Responding to Ofsted Big Listen, Natalie Perera, Chief Executive, Education Policy Institute (EPI), said:
“Ofsted’s response to its Big Listen and the earlier announcement of the ending of one-word judgements are both positive steps towards reforming a school accountability system that has made leadership of some of the most challenging schools even more difficult.
“The current accountability system creates perverse incentives, which can often include narrowing of the curriculum, reducing the inclusiveness of admissions practices, and removing pupils from school rolls. Ofsted’s plans to introduce a new focus on inclusion in its criteria for inspection has the potential to help counter these effects and make the school system work better, particularly for pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds or with special educational needs.
“We welcome Ofsted’s focus on vulnerable learners and pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds and look forward to their proposals for how that will be reflected in the inspection framework and the training of inspectors. Under the current system, schools with low levels of disadvantage and high prior attainment have been more likely to receive positive judgements from Ofsted. Our own research shows that when schools consistently receive ratings that are less than good it is associated with an increase in teacher turnover, and an increasingly disadvantaged intake, both of which make it more difficult to reverse the negative judgement.
“More broadly, it is right that the Department for Education and Ofsted are reevaluating how school performance is measured. Our own benchmarking tool for multi-academy trusts and local authorities, which includes measures of attainment, progress, inclusion, the school workforce, and school finances could provide a blueprint for the new school report card.”
