Scrapping single-word judgements a good first step but Ofsted needs more reform

“The announcement that single-word Ofsted judgements about state schools in England are to be abolished with immediate effect has been greeted positively by school leaders and professional associations. Other organisations inspected by Ofsted including early years, colleges, training and children’s social care will also have single-word judgements removed later.

For many years, government inspection policy in England has been an outlier. Other countries with high-performing education systems have never relied on high-stakes inspections. Rather, they incorporated inspection within a broader school improvement system with support and resources available for those schools which needed them.

Today’s news is a positive step forward. There is, however, much work required to reform Ofsted. The creation for 2025 of a school ‘report card’ is welcome: it will need to capture a much wider range of school performance indicators than the current inspection framework.

Additionally, Ofsted judgements will still be used to enable forced academisation of schools maintained by local authorities. This is a much-resented abuse of inspection for ideological ends. There is no overall evidence that academies perform better than maintained schools.

In summary, an important and highly symbolic move from the new Secretary of State Bridgit Phillipson. The real test of her tenure will be how fundamentally she is willing to embrace reform and cease to use Ofsted as a blunt instrument to deliver discredited policy implemented by multiple Conservative governments.”