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Headteachers and senior leaders are around twice as likely as teachers to find Ofsted inspections under the new framework much more stressful than previous versions.

Some 33 per cent of senior leaders said inspection under the new report card system was “much more stressful” compared with earlier Ofsted inspections they had experienced, according to Teacher Tapp polling seen by ����Vlog.

This is in comparison to 17 per cent of teachers who said the same about inspections under the school watchdog’s latest inspection framework.

The findings come as ����Vlog investigates today why fewer people than ever before have ambitions to become headteachers.

Half of SLTs find new inspections more stressful

Teacher Tapp polled 1,113 teachers, senior leaders and headteachers at the end of last month on their views on the inspectorate’s new school grading system.

Ofsted launched its current inspection framework in November. Schools are now judged across at least six different evaluation areas, using a five-point grading scale. They are no longer given a single overall effectiveness grade.

Overall, almost half of senior leaders responding to Teacher Tapp said that the current Ofsted framework was more stressful than previous inspections they had experienced, compared with 32 per cent of teachers.

Pepe Di’Iasio, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said: “We are concerned that the new inspection framework is putting a huge amount of stress on school and college leaders. There is a great deal of work that school leaders have to do during inspections, and this has only been magnified by the increased number of inspection areas.

“While there have also been some minor positive changes, it is clear that fundamental problems still exist. The inspection process remains too high-stakes, damages the wellbeing of school and college leaders and deters others from stepping up to leadership roles.

“More has got to be done to address these issues and tackle the intolerable levels of stress being inflicted on staff as a result of the inspection process.”

Paul Whiteman, general secretary of the NAHT school leaders’ union, said: “These worrying findings are deeply concerning, but sadly not surprising.

“This was entirely foreseeable and echoes both what many school leaders are telling us about the framework and what they warned would come of it.“

Both union leaders raised specific concerns about Ofsted’s use of a secure-fit grading approach - which means that a school has to achieve all of the criteria to be awarded a “strong standard” or “expected standard” grade.

����Vlog revealed earlier this year that disadvantaged schools were more likely to be marked down on achievement than schools in more affluent areas, fuelling concerns about how Ofsted is measuring this.

Mr Di’Iasio added: “The new secure-fit model is having a particularly negative impact on school leaders serving the most disadvantaged communities. By benchmarking schools against national data, this model does not take context sufficiently into account and effectively punishes schools working in the most challenging circumstances.”

Mr Whiteman added: “Leaders inevitably feel the pressure most directly when it comes to the high-stakes accountability perpetuated by the new graded areas, which increases ways for schools to fail.

“The ‘secure fit’ requirements mean they have to meet every single criteria to achieve the ‘expected standard’, or face monitoring based on what is a fleeting snapshot of their school.”

Analysis from the NAHT found that schools with an above-average number of pupils with special educational needs and disabilities were more likely to be marked down for attendance and behaviour.

The fairness of Ofsted inspections

Teacher Tapp also asked teachers what they thought about the fairness of inspection grades in their most recent inspection.

Respondents were asked whether they agreed with the following statement: “The inspection outcome was fair in my current school’s most recent inspection.”

For teachers whose schools were most recently inspected between September 2015 and September 2025, the majority of respondents (82 per cent) agreed that their inspection outcome was fair.

For teachers at schools inspected since September 2025, 70 per cent agreed with the same statement. Ofsted’s current framework was launched in November 2025.

Ofsted has been approached for comment.

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