Headteachers’ leaders have voiced fears about Ofsted’s new inspections asking schools to provide a graded self-evaluation.
Union leaders have told Vlog that this will be “almost impossible” to do and will add to the stress that school staff face at the beginning of an inspection.
One former HMI has described it as a “terrible idea”.
Under the new inspection system, school leaders must provide inspectors with an evaluation of the school’s strengths and successes and its priorities for improvement in the pre-visit phone call, according to Ofsted’s .
Headteachers will also have to say where they believe their school “currently sits” on Ofsted’s new five-point grading scale across each evaluation area - despite the fact that the first leaders to face inspection will have only had two months to familiarise themselves with the incoming inspection report cards.
Ofsted demands graded self-evaluations
Ofsted will use a new five-point grading scale when its report-card inspections get underway next month: “exceptional”, “strong standard”, “expected standard”, “needs attention” and “urgent improvement”.
Schools will not get a single overall effectiveness grade after these were scrapped by the Labour government last year.
The five-point grading scale will be applied to schools in at least six evaluation areas: achievement, attendance and behaviour, curriculum and teaching, inclusion, personal development and wellbeing, and leadership and governance.
And Ofsted has produced an inspection toolkit showing how inspectors will make grading decisions.
Michael Gove, when he was education secretary, in 2010 in order to “reduce the bureaucracy” for teachers.
Pepe Di’Iasio, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL), said it is “almost impossible” for leaders to provide a graded self-evaluation based on toolkits “that are open to interpretation” and “have never been applied in practice”.
“If [school leaders] pitch at a level that inspectors think is too high, they’ll be worried that this will reflect badly upon them. But if they are too conservative in their evaluation, they’ll be concerned this will become self-fulfilling. It is likely to be yet another source of stress and pressure,” Mr Di’Iasio warned.
Paul Whiteman, general secretary of the NAHT school leaders’ union, said: “We are deeply concerned about the idea that school leaders should be going through each evaluation area and judging themselves against Ofsted’s criteria before they arrive.”
He added that, as a result of this expectation, leaders will now have to go through an 81-page document and carry out a “thorough self-assessment”.
Ofsted chief inspector Sir Martyn Oliver told school leaders last year that the new inspection system should not require “extra work” from headteachers and staff.
Self-evaluation ‘should be about insight, not grades’
School leaders’ unions have spoken out after the issue was by former Ofsted HMI Adrian Gray.
He told Vlog that there is a place for self-evaluation, but this should be based around “insight, not about grades”.
“It is entirely unreasonable to ask schools to have a grade at the start of the new framework when they need to build up data to show improvement over time, which the framework does actually look for. It is another example of how Ofsted is not joined up in its own thinking,” he said.
In a posted on LinkedIn, he said: “This is a terrible idea, for very obvious reasons. What do you say if you are the head of a weak school battling to improve? Do you tell the truth - and make it easy for inspectors to drop you in it? Or do you tell them an untruth and risk being caught out.”
Ofsted has been approached for comment
The introduction of the new inspection framework has been met with “grave concerns” voiced by unions.
Ofsted announced its final plans for report-card inspections last month. The new inspections will start in November, with the watchdog first visiting schools that have volunteered to be part of the first wave.
The NAHT is pursuing legal action against Ofsted over the potential impact of its new inspections on the mental health of school leaders and staff. ASCL and the NEU teaching union are also considering joining the action.
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