Alarm as ‘outstanding’ schools downgraded
Ofsted calls for more routine reassessments as only 16pc retain top rating following reinspection
OFSTED has issued a warning over “outstanding” schools as the number retaining the status has halved.
Official figures show that this academic year only 16 per cent of schools retained their “outstanding” status following reinspection, compared with 33 per cent last year. Schools rated “outstanding”, the highest Ofsted grade, are much sought after by parents and often drive up local house prices as families flock to live within their catchment area.
These schools are exempt from routine inspection by law and are only visited if the watchdog has concerns about performance. It means some can go without inspection for a decade.
Amanda Spielman, chief inspector of schools in England, said Ofsted had “substantially increased” the number of inspections of “outstanding” schools, amid concern that parents no longer had confidence in the rating and said the figures on “outstanding” schools being downgraded following reinspection should “set alarm bells ringing”.
Ms Spielman said: “Some haven’t been inspected for over a decade and when our inspectors go back in they sometimes find standards have significantly declined.” She urged ministers to lift the exemption and give Ofsted the resources to routinely inspect them to ensure ratings remained a “meaningful and genuine beacon of excellence”. A report by the National Audit Office last year found that 296 “outstanding” schools had not been inspected for more than 10 years. The Good Schools Guide told parents looking for the best schools to make reconnaissance trips to the school gates rather than rely on outdated Ofsted reports.
It said parents often were hung up on whether a school had an “outstanding” or “good” Ofsted rating, even if its last full inspection was years ago.
Elizabeth Coatman, the guide’s state education specialist, said it was better to visit a prospective school at the end of the day, to observe the behaviour of pupils and chat to parents.
Figures published yesterday showed that between Sept 1, 2018 and March 31, 2019, Ofsted inspected 305 “outstanding” primary and secondary schools – 8 per cent of exempt schools – and twice the number inspected during the previous academic year.
Only 49 (16 per cent) inspected so far this academic year retained the grading, compared with 49 of 150 (33 per cent) inspected between Sept 1, 2017 and Aug 31, 2018.
The overall proportion of schools judged “good” or “outstanding” at the most recent inspection dropped in the past two years, from 87 per cent in August 2017 to 85 per cent by March 2019.
A Department for Education spokesman said: “Ofsted inspects ‘outstanding’ schools where specific concerns have been raised, so while 70 per cent of those reinspected are ‘good’ or ‘outstanding’ it is only to be expected in some cases schools will have declined. This shows the approach is working. We have asked Ofsted to increase its inspections of ‘outstanding’ schools and to review its triggers for inspection.”