OFSTED has published its first reports on schools in the Downend area carried out under a new “significantly more demanding” marking framework.
The education regulator changed its method of assessing and grading schools after widespread calls for change to the previous system of one and two-word ratings.
The pressures the system placed teachers under came to national attention when a coroner ruled that an Ofsted inspection of a Berkshire primary school in 2022 contributed to the suicide of its head teacher, Ruth Perry, who had been told it would be downgraded from the top rating of ‘outstanding’ to the bottom rating, ‘inadequate’.
Ofsted abandoned overall ratings for schools last year.
Its new system has replaced the old grades – ‘outstanding’, ‘good’, ‘requires improvement’ and ‘inadequate’ – with a “traffic light” system.
Schools are given marks in seven areas, ranging from ‘exceptional’ (blue) through ‘strong standard’ and ‘expected standard’ (green) to ‘needs attention’ (amber) and ‘urgent improvement’ (red).
However, the new system has already been criticised, with an independent review commissioned by Ofsted finding the increase in areas judged has led to concerns there are now “many more ways to fail” for schools.
Leaders of one of the first schools inspected, Blackhorse Primary School, say the system is “significantly more demanding” than the previous one, with “more exacting and tightly defined” judgements.
Teachers have also stressed that the new scoring doesn’t match up exactly with previous ratings: some performance that would have been judged to be ‘good’ previously can now receive a ‘needs attention’ score, and some ‘outstanding’ performance now falls within the third, ‘expected standard’ category.
Ofsted has stressed that ‘needs attention’ is “not a fail” but “highlights where issues can be addressed before they become bigger problems that need urgent improvement”.
The first schools in the area to have reports published are Blackhorse and St Augustine of Canterbury primary schools.