Teach Secondary Issue 14.7

A different kind of standstill O utside of education, the process of inspection sounds simple. Inspectors check to see if a school is doing well. If yes, praise. If that’s a no, change the leadership. Yet inspection has never been that neat, since every new Chief Inspector redraws the map. Christine Gilbert championed Every Child Matters. Michael Wilshaw prioritised standards and behaviour. Amanda Spielman rebalanced things towards the curriculum. Now, a new era dawns – or does it? Continuing concerns On the launch day of Ofsted’s 2025-26 framework, a coalition of mental health experts, former Ofsted HMI, academics, trade unionists (teachers and headteachers) and governors told the Education Secretary via an open letter (see tinyurl.com/ ts147-O1) that the new framework fails to deliver: “ We urge you to halt the roll-out of these proposals because of our continuing concerns about the reliability, accuracy and consistency of inspection results, and about the dangerous, negative impact of a punitive, grades-based inspection system on the welfare of the workforce. ” Cliff-edge grades are damaging staff welfare. Trust continues to be undermined. Schools are still being put under toxic pressure. As one former ABOUT THE AUTHOR Adrian Lyons was one of His Majesty’s Inspectors between 2005 and 2021 and now works with MATs, teacher training providers and LAs to support education; find out more at adrianlyonsconsulting.com senior HMI told me, “ Rather than reconsider the toxicity and risks, they are just continuing as if nothing happened. ” This frustration reflects a broader disillusionment. Successive calls for reform– from, among others, the 2023 Beyond Ofsted Inquiry, The Times ’ 2022 Education Commission and the Education Select Committee – have all been ignored. Labour’s manifesto commitment to a school ‘report card’ has been co-opted by Ofsted, but only as a heading for the same old cliff-edge judgements. The real issue actually goes deeper, though – that being Ofsted’s entrenched commitment to cliff-edge grades. This is what creates those pressures that fuel workforce stress and undermine reliability, while Ofsted itself is left largely unaccountable. The balance of power has remained entirely with the inspectorate, with accountability largely only directed towards educators. It’s been fascinating to see how, in its much-delayed consultation response regarding the new framework, Ofsted describes those disagreeing with the proposals as ‘ A small but vocal minority ’ – though that assertion is somewhat undermined by the volume of damning responses from school professionals described elsewhere in the same report as a ‘mixed and largely negative response’. A fewtweaks Ofsted’s current Chief Inspector has talked up consistency, pledging early on that every inspection would be led by HMI or recent ex-HMI. Inmy own early years as an HMI (having been appointed in 2005) schools found inspection by an HMI reassuring. However, given the present day rapid turnover of staff with limited experience, this was a flimsy promise – and one that’s allegedly been broken, with inspectors who left HMI nine years ago said to be leading visits again. So, what has actually changed?Well, the old four-point scale (Inadequate, Requires Improvement, Good, Outstanding) has now become five – ‘Urgent Improvement’, ‘Needs Attention’, ‘Expected Standard’, ‘Strong Standard’ and ‘Exceptional’. Descriptors have given way to a ‘toolkit,’ while safeguarding gets a separate ‘Met/Not met.’ Six areas now carry judgements – those being inclusion; curriculum and teaching; achievement; attendance and behaviour; personal development and wellbeing; and leadership and governance. Sounds new? Not really. It’s the 2019-25 framework with a few tweaks. The old ‘Quality of Education’ judgement has been split into three. There are some welcome additions in the toolkit, such as the expectation for teachers to understand subject differences, and a requirement for all pupils to be explicitly taught oracy. Otherwise, the message is clear – little has changed . Ofsted has placed ‘Expected standard’ in the middle of its toolkit page, signalling that this is what most schools will receive. In practice, though, many currently judged as ‘Good’/ grade 2 will slide to ‘Expected’/grade 3). So yes, everything looks different, withmore boxes to tick, more grades and yet more jargon. But the fundamentals? Unchanged. The cliff edge is still there. The stakes remain in place. The disillusionment felt by many is still real. Ofsted has tinkered with the labels, but not the system itself. As schools and staff carry on contending with the same set of pressures, the rest of us may well ask, ‘ Was all this noise really worth it? ’ Everything has changed. Yet nothing has. Adrian Lyons surveys Ofsted’s new framework and discovers that everything has changed, but little has progressed... 21 teachwire.net/secondary O F S T E D