Ofsted | Schools Week

Hijabs are none of Ofsted’s business

Schools should be safe spaces – allowing outside authority figures to probe young girls’ choice of religious expression is precisely the wrong approach to take, argues Zubeda Limbada Last week, Amanda Spielman recommended that Ofsted inspectors in England should question Muslim primary school girls who wear a headscarf. She wants to tackle situations in which […]

Private schools to face further hike in inspection fees

Plans to hike the fees small private schools must pay Ofsted are just the start of a programme of increased costs, according to a leading civil servant. Last month, non-association private schools reacted unhappily when the inspectorate announced it would consult on increasing what it charges to inspect them. Some could face paying £3,800 more […]

Youth inspectors – a radical proposal to shake up Ofsted

Students and teachers alike know the lie behind their schools’ “Ofsted lessons”, says Isreal Genius, who wants to implement peer inspections As the focus on grades increases and school budgets decrease, we have all experienced the phenomenon of schools shifting their focus from learning to passing. In this instance, I’m not talking about GCSEs or […]

Ofsted: Small private school leaders don’t know how to improve teaching

Small private schools are not failing Ofsted inspections because they refuse to teach British values, as the media has suggested, but because their leaders are often unqualified and don’t know how to improve teaching. Ofsted is responsible for inspecting 1,080 non-association private schools, schools that don’t belong to a membership organisation like the Independent Schools […]

Ofsted plans MAT inspection changes from 2018

Ofsted wants to change the way it inspects multi-academy trusts (MATs) from September 2018, according to a senior inspector. Stephen McMullan told the annual conference of the National Co-ordinators of Governor Services in Grantham today that the watchdog was “considering” new ways of inspecting and evaluating MATs. These changes could be implemented as soon as next year. At the […]

Ofsted wipes academy convertor reports after 5 years

A state-school campaign group wants Ofsted to make reports on schools that convert into academies to become accessible “in perpetuity”, rather than removing them from its website after five years. Schools that become academies after December 2013 have previous Ofsted reports wiped from the web five years after they convert. For those that converted before […]

Ofsted is right about the knowledge-rich curriculum

The inspectorate doesn’t always get things right, says Mark Lehain, but its latest review is important Ofsted gets a lot of hate from teachers. It’s just so easy to blame it, and wish it wasn’t there, especially when school leaders cry “it’s what Ofsted wants” when introducing a new initiative. (Spoiler alert: it isn’t.) While I […]

Will short inspections solve the Ofsted problem?

The watchdog’s new consultation on short inspections needed to be much further-reaching, says to Colin Richards Almost all schools and inspections are “-ish”. Only a few schools are clearly and uncontroversially ‘outstanding’, and only a few are undoubtedly ‘inadequate’. The vast majority are ‘good’-ish or ‘requiring improvement’-ish. Inspection is not a science but an art; […]

Ofsted to inspect outstanding schools more often (and bring back themed reports)

Ofsted is bringing back its “state-of-the-nation” reports and will inspect more ‘outstanding’ schools, according to a new corporate strategy released today on its 25th anniversary. In its new five-year corporate strategy that will run until 2022, the inspectorate says it will publish more “national survey reports and research” that “aggregate the insights from inspections”. These […]