Education leader welcomes Ofsted changes

The leader of a South Cumbria education trust has welcomed the change to scrap the overall grade in Ofsted inspections.

Professor Andrew Wren said the removal of the headline one and two-word judgements would alleviate some of the pressure on schools by enabling headteachers and staff to give a more balanced picture of what their schools offered.

Professor Wren is chief executive of South Cumbria Multi-Academy Trust, which has five Barrow primary schools and Chetwynde, which offers education from kindergarten right through to Year 11, among its members.

“This is a welcome improvement and, from what I have heard about the plans from the Department for Education, there are more positives to come.

“The big issue is that traditionally staff have feared what they were going to get in terms of grading, in part because there was often a lack of consistency among inspection teams and the review has been quite critical of the culture so we are expecting significant changes.”

Professor Wren took part in the Department for Education’s Big Listen project on behalf of the Trust and said the feedback he gave seemed to be among that coming through.

The consultation found:

• Ofsted’s culture creates feelings of stress, anxiety and apprehension among leaders and staff;
• Inspectors should give more advice on how they can improve, instead of just descriptive reports;
• Schools want better collaboration from Ofsted, and consistency between inspections.

Professor Wren said he had already seen first-hand Ofsted moving away from being data-focused to listening and seeing the progress of our young people and what their work looked like.

“My recent experience was the inspection at Chetwynde last year and it did feel like that was reflective of what Ofsted is aiming for with an experience for headteachers that is altogether more human and holistic whilst maintain the rigorous quality assurance that we all want,” he said.

“Inspectors were not just giving their judgement as good across the board at Chetwynde but also offering ideas around improvement and signposting to support as to how to make further improvements.

“We have schools that will be inspected soon and I really hope that the removal of the headline judgement puts our amazing headteachers more at ease and confident to show the excellent work they do without the resulting reports headed by one or two-word judgements.”

“I am really optimistic that the changes will be for the better and we look forward to seeing the new framework next September.”

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