Tag Archives: Ofsted

Ofsted : unreliable, destructive, beyond repair

Posted on December 5, 2019 by

Ofsted is clearly beyond repair, and the Election provides an opportunity to close it for good. This will help to stop the mass exodus of teachers from England’s schools. It will help schools concentrate on what really matters: children’s education … Continue reading →

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Primary school tests and children’s mental health

Posted on June 7, 2019 by

One study after another has shown the damage being caused by SATs to children’s mental health. In a survey by the ATL (now part of the National Education Union) in 2016, 89% thought that testing and exams were the biggest cause … Continue reading →

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Ofsted: notoriously unreliable

Posted on April 3, 2019 by

Ofsted judgments have never been trustworthy. There have been problems from the start. It should come as no surprise that none of the 46 schools wearing an Outstanding label which were inspected this January retained that label: 37 became Good, … Continue reading →

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Urgent action on Ofsted

Posted on February 17, 2019 by

Ofsted are desperately trying to rebrand themselves, including the claim that they will rely less on test data and more on intelligent engagement with the school’s curriculum. There are good reasons to be sceptical about this, given the hit-and-run nature … Continue reading →

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Ofsted – a fairer future?

Posted on February 3, 2019 by

Rumours are circulating that schools in poor areas will stand a better chance of getting a good Ofsted grade, but where is this coming from? There are no such promises in the new draft Inspection Framework. In fact, page 11 shows … Continue reading →

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Progress 8 and the North East

Posted on January 29, 2018 by

Schools in North East England are under attack again. According to Progress 8 scores, its schools are the least effective in the country, with the highest percentage coming ‘below the floor’. But Progress 8 is a flawed and misleading measure. … Continue reading →

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Will anything but a boycott stop the tests?

Posted on July 11, 2017 by

The Reclaiming Schools network has played a significant role in exposing the damage caused by high-stakes testing, including our pamphlet ‘The Mismeasurement of Learning‘, widely circulated in the NUT and elsewhere, various series of blogposts carrying detailed analysis from specialist … Continue reading →

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Tower block tenants – the people who didn’t matter

Posted on July 2, 2017 by

The possibility of a tower block catching fire and burning out within the hour was a nightmare never to be contemplated. And now it has happened. Words cannot describe the experience of Grenfell Tower residents, living and dead, as they … Continue reading →

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Progress 8 another unfair measure

Posted on February 24, 2017 by

In a recent post Progress 8 – another attack on working-class schools  we drew on Education Datalab research to show how this supposedly fair measure is weighted against schools serving poorer communities. This is because young people growing up in poverty … Continue reading →

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Progress 8 – another attack on working-class schools

Posted on January 21, 2017 by

Progress 8 was supposed to be fair. It has become just another way of hammering schools with the most disadvantaged students. Its designers clearly took care to avoid some of the problems with counting 5 A*-Cs, which often led to a concentration … Continue reading →

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