Ofsted overall effectiveness judgement stays

The Department for Education (DfE) this week rejected calls from the Parliamentary education committee for the four overall effectiveness judgments to be scrapped.

MPs believed that following the death of headteacher Ruth Perry and the coroner’s ruling in December that an Ofsted inspection at Caversham Primary School contributed to her suicide.

In its formal response to the committee, the DfE said that the government will continue to listen to views and look at alternative systems, including the various approaches taken internationally, but that the government’s view is that there are significant benefits from having an Ofsted overall effectiveness grade.

The DfE feel that the priority is to look for ways to improve the current system rather than developing an alternative to it and caution against the risks of a system without an overall effectiveness grade.

The government’s view is that it is preferable to have those views, decisions and consequences linked directly to the independent inspectorate’s overall findings rather than interpretations by civil servants, politicians and the media looking through the narrative of reports and drawing their own conclusions.