Ofsted tightens rules for rating schools as outstanding

Inspectors have been told to pay more attention to pupils’ behaviour, the quality of teaching, and children’s ability to read Fewer schools will be rated outstanding from next year, inspectors have said. The move comes after Michael Gove, the education secretary, said many schools awarded the ranking did not deserve it . Under rules coming into force in January, inspectors will pay more attention to pupils’ behaviour, the quality of teaching, and children’s ability to read. They will also spend more time scrutinising whether schools are narrowing the gap between disadvantaged pupils and their peers. Miriam Rosen, Ofsted’s chief inspector, said she expected it would become “more difficult to achieve the accolade of outstanding”. Ofsted’s most recent annual report , published in November, showed that 13% of schools in England were outstanding, 43% were good, 37% were satisfactory and 8% were inadequate. Earlier this month Gove told a conference on school leadership that it was “a worry to me that so many schools are still judged as outstanding overall when they have not achieved an outstanding in their teaching and learning”. Inspectors give an overall rating to schools, but also give individual verdicts on teaching and learning. Ofsted figures show that of 3,577 schools judged outstanding overall at their latest inspection, 923 would have been ranked as good or very good at teaching. The government has instructed Ofsted to pare down the inspection categories to four: the achievement of pupils; the quality of teaching and learning; the effectiveness of the leadership and management; and standards of behaviour and safety.. Schools will no longer receive separate verdicts on whether they are doing their best to achieve community cohesion or safeguard their pupils. Schools ranked outstanding will no longer have routine inspections unless there are concerns that standards may be slipping. Schools judged to be good will be inspected every five years, as they are now, while satisfactory schools will be inspected every three years. Ofsted also announced that from next month parents will be able to fill out a questionnaire on its website which includes questions such as “are pupils at your child’s school happy?” and post messages. The Ofsted site will be anonymous, with users only asked for an email address. Inspectors will consider the comments when making a judgment about a school. In extreme circumstances, a surge of negative comments could trigger an inspection. Rosen said Ofsted wanted to “give greater consideration to parents’, pupils’ and teachers’ views”. Brian Lightman, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders , said the site could “end up with as much credibility as the Rate My Teacher website”. Lightman said: “Allowing anyone to post comments anonymously leaves the system, and schools, open to abuse and puts the website’s credibility at risk.” Rosen said inspectors would also hear primary school pupils read. About one in five 11-year-olds are not reading at the expected level. A recent Ofsted report found the standard of reading and writing in the last year of primary school fell “stubbornly short of what is achievable”. The schools minister Nick Gibb said: “This new way of inspecting schools will allow Ofsted to spend more time in the classroom and to concentrate on things that really matter to parents, such as pupil behaviour and the quality of teaching.” Education policy Ofsted Schools Michael Gove Primary schools Jessica Shepherd guardian.co.uk

Posted by on September 30, 2011. Filed under News, Politics, World News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.