Ofsted has set out a renewed approach to education inspection that will give parents better and more detailed information, is fairer on professionals, and – crucially – will help raise standards for all children.
Summary
- New 5-point grading scale, including the new ‘exceptional’ grade, designed to raise standards, confirmed following support from parents.
- Parents and carers to receive the detailed information about nurseries, schools and colleges they’ve asked for, with strengths and areas for improvement highlighted.
- Schools and colleges with identified areas for improvement to receive additional monitoring inspections, to ensure swift improvements are made.
- Nurseries and childminders to be inspected more frequently, to ensure all children receive the best start in life.
- Disadvantaged and vulnerable children at the heart of reforms, with a focus on ‘inclusion’ in every inspection.
- Increased focus on professionals’ well-being and workload through a more collaborative approach to inspection.
Inspectors will award grades on a 5-point scale across a wider range of areas, providing parents with more granularity and nuance about a provider’s performance and helping to raise standards for children and learners.
The very best practice across early years (EY), schools, further education (FE) and skills, and initial teacher education (ITE) will be recognised with a new ‘exceptional’ grade – indicating other providers could learn from it.
Independent polling from YouGov showed strong parental support for the new approach to grading. Almost 7 out of 10 of parents surveyed said they prefer the new-look report cards to Ofsted’s current inspection reports. Just 15% said they preferred the old system. And nearly 9 out of 10 parents said the report cards are easy to understand.
Following feedback from parents and education professionals, the 5 grades have been renamed ‘urgent improvement’, ‘needs attention’, ‘expected standard’, ‘strong standard’, and the new highest grade of ‘exceptional’.
Read the full and detailed Ofsted press release here.