Everything you need to know about the NEW Ofsted framework

A new Ofsted framework has launched but what has changed and what do you need to know to be prepared for your next inspection visit.

The grades have changed names

Despite strong objections from stakeholders Ofsted has decided to retain graded inspection. We’re all pretty used to single-word judgements, but the new 5-point scale is:

1. Exceptional
2. Strong standard
3. Expected standard
4. Needs attention
5. Urgent improvement

Ofsted said it had made changes to its proposals due to professionals and parents having some concerns that the “terminology used to describe grades, such as ‘secure’ could be confusing and ‘causing concern’ would be too harsh on providers”.

Toolkits have been published

Ofsted committed to publish toolkits for each evaluation area to “take any mystery out of inspection, so providers can be clear about what we will and, importantly, will not look at”.

The “likely three most commonly awarded grades” – ‘needs attention’, ‘expected standard’ and ‘strong standard’ all appear together on one page with ‘urgent improvement’ and ‘exceptional’ on the following page.

Ofsted said the ‘expected standard’ is in the middle of the page of the toolkit “because this is what we would typically expect to see on inspections.

“It covers the statutory, professional and non-statutory guidance that providers are already expected to follow.

There are now six areas for inspection

The original proposal was for eight core inspection areas for schools, plus early years and sixth form if applicable. This has now been reduced to six, plus safeguarding.

That means the new list of core areas is:

• Inclusion
• Curriculum and teaching
• Achievement
• Attendance and behaviour
• Personal development and wellbeing
• Leadership and governance

Safeguarding will be judged separately, as either “met” or “not met”.

Workload is important

Community raised concerns that inspection causes a huge amount of additional workload, and the new proposals would be likely to make things even worse. Ofsted said it had “heard concerns raised through the consultation about the additional workload.”

The inspectorate aims to reduce the impact on school leaders by adding an extra inspector to teams for one day of full inspections saying that this, “should allow the lead inspector more time to focus on engaging with leaders, coordinating their inspection team, and overseeing and quality assuring the inspection”.

However, the impact on wider staff seems not to have been heeded. Alongside the new inspection guidance, Ofsted also published the findings of an independent wellbeing impact assessment of its new report cards. The report found the new report cards are likely to increase stress and workload for school staff, despite the sector already being among the top three “industries” with high levels of work-related ill health.

Consequences

The DfE has confirmed that the “worst-performing schools” – those formerly in ‘special measures’ will still be converted to academies.

Whilst those requiring ‘significant improvement’ will get support from regional improvement teams (RISE).

Context matters

Ofsted has faced widespread calls from the sector to replace grading with narrative descriptions of schools but as noted, it has decided to press ahead with a return to graded inspections in the form of a report card.

However, these report cards will also show contextual information about a school, such as whether its pupil numbers, prevalence of SEND and deprivation are above or below average. Ofsted is also introducing a new “Ofsted: explore an area” online service which will aggregate data to show “what education provision is like in and around a local area” and “explain how the provider’s performance sits within its local context” and has also started to develop a “similar schools” comparison measure to help inspectors and schools “understand how schools compare with those in a similar context”.

Inspectors will get further training on how to use data as a “starting point for understanding context”.

Inspections will commence from 10th November with volunteer schools. Routine inspections will return no earlier than December 1 – and will be pushed back to the new year if there are enough schools volunteering for inspection.

Our position

Community note that the reformed Ofsted Inspection arrangements have now been published, alongside their response to the consultation into report cards. Similarly the DfE have now published their response to the consultation on school accountability.

You can read our full response to both consultations here.

Community remains concerned that these changes to inspection will contribute to an increase in workload and risk making the high-stakes nature of accountability worse.

Helen Osgood, Community’s Director of Operations said:

“Community’s ambition for our members, is a system built on collaboration and support that, doesn’t just evaluate schools, but empowers them, is focused on improvement and fosters trust and growth , not punishment, Educators deserve a system that works with them in collaboration that will help and support them, so that teachers and pupils can thrive and educators can believe a better future is possible .”

We will continue to liaise with both Ofsted and the DfE over these changes to ensure that feedback from members is heard at the highest levels.

We meet with Ofsted every term, so please do get in touch with us if you have any questions about inspection or with any Ofsted experiences you want to share.