Schools `being wrongly listed as failures'
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.THE WRONG conclusion is reached about schools in one in six inspections, chief education officers told MPs yesterday.
Professor Tim Brighouse, the Birmingham chief education officer and a senior government advisor on standards, said he had experience of schools wrongly classed as weak, or failing, by inspectors. In one case, he told MPs, a decision to declare a school failing had left an experienced head teacher, brought in to turn around the school, recovering in a psychiatric ward. The judgment came despite comments from senior Her Majesty's Inspectors that the school had been improving.
Professor Brighouse shares the vice-chairmanship of the Government's school standards task force with Chris Woodhead, the chief inspector of schools. But yesterday, members of the Commons education select committee heard the professor make an outspoken attack on the Office for Standards in Education.
In another case, he said, a school which local officers felt had serious weaknesses passed its Ofsted inspection with flying colours. Professor Brighouse declined to name the school, but said the case was one of around one in ten inspections where local education officers felt the inspectorate had got its judgments wrong.
The professor said both over- generous and over-critical reports were damaging to the drive to raise standards. "If you get judgments slightly wrong in either direction they can set a school back," he said. "That is so serious because it can cause a school either to become complacent, or go into despair."
Two other chief education officers, Dr Paul Gray from Surrey and Mr Jonathan Harris from Cornwall, said that in up to one in six cases, Ofsted's judgments were contradicted by their own Local Education Authority inspectors. "We like to think we know our schools pretty well," said Mr Harris. "Different teams could go into the same school and give different reports," he said. "That is something which is not acceptable, and Ofsted should be doing more to address it."
Dr Gray said: "We find sometimes that Ofsted judgements are totally out of line with our own knowledge of a school."
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments