Spielman outlines “major risks” to education
HMCI Amanda Spielman has set out six “major risks” to the quality of education in a letter to Parliament’s Education Select Committee.
Despite calling for more funding for the further education sector she said that inspectors had not noticed a decline in the quality of education in schools as funding had fallen.
- “Intractable schools” – Spielman raised concerns about around 490 “intractable schools” that had performed poorly in inspection for some time and set out plans to look into the failure of interventions in these schools. She also said that the proportion of ‘stuck’ secondary schools “varies considerably among different regions” and they have high levels of FSM eligibility and white british pupils. In December 2017 Ofsted published data with details of 124 schools inspected in 2016/17 that had been inadequate or requires improvement at every inspection since 2005. Just four of those schools were in the North East.
- Lack of scrutiny on ‘outstanding’ schools – Ofsted has in recent months increased pressure on the Government to remove the inspection exemption for ‘outstanding’ schools and Ms Spielman again reiterated these sentiments.
- Lack of powers to inspect MATs – Calling for greater powers to inspect MATs, Spielman warned that “the current construction of the accountability system no longer reflects the education system we have today”.
- Accountability Framework – Referring to changes in Ofsted’s September 2019 framework, she pointed to the Inspectorate’s own research which found that “an overly data-driven accountability system is narrowing what pupils are able to study and learn”.
- Off-rolling and illegal schools a ‘huge concern’ – Calling for a register of home-schooled pupils, Spielman said a lack of information on children taken out of school for home education is “perhaps my greatest concern as chief inspector”. She went on to say Ofsted had “a lot of anecdotal evidence” that suggests parents are home-educating their children “under duress, to prevent exclusion”. She also said Ofsted continues to identify illegal schools but is severely limited by its lack of powers to seize evidence.
- DfE and councils don’t support schools under pressure – According to Spielman, “too little support” is given by the DfE and local authorities to “schools that face pressure from groups in the local community or national pressure groups”.
Read the full letter here.