Don’t count your chickens, Ofsted

1st February 2019, 12:01am
Ofsted Chief Inspector Amanda Spielman

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Don’t count your chickens, Ofsted

https://www.tes.com/magazine/archived/dont-count-your-chickens-ofsted

It won’t have escaped anyone’s notice - unless they’ve been buried under a particularly huge a pile of marking - that a fair few bits of the education system are undergoing a major revamp in 2019.

But unlike many, many (many) instances in the past, this week saw some of the proposals get a warm welcome from much of the teaching profession.

The Department for Education’s new recruitment and retention strategy has been widely well-received (turn to pages 10-11 to feast upon a bumper spread on that - you’re welcome), and so, too, have Ofsted’s plans to put the curriculum at the heart of school inspections.

A new survey reveals that 84 per cent of school leaders back the watchdog’s plan to “introduce a curriculum-focused ‘quality of education’ measure”.

The research, carried out by The Key, an information service for school leaders, also suggests that 78 per cent of leaders agree with the proposal to separate the judgement about learners’ behaviour and attitudes from the judgement about personal development.

Amy Cook, head of content for The Key, said: “Our members have shown unanimous support for two of the biggest proposed changes in the draft [inspection] framework - the changes to the inspection judgements.

“This signals a clear step in the right direction for Ofsted.”

But chief inspector Amanda Spielman shouldn’t count her chickens just yet.

When it came to Ofsted’s plan to give heads just 150 minutes’ notice before an inspector arrives, 59 per cent of school leaders surveyed said they didn’t support the move.

It’s not surprising, given the fear instilled by the “dreaded phone call” - which currently comes a day before an inspection.

The new proposal would mean that an inspector could contact a school before 10am and arrive after 12.30pm to start on-site preparations for an inspection the next day.

In the survey, some 52 per cent of school leaders were also against the plan to extend the “short inspection” of “good” schools from one day to two.

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