YouGov finds ‘high parent support’ for Ofsted report card proposals
The online poll of 1,090 parents found that 79% of those surveyed said they already trust what Ofsted says about a school in inspection reports
A YouGov survey has found the majority of parents support Ofsted’s report card proposals, with 67% saying they prefer Ofsted’s proposed new report cards to current inspection reports. Some 86% of parents said it was easy to understand the information on the report cards and 84% found the use of colour coding “useful”.
Meanwhile, 66% of parents said they support Ofsted continuing to grade schools on a scale.
Alongside the current consultation on improving education inspection, Ofsted commissioned YouGov to independently survey parents’ views of the proposals for report cards.
The online poll of 1,090 parents found that 79% of those surveyed said they already trust what Ofsted says about a school in inspection reports.
On the proposals currently out for consultation, 78% of parents surveyed said the information in report cards would be useful to them, and the same proportion said the new cards would make it easy to compare schools.
When asked which of the 11 proposed evaluation areas for schools they considered to be the most useful, approximately half of parents ranked behaviour and attitudes highest (51%), followed closely by personal development and well-being (48%), then safeguarding (41%) and achievement (35%).
In a speech to Parentkind this week, Ofsted’s chief inspector, Sir Martyn Oliver, said: “The changes we’re proposing will do things differently. We will report on a much wider range of areas. Things that matter to parents.
“Things like behaviour, achievement, attendance, teaching and the curriculum, leadership and governance, and inclusion – really looking in detail at how schools make sure their pupils all have a sense of belonging, especially those who are disadvantaged, vulnerable, or have special educational needs. For each area, parents will be able to see a clear grade, and a description of what we found when we inspected the school.”
He added: “Report cards will help give a more balanced picture of schools. Because the best schools aren’t perfect and have areas where they could do better, and the schools which might be seen as ‘weaker’ will have aspects of their work that they do really well.
“In that way a school’s report card will be much closer to a child’s school report. Going back to my art teacher days, the one-word grade paints a monochrome picture of a school, we want to paint it in colour.”
