Skip to main content

< PREV HOME NEXT>

The Good Schools Guide's managing editor, Melanie Sanderson, explains how today’s announcement is unsatisfactory and why parents must demand more from Ofsted. 

A state primary school in West London25 April 2024

The government announced today that Ofsted will continue to use one (or two) word gradings to sum up their inspections of schools in England. This means that despite the process being reviewed by the DfE and recommendations from Parliament’s education select committee, grades such as ‘Outstanding’ and 'Requires Improvement’ will live on.  

At The Good Schools Guide, we believe that the single word judgements used by Ofsted to grade schools are misleading and should be abolished in favour of more holistic information. Such simplistic gradings are the antithesis of helpful to parents who are crying out for a genuinely useful service that supports decision making in relation to their child’s education. 

Caversham Primary is the school formerly led by the late Ruth Perry, the headteacher who tragically took her own life last year after receiving an ‘Inadequate’ grade from Ofsted. The school was downgraded from ‘Outstanding’ in January 2023 due to inspectors deciding that training and record-keeping relating to safeguarding, part of the ‘leadership and management’ score, was lacking. Pastoral support, however, was praised at that time as was teaching, behaviour and attendance. In July 2023, the school was awarded a ‘Good’ in its third grading in just six months, demonstrating current system’s failings. 

Considering the overall grade is the one that gets all the attention, it’s no surprise that everything else in the report gets lost. Popular perception is that ‘Inadequate’ or ‘Requires Improvement’ applies to the whole school setting.  

A regulatory body to monitor safeguarding and standards in schools is essential, but reports should be written with context front and centre. An excellent educational setting in a deprived area may look very different from one in a leafy suburb and should not be judged against the same criteria; the community served by schools and specific challenges faced by leaders should be key considerations. Ofsted reports are difficult and time-consuming to read, full of edu-jargon, and fail to answer the big questions asked by families. Single word summaries (and with three-quarters of all UK state schools described simply as ‘Good’, a ubiquitous word at that) do not equip parents with the information they need to draw sensible conclusions. Ethos is everything. 

Of the 300 state-maintained schools reviewed by The Good Schools Guide, some we consider to be brilliant, often because of a culture of positivity, innovation and genuine care for pupils and their individual outcomes, are graded ‘Good’ by Ofsted and some that seem to be less impressive are deemed to be ‘Outstanding’. Head teachers tell us that this is because Ofsted is ‘fixated on the wrong things’; instead of contributing to schools getting better, inspections encourage behaviours in school leaders that don’t support improvement; casting punitive judgement on past events does not support improvement and progress. 

Our advice to parents is to use Ofsted reports in their current form to establish that a school keeps its children safe but to look elsewhere for information on the important matters of ethos, community, pastoral care and co-curricular opportunities. They should visit schools on open days and, when they have a shortlist, on a normal working day too. Also talk to pupils and current parents and ask about things that are important for their child. Policy and paperwork, while necessary, will not encourage children to skip into school every day – that’s down to excellent leadership, inspirational teaching, effective discipline and a caring pastoral ethos. 

A version of this article was first published on 12 July 2023

< PREV HOME NEXT>

Most popular Good Schools Guide articles


  • Special educational needs introduction

    Need help? Perhaps you suspect your child has some learning difficulty and you would like advice on what you should do. Or perhaps it is becoming clear that your child's current school is not working for him or her, and you need help to find a mainstream school which has better SEN provision, or to find a special school which will best cater for your child's area of need. Our SEN consultancy team advises on both special schools, and the mainstream schools with good SEN support, from reception through to the specialist colleges for 19+. Special Educational Needs Index

  • The Good Schools Guide International

    Find top international, British, IB and American schools in over 40 countries. The Good Schools Guide International publishes impartial and forthright reviews of international schools across the world.

  • Grammar schools best value added

    We examined the value-added from KS2 to GCSE for 2022 to see which state selective grammar schools added the most value to their offspring. A note of caution - the more highly selective a grammar school, the less scope there will be to add value.

  • Grammar schools in the UK

    Grammar schools are state-funded, academically selective senior schools. The education a child receives at grammar school is paid for by the state unlike at private schools which provide education for a fee. There are currently around 163 located in 36 English local authorities, with around 167,000 pupils between them. Northern Ireland has a further 67 grammar schools, but there are none in Wales or Scotland. A word of caution: there are private schools that have the word 'grammar' in their name but this is purely for historical reasons. 

  • Performing Arts schools

    At specialist music, dance or performing arts schools, the arts aren't optional extras. They’re intrinsic to the school curriculum. Students are expected to fit in high level training and hours of practice alongside a full academic provision. It's a lot to ask any child to take on, but for those with exceptional performing ability this kind of education can be transformative.


Subscribe for instant access to in-depth reviews:

☑ 30,000 Independent, state and special schools in our parent-friendly interactive directory
☑ Instant access to in-depth UK school reviews
☑ Honest, opinionated and fearless independent reviews of over 1,200 schools
☑ Independent tutor company reviews

Try before you buy - The Charter School Southwark

Buy Now

GSG Blog >

The Good Schools Guide newsletter

Educational insight in your inbox. Sign up for our popular newsletters.

 
 
 

Our most recent newsletter: