Ofsted proposes assessing schools on 10 areas of performance

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England’s education regulator wants to replace one-word assessments of schools’ overall performance with similarly brief judgments in 10 areas of evaluation, according to proposals seen by the Financial Times.

Sir Martyn Oliver, the chief inspector of Ofsted, has proposed giving schools a colour-coded rating on each of the 10 areas, ranging from “exemplary”, in purple, to “causing concern”, in red.

The “report card” system would replace the old grading process where schools were given an overall judgment ranging from “outstanding” to “inadequate”, along with single-word verdicts on four subsections.

The Labour government scrapped the previous system in September after lobbying from teaching unions, who said the schools inspection regime and single rating put unmanageable pressure on teachers.

An independent review in the same week criticised Ofsted’s handling of the suicide of headteacher Ruth Perry in January 2023. The review said the regulator’s response to the tragedy was “defensive and complacent”.

An inquest last year concluded that a negative Ofsted report had contributed to Perry’s death.

Teachers have long complained that the system of headline grades was subjective, unrepresentative and difficult to appeal against, although some parents find they are helpful for deciding where to send their children.

The 10 proposed new areas of assessment are curriculum, teaching, achievement, leadership, behaviour and values, attendance, preparation for next steps, opportunities to thrive, inclusion and belonging, and safeguarding.

The inclusion and belonging assessment would judge the extent to which schools include students from socio-economically disadvantaged backgrounds and those with special education needs.

Schools would get a verdict on each area on a five-point scale, rather than four levels of performance, allowing “more nuance”, according to the proposal document seen by the FT.

The new scale would “signal a break from the past, not simply rebrand one-word judgments, and remove harmful language like ‘inadequate’,” the proposals argue.

It will launch a consultation on the new system in January ahead of its intended introduction in September. Until then schools are receiving verdicts only on the subsections that existed under the previous regime. They are: quality of education, behaviour and attitudes, personal development, and leadership and management.

One senior figure in the education sector criticised the new proposals as “really bad” and said they would face pushback from school leaders.

“School leaders’ entire identity is linked to the performance of the schools they run. If you’re branded ‘inadequate’ that can be incredibly shaming,” they said.

“Now it looks as though the system will be replaced with something even more punitive with even more areas for school leaders to be given damaging one-word judgments on.”

Ofsted held a “big listen” exercise with school representatives and parent bodies over the summer to get feedback on its regulatory functions and perception, and used this to help formulate its new assessment proposals, according to the document.

The Department for Education did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Ofsted declined to comment.