Ofsted | Schools Week

Northern Education Trust blasted by Ofsted despite taking over ‘untouchable’ schools

An academy trust led by the Trojan Horse investigation boss has been criticised by Ofsted for failing to secure urgent improvements at its academies. A focused review by Ofsted of nine schools managed by the Northern Education Trust (NET), published today, found it had “failed to secure urgent and necessary improvements in too many of […]

Half of UTCs now rated ‘inadequate’ or ‘requires improvement’

More than half of university technical colleges (UTC) visited by Ofsted have been rated “inadequate” or “requires improvement” compared with 10 per cent of schools overall. UTC Swindon, the 20th UTC to be inspected by the education watchdog, received a damning grade four in its report published last week. Only eight have received a “good” […]

Amanda Spielman, chief inspector, Ofsted

Two months into the job and Amanda Spielman, Ofsted’s new chief inspector, has shot out of the traps as you would expect – with research in hand. Criticised by the education select committee for lacking passion, Spielman is well-known for being a data-nerd. As chair of qualifications regulator Ofqual, she zeroed in on making decisions […]

Ofsted drops letters praising ‘exceptional’ heads

Ofsted has dropped a commitment to send letters to headteachers doing an “exceptional turnaround job” at other schools after just one year and only five letters sent. The scheme was introduced by former chief inspector Sir Michael Wilshaw in September 2015 as a way to recognise heads “taking risks, putting themselves out and disseminating good […]

Ofsted ‘double inspection’ pilot thwarted after inspectors ‘spoke frequently’

Ofsted had to beef up safeguards during its double inspection reliability study after inspectors, who were supposed to independently come to final judgments, were found to be discussing their findings, according to a report released by the inspectorate today. The education watchdog has this morning published the findings of its tests on the reliability of […]

Spielman: Inspection reliability study is ‘just first step’ of Ofsted research push

Amanda Spielman has pledged to continue ‘inspecting the inspectors’ as part of a new Ofsted research drive after publishing a landmark reliability study. The education watchdog has this morning published the findings of its reliability study on short inspections – where two inspectors were sent to the same school to see if they gave the […]

DfE funds £1m for Ofsted illegal schools taskforce

The government has committed a further £1 million to fund Ofsted’s team that investigates illegal schools, despite the watchdog still failing to bring a single prosecution against an unregistered school. Initially funded for one year, the illegal schools team was created after former chief inspector Sir Michael Wilshaw last year warned that pupils in hidden […]

Sir Michael Wilshaw joins board of Education Policy Institute

Sir Michael Wilshaw has become a trustee at Education Policy Institute (EPI) following his departure from Ofsted at the end of last year. The former chief inspector has joined the board at EPI, a think tank based in London, at which he has given talks and even spoken critically with regards their reports previously. He swells the […]

Ofsted inspections are unreliable by design

How can we know which schools are good if inspectors are inconsistent and biased and the data is wrong, asks Becky Allen. We want school inspection to be able to tell us where the quality of curriculum and instruction is good. If we could show the psychologists Daniel Kahneman and (the late) Amos Tversky how […]