Ofsted | Schools Week

11 Things You Might Have Missed In Ofsted’s ‘Most Able Students’ Report

Headlines today are focusing on Ofsted’s disappointment at schools over the progress of ‘most able’ students. Having a go at schools is an easy soundbite. It gets onto tv, it gives teachers a ‘kick’, it plays well to people who feel their child’s genius isn’t adequately recognised. But the soundbite misses out the 34 pages […]

The year the government remembered its duty of care

The end of Michael Gove’s reign as education secretary was the major educational event of the year. Most teachers and school leaders welcomed the departure of this most ideological of politicians. His successor, Nicky Morgan, moved quickly to repair relations with teachers and launched the workload challenge. Just in time before an election, the government […]

8 Things You Might Have Missed in Ofsted’s Annual Report

At 9.30am yesterday Michael Wilshaw launched Ofsted’s Annual Report. As ever, there were pre-arranged sound bites and heavily suggested take-away points. But if you dig down into the report (and its regional ones) there are a few extra nuggets that you may have missed. 1.Too many academies do not receive effective challenge and support […]

Should Ofsted police extremism?

Ofsted should be clear what constitutes extremism and how “British values” can be measured before inspectors start making judgments There is a new duty on college and schools to prevent individuals being drawn into terrorism; organisations repeatedly inviting extremist speakers or failing in this duty will need to respond to ministerial directions. The threat of […]

Schools Week editorials

Edition six editorial Ofsted ditches inspector who copied reports After presenting Ofsted with irrefutable evidence of recycled reports from inspections less than six months ago, they have sacked the inspector. Additional [contracted] inspectors have been caught doing this before and have been sacked. But what is truly shocking about this latest copy-and-paste story is Ofsted knew he […]

Parents look beyond Ofsted’s result when choosing childcare

Ofsted is consulting on a single inspection framework covering all education institutions but Sue Cowley argues they are not in a position to say how early years settings should be run. Instead, they should focus on being a good regulator As someone who volunteers in an early years setting and works with schools, I am […]

Ofsted plan for shorter and more frequent ‘risk-based’ inspections

Ofsted’s chief inspector has set out plans for “frequent but shorter” inspections for good schools and colleges from next September. Speaking yesterday, Sir Michael Wilshaw (pictured) launched an eight week consultation on reforms (click here) to the inspectorate intended to “maintain and accelerate” improved educational standards in England. Sir Michael said: “Most schools and colleges […]

Should we care about no notice inspections?

In 2009, Ofsted trialled no notice inspections. This week they announced a second attempt. Liam Collins explains some unexpected problems of this idea. Earlier this week, when Sir Michael Wilshaw announced Ofsted would be trialling 40 no notice school inspections, I wasn’t shocked or surprised or worried. I was actually quite bored by it. The […]