Ofsted | Schools Week

Experienced teachers less likely to trust Ofsted, and five more attitude survey findings

Teachers are less likely to trust Ofsted the longer they have worked in schools, a new survey has found. The annual Ofsted attitude teacher survey, published today, also found that seven in 10 teachers think the watchdog exists to push the government’s agenda, but found that inspections are getting friendlier. The online survey, run by […]

How schools can develop a strong curriculum

Ofsted recently announced it will introduce a new focus on how schools plan their curriculum. We look at what the watchdog has said so far, how inspectors have been involved in curriculum in the past, and ask some experts: how can schools make sure they’re building a strong curriculum? Ofsted’s delegation to the recent Festival […]

Wilshaw’s £15k bonus, and 6 more Ofsted annual report findings

Sir Michael Wilshaw was awarded a bonus of at least £15,000 in his final year as chief inspector, despite Ofsted having to make savings to meet a shrinking budget. Ofsted has this morning published its annual report and accounts. It shows Wilshaw was given a bonus of between £15,000 to £20,000, with chief operating officer […]

Ofsted gives 700 sponsored academies a fresh start

The Ofsted ratings of more than 700 schools have been wiped clean after becoming an academy or rebrokering, a Schools Week analysis reveals. There are hundreds of thousands of pupils in these sponsored academies, many of which were categorised as underperforming by the education watchdog before having their Ofsted grades removed. Ofsted classifies failing schools […]

Schools must plan curriculum and be able to show inspectors, says Harford

Schools will need to show they have “designed” their curriculum and whether it helps pupils to be upwardly socially mobile, says Sean Harford, Ofsted’s national director of education. He said Ofsted would increasingly look for evidence of “strategic decision-making” in a school’s curriculum, something that was likely to form part of a new common inspection […]

Ofsted reveals plan to give schools up to 15 days’ notice of inspections

Schools could be given up to 15 days to prepare for follow-up Ofsted visits under proposed changes to new short inspections. The watchdog has launched a consultation on proposals to shake-up the short inspection model, which was launched in September 2015 and involves one to two-day-long inspections for schools previously rated as good. It follows […]

Ofsted inspectors receive no training on secondary moderns

Ofsted inspectors have received no training on secondary modern schools, despite them operating in some of the toughest conditions in the country. Laurence Reilly, a headteacher who is also an Ofsted inspector, said HMIs had not been trained to recognise a “secondary modern” as a non-selective school sitting within a selective area. His comments at […]

Former university leader appointed new Ofsted chair

A former university vice-chancellor has been appointed as the new chair of education watchdog Ofsted. Professor Julius Weinberg will replace the current interim chair James Kempton, education secretary Justine Greening announced today. She said Weinberg, who will now step down from his current role as Ofqual’s deputy chair, brings a “wide range of experience from […]

Ofsted considers tracking Facebook and Twitter to check on schools

Ofsted is considering tracking pupils’ and parents’ social media pages to help decide which schools need an intervention. But experts say that data from platforms such as Facebook and Twitter is “unreliable” and not a good basis for working towards the evidence-based practice that the inspectorate has committed to. The education watchdog included the novel […]