Teachers have reacted with fury at a new ‘Nando’s style’ grading system for schools after Ofsted confirmed it will be introduced in November
Teachers have reacted with fury at a new “Nando’s style” grading system for schools after Ofsted confirmed it will be introduced in November.
The National Education Union (NEU), the largest teachers union, said the new inspection system was “insulting”. And NAHT, which represents headteachers, said Ofsted’s new approach to inspection “poses a direct risk to the health and wellbeing of school leaders”.
Under plans unveiled today, Ofsted said parents will receive more detail about their children’s education with the introduction of new-look report cards from November.
In a major overhaul of the schools inspection system, schools in England will be graded across a variety of different areas – including attendance, behaviour and inclusion – using a colour-coded five-point scale. The five grades have been renamed ‘urgent improvement’, ‘needs attention’, ‘expected standard’, ‘strong standard’, and the new highest grade of ‘exceptional’, Ofsted confirmed today.
READ MORE: Sister of tragic headteacher demands Ofsted U-turn as rating anger grows
Every inspection will also focus on provision for disadvantaged children, those with a special educational need or disability (SEND), and those who are known to social care, with a specific grade for inclusion.
At the same time, the Department for Education team said teams of school improvement experts – called RISE teams – are nearly doubling their reach to 377 schools and almost 100,000 more children from this term.
Ofsted’s one-word judgements for schools’ overall performance were scrapped by Labour in September. It followed an intense backlash against the education watchdog after the suicide of headteacher Ruth Perry. Mrs Perry took her own life after an Ofsted report downgraded her Caversham Primary School in Reading from its highest rating of “outstanding” to its lowest rating, “inadequate”, over safeguarding concerns.
Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson is under pressure to delay the rollout of the new system amid warnings that it has not addressed the core problems with Ofsted’s inspections. In a letter signed by unions, as well as Mrs Perry’s sister Professor Julia Waters, she was last night told of “the dangerous, negative impact of a punitive, grades-based inspection system on the welfare of the workforce”.
Ofsted claimed almost seven in 10 parents prefer the new report cards but unions criticised that the study, which involved only 1,090 parents, was “small-scale”.
Daniel Kebede, general secretary of the NEU, warned: “Removing the single word judgement was meant to be a powerful revolution, but this makes things much worse. More of the same. More pressure. More ranking and competition. More labels.
“We completely reject that a Nando’s style 1-5 grading scale is good for children or parents. The punitive and high stakes consequences remain. This is not the positive change we needed. This will be bad for our schools, bad for the workforce but also bad for parents and students.”
Pepe Di’Iasio, General Secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said: “Let’s remember that this entire process began with the suicide of a headteacher under the previous inspection system. Yet here we are with a reformed system which appears to be even worse. We are gravely concerned about the welfare of leaders and teachers as well as the impact on recruitment and retention.”
Paul Whiteman, general secretary of school leaders’ union NAHT, said: “It is abundantly clear that Ofsted’s new approach to inspection poses a direct risk to the health and wellbeing of school leaders. By not only persisting with grading, but extending it across a larger number of areas, Ofsted is perpetuating a high-stakes punitive regime which risks serious harm to school leaders and teachers with career-defining consequences.
“The inspectorate had the opportunity to really listen to the profession – instead it has determined to stick to a model that was overwhelming rejected when unveiled earlier this year.”
His Majesty’s Chief Inspector Sir Martyn Oliver said: “Ofsted exists to keep children safe and improve their lives. Our new report cards will give parents a clearer understanding of the strengths and areas for improvement at the places where their children learn.”
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