Ofsted ‘to stop focusing on exams’

SCHOOL inspections are to focus less on exam results and more on ‘how children learn’, according to proposals from Ofsted.

Amanda Spielman, chief inspector of schools, said there was too much pressure on schools to produce top grades at the expense of everything else.

Mrs Spielman said it had led to some schools simply ‘teaching to the test’ – rather than offering a ‘broad, rich and deep’ curriculum.

She said there would be a shift in focus towards how good the teaching is at schools, adding: ‘We know that focusing too narrowly on test and exam results can often leave little time or energy for hard thinking about the curriculum, and in fact can sometimes end up making a casualty of it.

‘Our new focus will change that, bringing the inspection conversation back to the substance of young people’s learning and treating teachers as experts in their field, not just data managers.’

A consultation on the proposals will be launched in January.