Ofsted has today announced plans to scrap its ‘satisfactory’ education rating as part of moves to tackle the problem of ‘coasting schools’, raised by the prime minister last year.
The proposals, which will be subject to consultation, would replace the ‘satisfactory’ judgement with a new ‘requires improvement’ grade.
Any school in this category will have to improve within a three-year period or be subject to special measures. These schools will also be inspected more frequently, every 12–18 months, rather than just once every three years.
Ofsted’s three other ratings – ‘inadequate’, ‘good’ and ‘outstanding’ – will remain unchanged.
Sir Michael Wilshaw, who joined Ofsted as chief inspector this month, said that he was ‘determined to look again at the judgements we award… so that those schools that most need help are identified and can properly begin the process of improvement’.
Cameron last year warned that there was a ‘shocking gap’ between the best and worst schools, and called for action against those that were not improving quickly enough.
Wilshaw today backed the prime minister’s stance, saying: ‘There are too many coasting schools not providing an acceptable standard of education. Of particular concern are the 3,000 schools educating a million children that have been “satisfactory” two inspections in a row. This is not good enough.
‘That is why I am determined to look again at the judgements we award, not only so we are accurately reporting what we see, but so that those schools that most need help are identified and can properly begin the process of improvement.’
Details of the consultation on the proposals will be announced later this month. The move comes only a few months after revised inspection standards were published. These come into force this month.
Christine Blower, the general secretary of the National Union of Teachers, said that the labelling of schools as ‘coasting’ was ‘derogatory and insulting to pupils, teachers, school leaders and governors’.
She added: ‘The government’s real agenda behind this change is of course inventing yet another category of schools that it will then seek to force into academy status.
‘The government’s focus should be on identifying and providing the resources that schools need to provide the best possible education for all children. To be constantly changing the goal posts for measuring a school’s success is destabilising and demoralising for the whole school community.’
