Opinion: Accountability

What East of England school leaders are saying about Ofsted

The Suffolk Primary Heads' Association's research reveals some pretty damning feedback about Ofsted's framework and inspections, says Rebecca Leek

The Suffolk Primary Heads' Association's research reveals some pretty damning feedback about Ofsted's framework and inspections, says Rebecca Leek

29 May 2023, 5:00

The medical profession has now added its voice to the wide-ranging calls for reform relating to Ofsted that erupted following the death of headteacher, Ruth Perry. An article published by the BMJ this week reports an ‘almost complete loss of confidence in Ofsted’.

As school leaders in the East of England, we felt it important to undertake a structured inquiry to explore perceptions of Ofsted to discern common themes. A survey for leaders was designed by CEOs, headteachers and leads of headteacher associations. It was piloted with a range of professionals including Ofsted inspectors to ensure clarity and objectivity before being shared more widely.

We received 528 responses and have summarised the findings in a report. The participants are broadly reflective of the education sector as a whole, with a ratio of 1:4 secondary to primary colleagues. Special school and early years leaders were represented, 95 per cent of respondents were or had been headteachers and 53 per cent had led teams through an inspection under the current framework.

The ‘loss of confidence’ the BMJ refers to is unequivocally evident throughout the data. Responses are overwhelmingly negative and demonstrate a profession articulating deep dissatisfaction with the impact of the current inspection framework.

Using an effectiveness scale, we asked leaders to rate Ofsted on three areas that were cited as the core purpose of inspections in the last parliamentary review of the regulatory body. These relate to accountability, school improvement and providing information for parents. We used a seven-point scale, ranging from extremely effective to not at all effective.

The overall mean score was 1.8 (largely ineffective) with only 3.4 per cent of leaders judging the effectiveness of Ofsted as largely or extremely effective in all three areas. The lowest effectiveness rating related to whether Ofsted provides parents with the information they need to compare schools on a consistent basis. The mode here was 0 (not at all effective).

The responses articulate a deep dissatisfaction

Lack of consistency is the most common thread across the data. This was apparent in open-text answers and in descriptions of incidents during inspections.

‘Inconsistent’ was also the word with the highest occurrence in answer to this question: If you were judging the overall effectiveness of Ofsted in meeting the aims above, what three words would you use? Nineteen per cent of answers included the word inconsistent. The next three most highly occurring words were: inadequate (18 per cent), requires improvement (17 per cent) and ineffective (14 per cent). Even the 2 per cent of respondents who stated they had no concerns with Ofsted in answer to another question used words like ‘stressful’ and ‘misaligned’, alongside ‘professional’ and ‘detailed’.

When asked to select their top three concerns from a list (including an option for ‘no concerns’), the top four were ‘one-word judgements’ (57 per cent), ‘reliability’ (43 per cent), ‘limiting judgements’ (38 per cent) and ‘impact on schools during inspection’ (34 per cent).

We also asked respondents to give their thoughts in just ten words on an inspection system that would raise standards and improve lives, as Ofsted’s tagline says it does.

Answers included: professional and supportive dialogue, a robust complaints procedure, and a reflection on other countries’ systems with ‘high-trust, low-stakes’ approaches. The ‘one-word judgement’ issue came through again and again, as did ‘unpredictability’, the strain of timeframes and the stress this causes.

These results contradict in no uncertain terms Amanda Spielman’s claim during her April interview with Laura Kuennsberg that “we get plenty of feedback to say that inspection is a constructive professional dialogue”.

In the East of England at least, this survey provides evidence of ‘an almost complete loss of confidence in Ofsted’. The unwillingness from Ofsted to engage with the sector at large, despite the mounting evidence that the system does more harm than good, is of great concern to the profession.

Latest education roles from

IT Technician

IT Technician

Harris Academy Morden

Teacher of Geography

Teacher of Geography

Harris Academy Orpington

Lecturer/Assessor in Electrical

Lecturer/Assessor in Electrical

South Gloucestershire and Stroud College

Director of Management Information Systems (MIS)

Director of Management Information Systems (MIS)

South Gloucestershire and Stroud College

Exams Assistant

Exams Assistant

Richmond and Hillcroft Adult & Community College

Lecturer Electrical Installation

Lecturer Electrical Installation

Solihull College and University Centre

Sponsored posts

Sponsored post

It’s Education’s Time to Shine: Celebrate your Education Community in 2025!

The deadline is approaching to nominate a colleague, team, whole school or college for the 2025 Pearson National Teaching...

SWAdvertorial
Sponsored post

Navigating NPQ Funding Cuts: An Apprenticeship Success Story

Last year’s NPQ funding cuts meant that half of England’s teachers faced costs of up to £4,000 to complete...

SWAdvertorial
Sponsored post

Embedding Formative Assessment: not just a box-ticking exercise but something long-term and meaningful for all

Our EFA programme has been proven to help schools achieve better GCSE results, as evidenced by the EEF. Find...

SWAdvertorial
Sponsored post

Building capacity in family support to tackle low school attendance 

Persistent and severe school absence impacts children, families, and communities—especially in disadvantaged areas. School-Home Support’s Attendance Support and Development Programme...

SWAdvertorial

More from this theme

Opinion: Accountability

Report card reforms run critical reliability risks

Introducing a new school grading system also brings new risks that outcomes won’t reliably measure school quality

JL Dutaut

Your thoughts

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

2 Comments

  1. I do not understand why, as a parent. you would not want a representative who is highly qualified in childcare to go in and inspect that your childcare setting was being managed properly and given a grade of how safe and tge standard of education your child was receiving. I do agree that some thibgs need to change but we need ofsted to keep an eye on our schools. Perhaps each setting could have an inspection twice on different days in that week and rate the school after considering both inspections. However sad it is about Ruth Perry taking her own life, it shows that if Ofsted had not gone to inspect that school, imagine if it was your child attending and how the school was failing without us as parents knowing. You cannot solely blame ofsted. Perhaps Ms. Perry already knew the outcome which questions why nothing was solved before it took an inspection.

    • Ms Buckley – aside from your ridiculous comments about Ms. Perry (shame on you) I have no issue with a professional body with highly qualified individuals inspecting a school. Having worked in High / Secondary education for 17 years, in all the inspections I’ve been involved with, Ofsted provide neither professional behaviours nor knowledge nor expertise. You seem to have missed the point of the article completely – it is their complete incompetency of inspection and inconsistency of outcomes that cause issue for schools. Ofsted needs to be scrapped and a very different independent organisation created rather than using ex heads with their own axes to grind and their air of infallibility. Separate teams, separate days would be a better starting point. The pressure on all staff is unbearable, the ability to question anyone that is passing about the school in too many ways to mention leaves support staff, admin, cleaners and kitchen staff petrified to step out into corridors – you have no clue.