Nearly two thirds of respondents to a consultation set up to rival Ofsted’s own on inspection reforms said the changes were actually worse than the current framework.
The ‘Alternative Big Consultation’ (ABC) was carried out by former senior HMIs Colin Richards and Frank Norris to gather responses to the inspectorate’s plans.
More than 700 people responded, with questions largely mirroring Ofsted’s own.
Just one in 10 (11%) felt Ofsted’s proposals would be an improvement on the current inspection framework, while 90% felt its proposed five-point grading system was either “largely unfit” or “unfit” for purpose.
“This is a damning judgement on the current set of proposals,” said the report.
The former HMIs behind the consultation have now called for Ofsted to take a “substantial pause”, rather than pushing ahead with plan to roll out its reforms in autumn.
They say there is “a strong case for a total re-evaluation of inspection policy and practice”.
One in 10 think Ofsted proposals mark improvement
The ABC report shows just one in 10 respondents (11%) believe Ofsted’s proposals are an improvement on the current framework, while 63 per cent believed them to be worse.
Respondents also widely dismissed the proposed new ‘report cards’, which will see schools rated from ‘causing concern’, through ‘attention needed’, ‘secure’ and ‘strong’, to ‘exemplary’ across up to 11 different judgment areas.
Eighty-eight per cent of respondents deemed the report cards “unfit” or “largely unfit” for purpose.
In comments accompanying the survey, some expressed concern about how inspectors could reach a judgement on all 11 aspects of a school’s work within a two-day inspection.
The vast majority of respondents (90%) rejected Ofsted’s proposed five-point grading system, with nearly two-thirds judging it “unfit for purpose”.
Concerns over ‘exemplary’ policy
Ofsted’s approach to its new ‘exemplary’ grade was particularly criticised, with 92 per cent of respondents branding it either “unfit for purpose” or “largely unfit for purpose”. This marked the highest level of dissatisfaction in any part of the consultation.
Under Ofsted’s proposal, a school can be considered ‘exemplary’ in an evaluation area if it is consistently strong in all aspects of that area, and at least ‘secure’ across all other areas.
Inspectors can only recommend a school gets an exemplary rating. This will then be “moderated and confirmed” by a “national quality and consistency panel”.
Respondents also widely criticised the new inspection toolkits, with 85 per cent deeming them largely unfit, or unfit for purpose, while 88% felt the same way about Ofsted’s plan to increase monitoring inspections at under-performing schools.
Those answering also “made clear in their comments that Ofsted was tinkering with, rather than radically changing its policies and practices,” said the ABC report.
The report does not specify how many parents, teachers, and school leaders responded.
But it says there was “little discernible difference in dissatisfaction levels to Ofsted’s proposals” across the various groups.
The ABC results come after a YouGov poll of more than 1,000 parents last month found 67% preferred new report cards to current Ofsted reports. The inspectorate’s proposals have gone down badly with teachers and school leaders however, according to separate polls.
Ofsted’s own official consultation runs until April 28, and has already had more than 5,000 responses. A full report is due to be published in the summer.
The report acknowledged the “limitations” of the ABC, which it said is not statistically representative, as those responding to it are “self-selecting”.
Responding to the report, an Ofsted spokesperson said: “The consultation on our proposals for education inspection is open until April 28 and I would urge anyone with an interest to participate at gov.uk/ofsted. To date more than 5,000 people have had their say.”
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