Ofsted may postpone the roll-out of its new school inspections until 2026, Schools Week can reveal.
While the proposal is only on the table and no decision has been made, it comes after the inspectorate promised wider changes to its inspections amid fierce backlash from the sector.
Ofsted plans to introduce new report cards, with schools graded on 11 evaluation areas using a five-point grading scale.
A public consultation that ended last week garnered more than 6,000 responses.
Ofsted plans to publish a report on its findings in summer, before rolling out the new framework in November.
Many in the sector have said the timeframe is unrealistic – giving schools little time to digest changes and Ofsted little time to trial their approach.
Schools Week understands Ofsted is now considering pushing back the introduction of routine school report card inspections until January.
This would give more breathing space for the inspectorate to consider feedback, fine tune its plans and for the sector to get to grips with reforms.
Ofsted did not want to comment.
Concessions
The inspectorate has already confirmed it is making a series of other concessions following feedback to its consultation and pilot inspections.
It is working to clarify the difference between the middle ‘secure’ grade and higher ‘strong’ grade, following confusion.
As revealed by Schools Week, it is also looking at renaming the ‘secure’ grade. Other changes being considered are reducing the overlap between evaluation areas and simplifying grading.
In March, the school leaders’ union ASCL floated an alternative proposal for a three-point grading scale, and for inspections to not be reintroduced until 2026.
NASUWT has also called for the timeframe to be extended “to allow for meaningful consultation with the profession”.
Its general secretary Dr Patrick Roach said there must be “adequate piloting and testing of the proposals, including examination of their implications for workload and wellbeing”.
Last week, union leaders, former inspectors and sector experts joined Ruth Perry’s sister Julia Waters in calling for delays to “get change right”.
Chief inspector Sir Martyn Oliver previously said Ofsted would “respond to what the consultation tells us” and “will not do anything as a fait accompli”.
Update: After Schools Week’s story, Ofsted wrote to inspectors to say they are likely to publish their consultation response “a little later than we’d hoped”.
They claimed “it’s not the case that we are looking to delay the start of inspections”, but said discussions with the DfE are still ongoing.
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