A cross-party education select committee has called for an end to single-word Ofsted judgments after school inspections. The report also recommended that schools should not automatically be graded as “inadequate” for minor safeguarding concerns. However, it acknowledged that the sector still wants “strong accountability” in schools.
Ofsted welcomed the report and said that it would respond to its recommendations. Ofsted also pledged to work with the Department for Education to find an alternative to one or two-word judgments like “inadequate” or “requires improvement”, since this item proved to be one of the most strongly criticised aspects of the inspection process.
Additonally, intervention measures for schools that are rated “inadequate”, including heads losing their jobs and schools being made to become academies, are adding “further stress” by creating a “high-stakes” inspection system, added the report. It then recommended that those measures should not be imposed until a reinspection of schools rated inadequate for “uncomplicated” issues that can be resolved quickly.
A coroner said that Ruth Perry, the head of Caversham Primary, in Reading, Berkshire, took her own life after an Ofsted inspection downgraded her school to “inadequate”, which contributed to her death. Mrs Perry’s death sparked calls from across the sector for changes to Ofsted. After the inquest in December, the coroner warned of a risk of further deaths “unless action is taken”. Ofsted has since promised a full review of lessons to be learned and apologised fully for the role it played in Mrs Perry’s suicide
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