Ofsted’s graded judgements are a “woefully blunt tool” it was said this week after 83% of schools previously exempted from inspection lost their outstanding rating.
Since 2012, schools judged outstanding had been exempt from further regular inspection unless specific concerns were raised. This exemption was lifted in 2020.
Ofsted has now revealed that 308 of 371 exempted schools that had a graded inspection last year have lost their outstanding rating (83%). The majority of these have been graded good (62%), although 17% were graded requires improvement and 4% inadequate.
Broken down by phase, of 266 exempted primary schools inspected last year, 14% retained their outstanding grade, 65% were rated as good, 18% requires improvement, and 3% inadequate.
