Ofsted
Introduction
Good morning (bore da).
Thank you for the invitation to speak to you all today.
I also want to thank you Paul and all your colleagues for the spirit of openness and cooperation that you have shown since I took up the role. I first met with you Paul in my first week and we agreed to keep that engagement going through frequent discussions and constructive challenge.
This dialogue has been really positive and valuable as I begin my 5th month, and I hope we will still be able to say that in my 5th year.
A shared goal
I say that, because I see working with you, as a union, and as individual heads and leaders, as vital.
After all, we all have the same aims. We all care about the same thing: children.
It is our goal to make sure that every child has a great education and is well cared for. That every child has access to as many opportunities as possible. That every child has the best possible childhood, because children only get one chance at childhood.
And I know that you all have this same goal.
The most vulnerable
But I do want to make sure that we never lose sight of that. And in particular, that we all do all we can for the most vulnerable children.
And I mean that in the broadest sense. In the many different ways that vulnerability presents itself. Children facing challenges as a result:
- of cost of living difficulties
- of mental health struggles
- of special educational needs and disabilities
- of caring responsibilities
- of feeling excluded
- of the legacies of COVID
- of family dynamics
- and of course of child poverty, something Im really worried about, and that has knock on impacts on every area and aspect of childrens lives, and their futures
So, there are many factors that can make a child vulnerable, that can put them at a disadvantage. But its up to us to do what we can to make sure these factors dont prevent them from achieving everything they can.
I know the lengths you go to support all the children in your schools to succeed. Especially the most vulnerable amongst them.
I know how hard the job is for those of you serving disadvantaged communities, delivering the highest academic and behavioural standards.
So, Ofsted will use the insights we gather, area by area and community by community, to recognise the difficulty of teaching and leading in those contexts. And we will champion those schools that deliver the highest standards for vulnerable children.
How we realise that ambition and get it right is one of the reasons we launched the Big Listen.
Were listening
Hopefully many of you have already taken the opportunity to tell us your thoughts through the Big Listen. Weve had over 15,000 responses so far. That includes over 4,000 from teachers and leaders like you, nearly 3,000 from parents, and most importantly, over 3,000 responses to our childrens survey.
This is already the single biggest consultation Ofsted has ever conducted and we are still only two thirds of the way through.
If youve not responded, please add your voice! Its a genuine chance to let us know what you think. And please ask your colleagues, your parents, and your students to respond too.
As Ive said before, nothing, nothing, is off the table. The consultation includes questions on a whole range of topics, but you can answer as many or as few of them as you like. And if you want to tell us about something not covered in the questions, then there are free-text boxes in every section.
Indeed, if you want to put the same answer in every box, as at least one person already has, thats your right. But please dont miss this chance to contribute. Because it will lead to real action.
That is a promise and one I want you to hold me to. I didnt take this job to hold to business as usual. I know we can be better, and Im determined that we will be.
Making changes where we can
I know many of you are impatient to see that action. I understand that impulse.
Its an incredibly challenging time for the education sector at the moment. And it can be frustrating if improvements take longer than you would like.
Thats why, where we can, we have acted.
On my first day we put a brief halt to inspections and brought in mental health awareness training for all of our inspectors. Every inspector we use has now completed that training package, with support from Mental Health First Aid England.
Weve published as much of that training as we can, and weve committed to publishing our training in the future. I want us to be a more transparent organisation and I want us to be better at sharing what we know and what we do, with all of you.
Weve also committed to thinking through all of our inspection policies and practices, to make sure were doing all we can to reduce leaders anxiety about inspection overall.
We have updated our complaints policy, so that we can handle your concerns more fairly, thoroughly and efficiently.
We have introduced a new policy on pausing and deferring inspections where its appropriate to do so. And we have made clear that a pause can be requested when leaders require support in the interests of their well-being.
And these changes are not just for schools. Theyre for all the sectors we inspect and regulate, including social care, further education, skills providers, and the vital early years.
And next week, for schools, were making changes to our inspection reports website to show the full range of sub-judgements, rather than just the overall grade.
Announcement on small schools
And I can announce today that we are acting to reduce the burden of inspection following feedback from smaller primary schools.
Weve heard from many of you that the inspection methodology is particularly challenging for these schools. For too many of you, it feels as though inspection is designed for large secondary schools, not small primaries.
Thats the feedback weve heard weve listened we continue to listen but were also acting where we can.
So, from September, we will make changes to the way we undertake ungraded inspections for all schools. This doesnt preclude further changes to our inspections in future but where we can act quickly, we will do so.
On ungraded inspections, we will no longer conduct deep dives from September. It isnt right and it isnt helpful to try to cram all the detail of a full, graded inspection into a shorter ungraded one. Instead, we want ungraded inspections to feel more like monitoring visits.
What do I mean by that? The emphasis of these inspections will be on providing school leaders with opportunities to demonstrate where they have improved and to discuss where they still have work to do.
The inspection process must be a professional dialogue between the inspection team and school leadership. As Ive made very clear to my inspectors, I expect them to act with professionalism, empathy, courtesy, and respect, at all times. And I hope you will meet them with the same. Because theyre not trying to trick you or catch you out. Theyre trying to find out whats greatabout your school and where there is some room to improve.
So, we will invite the headteacher and the senior team to show us:
- what is typical?
- what do you do well?
- where have you made changes to improve?
- and what do you still need to tackle to make the school the best it can be?
Now, will some of those conversations be challenging? Absolutely. Exactly as they should be. Because all of us, including Ofsted, can always do better and that willingness to never stand still and to always strive for the best is what marks out the very best leaders from everyone else.
But removing the deep dives from September, will allow for a proper conversation between professionals about the schools strengths, and its areas for improvement. Not a rushed dig into every detail.
We also hope that this change will reduce the burden on subject leaders and more junior colleagues. Well focus on a dialogue with you and your senior leaders. So, while we will still want to have conversations with subject leads, this will be less intensive for them.
And the flipside of that, is that youll hopefully feel more involved. Headteachers have said that they sometimes feel out of the loop with deep dives because theyre not part of that process. Sometimes thats right, as we want to see subject leaders expertise and skills independently. But its not necessary for an ungraded inspection, so well put you and other senior leaders at the heart of them.
As Ive said, we hope that this will particularly help small primary schools, where inspection can really stretch resources.
But it will help all schools. It means that over 40% of the school inspections we plan to do next academic year will no longer have deep dives.
That means nearly 3,000 inspections, over three quarters of which are of primary schools, wont have deep dives.
Its just one, one of the ways were trying to make sure you spend as much time as possible educating