted almost universal criticism.

“Ofsted needs to go back to the drawing board, urgently reconsider these ill-thought-through plans, and listen to the profession.”

The Department for Education has also announced plans for how its Regional Improvement for Standards and Excellence (RISE) teams will use Ofsted findings to trigger its intervention in schools.

It has appointed 20 advisers to start work on the programme and has on how these teams will work in the future. Its work will be targeted at “stuck schools” and those classed as requiring significant improvement under Ofsted’s new inspection framework.

An Ofsted spokesperson said: “We want our inspections to raise standards for all children and provide better information for parents. And it’s vital they are also useful and workable for education leaders, and inspectors. We would encourage everyone to look at our detailed proposals and respond to the consultation.”

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