Headteachers are calling for a radical overhaul of school inspection in England, including the scrapping of ratings such as “good” or “requires improvement”, which they describe as a “woefully blunt” measure of a school’s performance.
The Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL) says the current system, which labels a school either “outstanding”, “good”, “requires improvement” or “inadequate”, fails to reflect the vastly different circumstances in which schools operate, while Ofsted’s inspection regime is “punitive” rather than constructive.
The schools watchdog for England is deeply unpopular among many school staff, who say it adds to pressure on leadership teams and is contributing to the recruitment and retention crisis in education.
ASCL, which represents 22,000 members in the UK, outlines its proposals in a discussion paper, The Future of Inspection, published on Friday. It comes as the search for a new chief inspector of schools is due to begin, to replace Amanda Spielman at the end of the year.
