Headteachers’ leaders are calling for urgent answers about how Ofsted inspectors will decide whether schools are failing to meet the “expected standard” on attainment.
Their concerns relate to the wording of Ofsted’s new toolkits and the watchdog’s decision to use a “secure fit” approach, which means that every single grade standard that Ofsted has come up with needs to be met in order for schools to be given that grade.
The inspectorate said that using this approach will ensure consistency across inspections.
But James Bowen, assistant general secretary of the NAHT school leaders’ union, told Vlog that he believes this approach could be the biggest problem with the new report card inspections, which are due to start later this year.
And he warned that the union is particularly concerned about how the approach will work when Ofsted looks to grade schools on attainment.
These concerns about how inspection judgements will be made come as a snap poll of union members announced last night indicated that almost nine in ten supported the NAHT exploring industrial action if Ofsted pushes ahead with its plans.
Fears over new Ofsted inspections
“The secure fit approach on attainment is a major concern for us,” said Mr Bowen. “One of the descriptors says that in order to be at the ‘expected standard’, the school’s results need to be broadly in line with national average.
“Well, by definition, there will be always be a number of schools who are below the national average. But what does ‘broadly in line’ mean and over what period of time? These are questions which need pretty urgently clarifying.”
He added: “The secure fit approach to grading meaning a school has to hit every standard in order to be given a particular grade may end up being the biggest problem facing this framework. It could potentially have very significant consequences, and I’m not sure that’s been properly thought through.
“The sheer number of grade standards that inspectors will have to go through in order just to establish that a school is meeting the ‘expected standard’ across six evaluation areas is daunting for heads and will be so difficult for a team of inspectors to get through in the time they have available.”
Mr Bowen said that a secure fit means that Ofsted effectively has a list of areas that will need to be checked off, but he added: “Actually, some of these descriptors are not quick five-minute questions; they deal with complex areas which will involve gathering and considering evidence.”
He also highlighted concerns about how Ofsted is proposing to inspect curriculum and teaching.
For this, the toolkit says that a school “will be regarded as being at a ‘strong standard’ if leaders make astute decisions about how the curriculum and teaching should adapt and evolve, based on their evidence and insight about how well pupils have learned what was intended”.
Mr Bowen said: “But what does that mean? How will an inspector interpret that and know whether decision making can be described as ‘astute’?
“The training Ofsted provides its inspectors for understanding how to apply all of these descriptors reliably will be very important, and I don’t think they have given themselves enough time to do it.”
‘Vague descriptors’
Michael Tidd, headteacher of East Preston Junior School in West Sussex, also raised concern about the new toolkits and objected to the idea that they can be used to guarantee secure inspections.
“There is a problem with pretending you have a consistent secure fit approach when the grades are based on vague descriptors which appear to be open to the interpretation of the inspectors,” he said.
“Using a secure fit approach to grading also makes the issue of grades feeling like a cliff edge for schools more pronounced. If every single descriptor has to be met, there are more cliffs to worry about.”
Mr Tidd also raised the fear that the approach could mean that an improving school that narrowly misses out on “expected standard” because of one descriptor is given an orange “needs attention” grade, and is lumped in with a school that is spiralling but hasn’t yet hit rock bottom.
Meanwhile, Mr Bowen warned that the new approach to inspections could give the sector more to worry about.
He said: “If we think back to what the starting point was for why these [inspection] reforms were needed, it was to create a more humane system which held the system to account but didn’t put undue pressure on to the people working in schools.
“I think the decision to have monitoring inspections for every school with one ‘needs attention’ judgement, coupled with the secure fit approach to grading which means school staff will have to be mindful of meeting every single descriptor, will make the situation worse.”
He added: “They have come up with something which will place more pressure on to people in the system than the inspection system it replaced.”
Frank Norris, a former Ofsted director and multi-academy trust leader who helped to lead an alternative consultation to Ofsted’s consultation about the future of school inspections, also raised concern about the secure fit approach.
He said: “The advantage of using a best fit approach rather than secure fit is that every grade descriptor does not need to be hit and it does give inspectors flexibility to take into account issues around a school’s context.
“The problem with secure fit is that it can mean a school hits say five out of the six criteria but still misses out on a grade. This does put more pressure on the judgements an inspector has to make.”
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