In 2020, The Headteachers Roundtable asked Ofsted to pause; to stop what it was doing and think about the harmful consequences of what had become a painful and bruising inspection regime for very many headteachers. It invited all school-based employees to consider standing down as inspectors.
A few months later there was a global pandemic and a pause occurred anyway, but in 2022-23 we are back to the pre-pandemic routine of regular school inspections and reports of career-breaking and community-destroying school gradings. Following the tragic suicide of Ruth Perry, her family has made a direct link between her school’s November Ofsted inspection outcome and her desperate state of mind and this has brought the issue to the forefront of the media this week. Finally, our calls to ‘Pause Ofsted’ are echoed across the teacher and headteacher unions and associations. Why does it always seem to take a terrible and avoidable tragedy to galvanise an orchestrated response?
Of course, in recent weeks there have also been some shards of light and hope thrown onto this issue. Bridget Phillipson MP, vowed to end Ofsted gradings at the recent ASCL Conference in favour of a School Report, but her proposals, which Headteachers Roundtable endorse, will only be implemented if Labour win the next General Election. A lot of damaging inspection outcomes can happen in 18 months.
Let’s remind ourselves of what needs to change. In our 2021 Alternative White Paper we addressed the problem of the high-stakes nature of Ofsted inspections and we made proposals around accountability.
