The preparation required for Ofsted inspection can feel “crushing” and “relentless” for school staff, a cross-party inquiry has warned.
It has raised concerns about the “stress and anxiety” experienced by school staff “due to the high-stakes nature of Ofsted’s inspections” and wants to see action from the inspectorate.
Ofsted should also develop an alternative to “reductive and simplistic” single-word inspection judgements “as a priority”. The new system must “better capture the complex nature of a school's performance”, the inquiry says.
The long-running inquiry has been carried out by MPs on Parliament’s Education Select Committee.
