Ofsted chief inspector Sir Martyn Oliver has pushed back against calls for the watchdog to give schools one of three grades, instead of one of five as planned.
His comments come after headteachers’ leaders proposed reducing the number of grades that Ofsted is planning to give schools in its new inspection report card from five to three.
The Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL) suggested that Ofsted should grade schools as either “causing concern”, “attention needed” or “secure” in each of the watchdog’s evaluation areas.
But responding to the suggestion in a speech today, Sir Martyn said he did not want Ofsted to say that when a school has met the required standard, “that’s good enough”.
Defence of Ofsted’s planned inspection grades
Speaking at an event at the City of London, he said the “secure” grade that Ofsted is proposing would recognise when schools are meeting the standards expected of them.
Sir Martyn added: “I know there are some who want us to stop there and to say, ‘This school has met the required standard, and that’s good enough.’
“I don’t want to just say, ‘That’s good enough.’ I don’t think parents want to hear that. And I don’t think leaders and governors, like many of you, really want to say that either. I don’t think that sort of model benefits children, helps parents or drives higher standards.”
The chief inspector defended the plan to move to a system of five inspection grades: “causing concern”, “attention needed”, “secure”, “strong” and “exemplary”.
He said: “We are proposing to have two additional grades above ‘secure.’ We are proposing a ‘strong’ grade for those not just meeting the core standards but going beyond them. Schools will achieve this in areas where they’re really excelling for their children.
“And then we are proposing a new top grade of ‘exemplary’. This will be for truly exceptional practice; for a school or other provider doing something that we believe is worthy of national recognition, that others can learn from or be inspired by.”
Sir Martyn said, through these grades, Ofsted will encourage schools to always seek to improve.
Ofsted is currently consulting on a new inspection framework and report card system, which is set to be used in schools from November this year.
Under the plans, schools will no longer get an overall single-word effectiveness grade: schools will instead be rated across as many as 11 evaluation areas, using the five-point grading scale.
The consultation is due to end on 28 April.
Last week ASCL warned that the plans would leave school leaders in a worse position than they are in now. In its consultation response, the union called on the government and Ofsted to delay the introduction of new inspections.
It suggested moving to a “3+ point scale’” for each evaluation area that Ofsted inspects, rating schools as “causing concern”, “attention needed” or “secure”.
Ofsted is consulting on inspecting schools across at least nine evaluation areas, eight of which would be graded on the five-point scale, with a binary judgement of “met” or “not met” for 51.
There would be nine main evaluation areas, as well as a grade for early years and for sixth-form provision, for schools that have these.
Sir Martyn told his audience that the inspectorate wanted to avoid having a “double jeopardy situation” whereby one issue - such as bullying - has a knock-on effect across a number of inspection areas.
“Let me give you an example: an issue about bullying could impact leadership and management, 51, the quality of education, specifically the curriculum, personal development and behaviour and attitudes,” he said.
“But it is entirely possible that it was a behavioural management issue alone and it should be treated as such. So, as much as possible, we want to isolate our areas and shine a laser-like focus on just them.”
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