• Ofsted considers tougher inspection regime for secure training centres

    Ofsted wants to change the way it inspects secure training centres, which educate young offenders up to the age of 17. Run by private companies, the centres provide young people with 30 hours of education and training a week, following a school-day timetable. There are currently three secure training centres across the country, but none…

    17.56 Jul. 17th, 2018 | News

  • Ofsted DOES care about the early years

    There is much more to Ofsted’s engagement with the early years sector than the chief inspector’s visits to individual providers, argues Gill Jones At Ofsted, we know it’s imperative that young children get off to a good start when they begin primary school. Once they’re behind, it’s very difficult for them to catch up later.…

    16.53 Jul. 6th, 2018 | Opinion

  • Ofsted requires improvement – but how do we get there?

    Ofsted’s name is mud this week. Amanda Spielman’s speech at last week’s Festival of Education went down like a lead balloon after she announced that grades for overall school effectiveness are “not effort grades”. Then she suggested that schools in white working class areas get lower grades partly because local families may not have the…

    5.00 Jun. 29th, 2018 | Opinion

  • Still no sign of the delayed 'healthy schools' rating scheme

    The government still doesn’t know when proposals for a ‘healthy schools’ rating scheme will come to fruition, 10 months after it was supposed to start in primary schools. The plan was first mooted in the government’s child obesity action plan in 2016, and it was supposed to be up and running in schools by last…

    11.17 Jun. 25th, 2018 | News

  • Set up ‘Teach First-style’ scheme for school mental health specialists, says report

    A scheme modelled on Teach First should be set up in schools to train mental health specialists to work with young people, research has suggested. The training would involve learning how to manage problems that children face at school such as “bullying, exam stress and low moods”. Proposed in a new joint report from school…

    0.01 Jun. 21st, 2018 | News

  • Dorset school told to improve or have funding withdrawn

    A Dorset multi academy trust has been warned that one of its schools will have its funding agreement terminated if it does not improve on a damning Ofsted inspection. Lisa Mannall, the regional schools commissioner for the south-west, has written to the Twynham Learning multi-academy trust, after The Grange School in Christchurch was rated ‘inadequate’ with…

    17.57 Jun. 11th, 2018 | News

  • Ofsted attempts parental charm offensive

    Ofsted wants to make its inspection reports more accessible to parents because they are its “most important education stakeholders”, according to a senior official. Amy Finch, its head of strategic development, said this week that when Ofsted’s new framework comes into effect from September 2019, it will improve parental communication by using clearer language in…

    16.09 May. 25th, 2018 | News

  • Troubled UCAT trust to shed four schools after finances warning

    Four schools run by the troubled University of Chester Academies Trust (UCAT) will be rebrokered to new sponsors following the intervention of a government schools commissioner. Christine Quinn, the regional schools commissioner for the West Midlands, has “agreed with the trust to initially rebroker four schools” in order to “release capacity”, according to a parliamentary written…

    12.07 May. 25th, 2018 | News

  • Amanda Spielman's Ofsted moves away from 'male-dominated' culture

    Ofsted’s next inspection framework will promote a more “collaborative” approach to leadership, in a move away from the “male-dominated” culture of the watchdog’s past, a senior inspector has said. According to Gill Jones, Ofsted’s deputy director for early education, Amanda Spielman has sought to steer the organisation’s approach to rating school leadership away from the legacy…

    13.26 May. 18th, 2018 | News

  • Catholic academy trust tackled weaknesses 'at a brisk pace'

    Ofsted inspectors have praised improvements at the Romero Catholic Multi Academy Company after visiting all eight of its schools. Seven primary schools and one secondary run by the Coventry academy trust were visited in March as part of a focused inspection. Inspectors said the trust had tackled previously identified weaknesses “at a brisk pace”, and commended…

    10.45 May. 14th, 2018 | News

  • Safeguarding, fire safety and segregation: DfE releases 27 new private school warning notices

    The government has published the latest batch of warning notices issued to underperforming private schools. Among other transgressions, it found two schools where boys and girls were treated differently enough to affect their personal development, as well as failure to comply with fire safety regulations, and a room used by a special school to calm…

    13.33 Apr. 27th, 2018 | News