9 Feb 2012

Is new school inspection plan ‘satisfactory’ for parents?

As the new chief inspector of schools outlines plans to shake up how schools are inspected, Channel 4 News asks whether the changes will make it any easier for parents choosing schools.

Ofsted‘s new chief inspector, Sir Michael Wilshaw, has announced a set of changes to improve school inspections in England.

He believes the UK has “tolerated mediocrity for far too long”, with one in 7 adults lacking the literary skills expected at the end of primary school. He said all children deserve a “good or better” education, with “no excuses accepted”.

And he believes changing the schools inspection system is the way to achieve this, via a number of measures:

From September, schools will not be given any notice that they are to be inspected.
Schools classed as “outstanding” will be reviewed to ensure their teaching is as good as it should be.
The rating of schools as “satisfactory” will be scrapped and replaced with “requires improvement”. Schools which fail to be rated “good” within a certain time frame will be put into special measures.
Criteria for success will be toughened up and there will be more regular inspections of struggling schools, as well as more detailed reports.

How can parents compare schools if we keep changing how we are judging them? ASCL’s Jan Webber

While unions have reacted with anger, with the head of NASUWT blaming Sir Michael for “trashing the school system”, others told Channel 4 News they just hoped it would lead to some stability, allowing teachers and parents to really know how schools are performing.

Since 2009, the inspections system has already been changed twice, most recently in January.

Jan Webber, inspections specialist at the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL), said the changes made it difficult to compare schools fairly.

She told Channel 4 News: “How can parents compare schools if we keep changing how we are judging them? A ‘good’ school before 2009 is not necessarily a ‘good’ school now – it’s very difficult for parents. We need some stability.”

She said it was also difficult for teachers and head teachers when information about changes was “drip-fed”.

Netmums founder Siobhan Freegard agreed that changes were stressful for parents.

She told Channel 4 News: “Many parents have based their choice of school on Ofsted ratings – so will be understandably nervous about any change to the system.”

However, she said she hoped the changes would give parents more clarity.

“Most parents would support ‘no notice’ inspections for schools if it gave the inspectors a truer picture. Also schools which have made huge improvements in teaching need to be properly recognised – such as moving out of special measures to a satisfactory rating – as they need more parents to apply and support them to improve.

“But it is hard to see how an outstanding rated school could achieve that score without the teaching being exceptional. Currently research shows around a quarter of parents don’t get their first choice of school so there is still a very long way to go until most schools can be rated ‘good’ as Sir Michael Wilshaw wants.”

Not satisfactory any longer

Replacing the “satisfactory” label with “requires improvement” could be one of the measures which has the most impact. Currently around 6,000 schools are in this band, and Sir Michael warned that many are “coasting”.

Changing the label to make it less euphemistic could make it clearer for parents. On the other hand, a lot of people could find a school they thought was acceptable or “satisfactory” slip into “requires improvement”, which has a clear semantic difference.

Read more: Underperforming teachers to face the sack after one term

It could also challenge a lot of schools. Inspection experts said that reaching the “good” education band is harder than it seems for many. At the moment there are four main criteria for schools – outstanding, good, satisfactory, and inadequate.

Ms Webber told Channel 4 News: “A lot will depend on support for schools because in issues like core subjects, if there is a shortage of maths teachers and the new teachers don’t want to go into a challenging area, how are you going to improve standards in maths in your school?

“Everybody agrees a child should be able to go to a school that is at least good – but it’s about helping that. Usually you support rather than just threaten.”

Ofsted’s Jean Humphrys, a working inspector, told Channel 4 News the terminology change marked a wider ethos.

Rules of the game

While some teachers say the changes put them under even more pressure, others believe pressure comes with the job.

Liam Nolan, headteacher at Perry Beeches School in Birmingham – the most improved school in the UK – told Channel 4 News: “We’re a public service and if the public is saying we’re not happy with the service, I think that’s acceptable.”

We are being very honest and saying we are not going to hide behind the terminology. Jean Humphrys, Ofsted

“We are being very honest and saying we are not going to hide behind the terminology. We are going to be upfront and say that acceptable standards of education should be good.”

However, he too believes that the real problem in inspections and criteria lies in the lack of clarity for both teachers and parents.

“What I would like is people to be explicit about what the changes are,” he said.

“If we are all clear about the rules of the game, I have no problem with the game. I think the concern sometimes is that we are not always on the same playing field and it can be subjective – one hears about a school rated outstanding and maybe it is not, or one that is clearly outstanding being rated satisfactory.

“There seems to be no clear line as to the direction of travel.”

So it seems what teachers are hoping for is a target to aim for – and that would help parents too. But whether the new inspection changes will give them that target remains unclear.

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