Ofsted wants to change the way it presents statistics about school inspections, including re-adding the past grades of turnaround academies, which Schools Week recently highlighted were being scrapped from the record.
A consultation published this morning states that Ofsted wants to make the changes to its statistics in order to make its data more comprehensive and accessible. The plans do not change the timing of inspections, the use of data during inspections, nor the look of Ofsted reports.
One proposal is to include the previous ratings of schools which become an academy or are taken over by a new sponsor, wherever possible.
The change would mean a two-point decrease in the percentage of ‘good’ or ‘outstanding’ primary schools, and a three-percentage-point decrease among secondary schools. Combined, the drop will be two percentage points.
In July, Schools Week revealed that over 700 schools were missing Ofsted grades after their records were wiped when they converted to become academies.
At the national level, Ofsted plans to report statistics showing performance by school type in a slightly different way, which will disaggregate between schools that have been inspected in their current guise and those that have not.
The consultation also proposes removing University Technical Colleges and studio schools from the “sponsor-led academy” label, and giving them their own category. This will enable comparison of these vocational schools with other mainstream schools.
It also suggests changing the phrase “maintained schools and academies” to “state-funded schools” in order to simplify the language.
No matter what label is stuck on University Technology Colleges and Studio Schools – there are far too few of them to make a meaningful comparison with other types of school.