ASCL ‘extremely disappointed’ in Ofsted’s grading reform proposals
Its ‘biggest concern’ is a proposed move from the current four-point grading scale to a five- point scale, which it warned will ‘likely introduce even greater anxiety’ in school leaders
The Association of School and College leaders (ASCL) has said it is “extremely disappointed” by proposals set out in Ofsted’s consultation on new report cards, warning that they “go nowhere near addressing the serious weaknesses of the current system outlined in the inquest into Ruth Perry’s death”.Its “biggest concern” is a proposed move from the current four-point grading scale to a five- point scale, which it warned will “likely introduce even greater anxiety” in school leaders.
It also warned this could lead to less reliability between judgements, as proposed toolkits are “wildly open to interpretation”.
The union therefore called on the body to “fundamentally rethink” aspects of its current proposals, including a replacement for the proposed five-point scale with a “much simpler approach”, based around whether or not schools and colleges are meeting expected standards, as well as a “clearer and more consistent” approach to support and intervention.
It said that while it believes the current system needs to change, the proposals put forward “will leave school and college leaders in a worse position than they are now”, and “do not address the acute concerns about mental health and wellbeing”.
It was also concerned that moving from four to six graded sub-judgements to eight to 10 graded sub-judgements will “not reduce the stress and anxiety” created by inspection, and create more grading, not less.
ASCL noted that its preferred approach is not possible within the current legislative framework, and would therefore “be comfortable” with a model based on a ‘3+ point scale’, which it said would enable Ofsted to meet statutory requirements, and also enable the identification of exceptional practice, without the latter needing to be a graded judgement.
Julie McCulloch, senior director of Strategy and Policy, said: “As ASCL has made clear, we fully support strong accountability, reform of the inspection system, and the principle of report cards. However, having carefully considered these proposals in consultation with members, it is our belief that school and college leaders – and the system as a whole – will be worse off if they are implemented in their current form.
“Our biggest concern is that the proposed move to a 5-point grading scale fails to address concerns about school and college leaders’ wellbeing and the impact of this on the current leader and teacher recruitment and retention crisis, and will undermine the reliability of inspections.”
She added: “We do not think that inspectors can reliably make nuanced graded judgements across eight to ten evaluation areas on a 5-point scale, and believe that this will undermine trust in the inspection process and ultimately lead to more complaints and challenges. In our consultation we have set out alternative grading approaches that we would urge Ofsted to consider adopting.
“We do not think that Ofsted can continue with these proposals in their current form and carry the trust of the sector. They must commit to listening to the responses to their consultation and rethinking aspects of the proposals. If this requires the current interim approach to inspection to continue for longer than planned, to give DfE and Ofsted the time they need to get this right, this would be far preferable to pushing ahead with proposals that are fundamentally flawed.”
