Welcome News as Schools Begin New Academic Year🎉

One and two-word OFSTED judgements for schools have been scrapped by the government, with immediate effect. The news has been widely welcomed by education professionals across the country, as the school year starts anew.  📚

Change was needed

Seen by many as being too blunt an instrument to be of any real use, the single-word system would judge a school to be either “outstanding,” “good,” “requires improvement” or “inadequate.” This will be replaced by a report card system, which should grade schools across four separate areas: behaviour, quality of education, leadership and personal development. The new system aims to give parents a clearer understanding of what a school is really like and will continue to hold schools to high levels of accountability.

Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson has said that intervention will still take place when a school is deemed to be “inadequate” in any one of the four areas. This intervention could still include forcing schools to become academies. The government will not, however, directly intervene where two or more consecutive “requires improvement” judgements are made. This will now result in additional help being given from an appropriate high-performing school.

Gone too will be the push to replace a school’s management when it is seen as struggling. Instead, the DfE has said it will put in place plans to improve the education and experience of children in struggling schools.

“A generational reform”

Speaking on Radio 4’s Today programme, Ms Phillipson said: “The removal of headline grades is a generational reform and a landmark moment for children, parents and teachers. Single-headline grades are low information for parents and high stakes for schools. Parents deserve a much clearer, much broader picture of how schools are performing – that’s what our report cards will provide.”

The scrapping of single-word whole school judgements was, in part, prompted by the tragic death of Ruth Perry, who took her own life following a downgrading of her primary school’s OFSTED rating. Her sister, Professor Julia Waters, welcomed the news.

“We are delighted and relieved that the government has decided to take this important and long-overdue step,” she said. “They [the grades] are unpopular with parents and teachers, and their simplistic impact has made the daily job of improving school standards harder for everyone except the bureaucrats.”

The new system will be introduced to state schools first, with independent schools, colleges and children’s social care providers to follow.