Ofsted downgrades hundreds of excellent English schools

• Ofsted study finds majority of outstanding schools in England that were inspected last year have received lower ratings.
• National Education Union (NEU) says Ofsted’s conclusions are “unreliable, invalid and untrustworthy”.

According to a study from the schools watchdog, the majority of the outstanding schools in England that were inspected last year have received lower ratings.

According to Ofsted, many of them would have gone through “substantial change” including getting new head teachers because some of them hadn’t been examined in 15 years.

Ofsted’s conclusions, according to the National Education Union (NEU), are “often unreliable.”

Most schools, according to the Department of Education, continue to be excellent or decent.

Outstanding schools were only reviewed again between 2012 and 2020 if specific issues were brought forward.

Ofsted reported that 308 primary and secondary schools, or 80% of the excellent schools it had examined the previous year, had been degraded.

The majority were downgraded to good, while 17% were informed they needed to improve, and 4% were deemed insufficient.

When choosing which schools to examine the previous year, Ofsted claimed that it had given priority to those that had gone the longest without an inspection.

The schools it visited had gone 13 years without an inspection on average, but some had gone as long as 15.

The Today program on Radio 4 quoted Ofsted Chief Inspector Amanda Spielman as saying, “These are the schools who have gone the longest without being inspected, so are maybe a little bit more likely not to remain outstanding.”

She stated that while the majority of schools have continued to be rated as “excellent,” it is “concerning that quite a large proportion have been designated as needing improvement.”

According to her, there was no set goal for the number of exceptional schools.

When asked afterwards by MPs if there had previously been an excessive number of outstanding ratings, Ms. Spielman responded, “The numbers had gone quite high, uncomfortably high.” Additionally, the previous inspection method “may have paid more attention to process than substance.”

Kevin Courtney, the joint general secretary of the NEU, claimed that Ofsted’s conclusions were “often untrustworthy and invalid.”

He said Ofsted was “driving good teachers away” and “punitive and ill-informed inspection” slowing down improvement

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