Bridget Phillipson (Image: Getty)
Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson was locked in a war of words with teaching unions as she vowed to force “coasting” schools to improve.
Labour’s reforms to the school inspection system overseen by Ofsted “will make things worse, not better”, the National Education Union claimed.
And Professor Julia Waters, whose headteacher sister Ruth took her own life following a critical Ofsted report, called the new inspection reports “a rehash of the discredited and dangerous system it is meant to replace”.
But Ms Phillipson insisted parents backed the changes and warned that 600 schools were “stuck” receiving one poor Ofsted report after another.
She said: “Too many schools coasting. Delivering an education that, is just not the standard all children deserve.”
The Education Secretary said more than 300,000 children go to poorly-performing schools and vowed: “I will not accept a system that is content for some to sink, even while others soar.”
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Changes to the way Ofsted judges schools were prompted partly by the death of headteacher Ruth Perry in 2023 after an Ofsted report downgraded her Caversham Primary School in Reading from the highest to the lowest overall effectiveness rating over safeguarding concerns.
Instead of issuing short judgements such as “good” or “requires improvement”, Oftsed will from November grade schools across a variety of different areas including attendance and inclusion.
Inspectors will issue colour-coded report cards with verdicts ranging from red, which means “causing concern”, to orange for “attention needed”, through the green shades of “secure”, “strong” and “exemplary” – for each area of practice under proposals for Ofsted’s new report card system.
Daniel Kebede, general secretary of the National Education Union, said: “Ofsted were tasked with bringing around a system of inspection which reduced the pressure on the school system in quite tragic circumstances and unfortunately our view is this will make things worse, not better.
“It will simply lead to headteachers trying to gather lots of evidence on all of these areas and that pressure trickles down through the school system to the teachers, to the support staff and indeed to the young people and the children. It is really worrying.”
Paul Whiteman, general secretary of school leaders’ union NAHT, who said they “suggest an inspectorate determined to hold on to a model of inspection that is long past its sell-by date”.
And Pepe Di’Iasio, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL), said the proposed school report cards “appear to be even worse than the single-word judgments they replace”.
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Ms Phillipson insisted the new system would “shine a light” on school performance.
And she vowed there would be no watering down of inspections, saying: “To those who call for the abolition of a strong, independent, effective inspectorate, I have said before and I will say again: never.
“Never will we go back to those dark days of weak accountability, because it was children from disadvantaged backgrounds who suffered the most.
“And because despite those improvements, there is still so far to go.”