Ofsted is a cruel mistress when women do the marking

FEMALE Ofsted inspectors are a third more likely to call schools “inadequate” than their male counterparts, a study has found, as head teachers demand reforms to the inspectorate to end strikes.

Research by the University of Southampton and UCL found that female inspectors were more likely to award low Ofsted grades when inspecting similar primary schools.

A study of 35,751 school visits completed by about 1,400 inspectors between 2012 and 2019 showed that female inspectors awarded a low grade to 36.4 per cent of primary schools, compared with 33.1 per cent of male inspectors.

The gender disparity was most pronounced for the handing out of “inadequate” ratings, the lowest inspection grade, which can often result in head teachers losing their jobs. Female inspectors were a third more likely to award the lowest grade to primary schools than their male counterparts, at 5.9 per cent, compared with 4.5 per cent for male inspectors.

Academics said the research raised questions about the reliability of Ofsted inspections.

Dr Sam Sims, from UCL, said: “Given the high-stakes nature of school inspections for parents and teachers, with many parents using these school inspection grades to help choose a school for their children, one would hope that Ofsted grades accurately reflected the quality of schooling on offer.”

An Ofsted spokesman said: “Inspections are human judgments and not a tick-box exercise so there will always be a small unavoidable element of variability between inspectors. We are pleased [it] shows broadly that our inspectors reach consistent conclusions.”