At Ofsted, we believe that if schools get it right for the most disadvantaged and vulnerable children, as well as those with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND), then they’ll get it right for all children. Amid the challenges facing the sector, this principle is more important than ever, and it is at the heart of the proposals we are consulting on.
These proposals draw together all the feedback we heard in the Big Listen, our largest ever consultation. It returned a clear message from parents and professionals that the overall effectiveness grade should be removed. However, opinions differed on what should replace it.
The proposed report cards aim to bring all of these views together. They will give parents the greater level of detail and nuance they told us they want, alongside clear school evaluations.
Encouragingly, a poll conducted by More in Common found that 82 per cent of parents find the proposed system easy to understand and 65 per cent prefer it to the previous model.
In addition, we believe that providing more information about different areas of a school’s work will reduce the pressure of inspection on school leaders, because we won’t be aggregating everything that they do under a few headline grades.
The Big Listen also gathered the views of over 4,000 children, who ranked support for pupils with SEND among their top five inspection priorities.
That’s one reason why we’re proposing to make inclusion a key focus of all inspections. Like them, we want to really understand what leaders are doing to create a culture in which every child feels welcomed, safe and valued.
Inclusion is a brand-new evaluation area that we will look at in its own right. However, the experience and outcomes for disadvantaged and/or vulnerable children and those with SEND will also be a golden thread that runs through all evaluation areas of every aspect of provision.
To show schools how we’ll do this, we’ve created a new toolkit that clearly sets out the standards inspectors will evaluate in each area. High up the list for each are features of inclusive practice.
Learners with SEND will always be at the heart of our inspections
For example, we’re proposing that inspectors evaluate whether the curriculum and teaching are inclusive, with a culture where teachers have high aspirations for all their pupils and make necessary adaptations to help them overcome barriers to learning.
Inspectors will also consider how approaches to areas like behaviour, attendance or personal development support everyone to feel they belong.
Our toolkits set out how we propose to hold providers to account for ensuring inclusive education, including achieving strong outcomes for disadvantaged pupils and those who leaders have identified as being particularly vulnerable – taking into account that the factors that make a child vulnerable may vary across different settings and at different times in their lives.
We also recognise that some pupils’ progress may be variable. Therefore, inspectors will want to understand the personalised approach a school is taking to meeting individual pupils’ needs, and the impact this is having on their outcomes in the broadest sense: academic, personal and social.
These toolkits have all been informed by our working definition of inclusion, which we have developed with the sector and our inclusion external reference group. We welcome any views on this working definition.
The toolkits focus on what we know impacts positively on children and young people, including those with SEND. For example, we have highlighted the importance of the SEND coordinator (SENDCo) and the importance of a graduated approach to identifying and supporting children’s needs.
This focus means that learners with SEND will always be at the heart of our inspections, no matter what stage of their education they’re at or where they receive it.
We’ve also heard criticism that our current framework only offers a one-size-fits all approach to inspection and does not always work as well as it could for some types of provider. That’s why we’ve been working very closely with the sector and with our external reference groups to make sure that our inspection toolkits support evaluation in all types of settings, and to test our plans.
The result, we believe, is a model of inspection that is more focused on disadvantaged and vulnerable children, and those with SEND, whether they attend a mainstream school, a special school, or an alternative provision setting.
We are determined that our reforms will help shine a spotlight on the experiences and outcomes of children with SEND. So we encourage school leaders, teachers, staff and all of those who work in the SEND system to share their thoughts so that we can refine and improve our plans to meet that ambition.
The consultation closes at 11:59pm on 28 April 2025. Respond here
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