The way Ofsted inspects education providers - from nurseries, all the way through school and to colleges - will change from this September. I want to talk about what the changes will mean for children, young people and their parents.

When the new school year begins, we will introduce a new judgement of the ‘quality of education’. Inspectors will focus particularly on what children are actually learning through the curriculum, which is the substance of education.

Test and exam results will still matter, of course, but they will have less emphasis in our inspection reports. After all, parents can already find out about a school’s results in other ways.

Our inspectors will check that children are gaining real knowledge and skills, and are not just being taught to pass a test. Good intentions are one thing, but our inspectors will be asking: what do children and young people know, and have they been able to apply their learning?

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This is because we want to make sure that good results flow from a broad and rich curriculum, from children gaining a deep understanding of what is being taught. In this way, they are ready for the next stage of their education and better prepared for later life.

We are also introducing a new ‘behaviour and attitudes’ judgement, which will tell parents more about how their local schools are dealing with bullying, and how well pupils behave. And separately, a new ‘personal development’ judgement will consider the work early years providers, schools and colleges are doing to build children’s resilience and confidence, including through sport, the arts and extra-curricular activities.

James McNeillie, Ofsted's assistant director for the West Midlands
James McNeillie, Ofsted's assistant director for the West Midlands

These changes follow a public consultation, which prompted a staggering 15,000-plus responses – a measure of the interest in the work that Ofsted does.

Nine out of 10 parents know the Ofsted grade of their child’s school or childcare provider. But parenting and work don’t leave much time to read our inspection reports in depth.

That is why we are redesigning and shortening our reports to provide just the key information that parents need in order to understand how their child’s school is doing. This will also help parents who are choosing a new school for their child.

Inspectors will be looking to see if schools offer a broad curriculum
Inspectors will be looking to see if schools offer a broad curriculum

So, from the autumn, Ofsted inspection reports will tell you what it’s like for a child or a young person in that nursery, school or college. And, as they do now, our reports will also tell you what is being done well, and what could be done better.

We are keeping the current grading structure, so you will still see outstanding, good, requires improvement and inadequate ratings in our reports.

If we look locally, I can see that there is room for improvement in Stoke-on-Trent. Our recent data, published just last week, shows that 80 per cent of schools in the city are good or outstanding, below the nationwide figure of 85 per cent.

I’d hope to see more schools like Whitfield Valley Primary Academy , where more than 400 pupils get the benefit of outstanding teaching and strong leadership. When we visited this school, our inspectors saw that poorer pupils did just as well as others.

And the pupils enjoyed a broad and rich curriculum, taking part in such activities as swimming, athletics, dancing and gymnastics during and after school.

Taken together, I hope our changes will mean that teachers spend less time on paperwork and more time doing what they first came into the profession to do: teaching and inspiring children and young people, and preparing them for their life ahead. 

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