The national director for education at Ofsted has promised to a find a “sensible middle ground” on the incoming national report card system.
Lee Owston told leaders at the Schools and Academies Show today not to believe everything they read, after Ofsted report card proposals leaked to the press last week.
Proposals leaked to the Financial Times indicated schools could be judged on a sliding five-point scale from ‘exemplary’ to ‘causing concern’, against 10 evaluation areas including teaching, achievement, inclusion and preparation for next steps.
Owston told attendees in Birmingham: “You would expect me to be putting every single option available to me on the table so that I can have a debate with the right individuals, and those elements that sit at the extremes of what we might want to do are dismissed.
“I’m narrowing down all of the time to get to a sensible middle ground, that will not please everybody, but will be a much better inspection system, for the system from September 2025.”
Addressing media reports about Ofsted’s report card plans, he added: “What I can promise you today is that we are definitely not returning to the days of lesson observation and individual grades for members of staff, that is not what we mean by teaching.
“Essentially teaching is just another term, it’s an emotive term, but it’s just another term for what we do currently which is how well are you implementing your curriculum, because to implement your curriculum relies on the teachers and the staff that you have.”
The proposal for separate judgments – including on attendance and teaching – was first revealed by The Telegraph last month.
Ofsted could look more at statutory outcomes
But there are also wider concerns that drilling down into more judgments will make Ofsted more reliant on data, which is something they moved away from under the previous curriculum to focus more on what’s taught as opposed to solely outcomes.
Owston said Ofsted is not returning to a judgment that “purely relies” on statutory outcomes.
But he added: “I think we do need to look more at statutory outcomes than perhaps we do currently under the education inspection framework, because every child deserves to achieve and thrive.”
He said Ofsted wants to ensure its inspections are are consistent as they can be and “shine a stronger spotlight on context without returning to the soft bigotry of low expectations”.
Owston added: “We will introduce report cards, what I can’t give you today is where will those sit, what will they sit alongside.
“What I can say is that we will continue to report our findings from inspection and continue to do so that a way that is accessible for as many audiences as possible, and attempt to provide leaders with even more information to support their context.”
Owston admitted defining inclusion is a “tricky task”.
Ofsted has previously said it will develop a new “criterion” for inclusion in the new inspection report cards, and the National Children’s Bureau (NCB) has been awarded a £90,000 seven-month contract to help it “conceptualise vulnerability and inclusion”.
He said the “current thinking is that is not just special educational needs and or disabilities, although that is a crucial part of it, but there is also an element within there around disadvantaged pupils or those that may be vulnerable for particular reasons”.
Ofsted tool kit in the pipeline
Ofsted are also developing an inspection “tool kit”, Owston added.
This is a “package of resources [used] at the point of inspection, summatively, to reach a range of evaluations, but can also be used by you, formatively, to support school improvement in the years in between inspection.
“So that inspection isn’t additional, it isn’t other than what you already have on your desk as a school leader…”
Owston said Ofsted also has an “ambition” for inspectors to inspect their local schools.
“Who’s the local inspector in your area that you can pick up the phone and talk too?
“Somebody that understands the context in which you work so that they don’t have to repeat that conversation at the point of inspection,” he added.
But won’t be “100 per cent” in place by next September, he said.
As part of this, Ofsted wants to ensure more inspectors have specialist backgrounds to match the school setting they’re inspecting, such as as in SEND or alternative provision.
But Owston said this will take “take time” to recruit and develop Ofsted’s workforce.
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