OFS0022

Written evidence submitted by the National Union of Teachers

Introduction

1. The National Union of Teachers (NUT) welcomes the opportunity to submit evidence related to the work of Ofsted.

2. The NUT considers the role of Ofsted and its impact on schools to be significant and it is difficult to comment in full detail on the work of Ofsted in a brief memorandum.  We have therefore focused the Union’s comments on the role that Ofsted plays within the school accountability system.

3. The NUT believes that school inspection is a leading factor, and a significant driver, of a broader ‘accountability’ framework in which schools operate. The NUT supports the view that schools must be accountable, but believes that the current model is punitive and counterproductive, and that it distorts the nature of learning and teaching. 

4. The NUT notes also the context that the fourth new framework for inspection in just three years will be introduced in September 2015.  Constant change to accountability measures is disruptive and unhelpful.

The role of Ofsted and school accountability

5. The NUT recently commissioned Prof Merryn Hutchings to lead a study which produced the independent report Exam Factories? – The impact of accountability measures on children and young people[1].  The NUT commends the report to the Select Committee, a copy of which has been sent to all Select Committee members.

6. The report found that “the accountability measure arousing the greatest concern among school leaders and teachers is Ofsted.”  It further reported that “Ofsted was also described as ‘random’ reflecting the variation between teams of inspectors and the way they use the very wide range of school attainment data” [Page 4].

7. These views are reinforced by a recent survey on teachers’ attitudes to Ofsted, where 90 per cent of NUT members reported that inspections generate additional pressure and stress for them, and, 90 per cent had considered leaving teaching in the last two years as a result of workload, much of it driven by Ofsted and schools’ expectations around inspection. [2] 

8. As reported in Exam Factories?, pupils themselves identified concerns over judgements Ofsted had made about their schools, and the impact of language such as ‘requires improvement’ or ‘inadequate’. They also highlighted the impact of judgements on perceptions of the school, practice in their school, and their own fulfilment in the school setting [Page 18]:

“They said the school wasn’t that good. … I don’t think that that was fair.” (Year 5 pupil)

“We’ve got amazing results. We all work hard and ... from actually being in the school I already know that the teaching is amazing, all our books are marked. We want to do well, and it’s just a nice environment.” (Year 7 pupil)

“There must be a level of frustration [among teachers] like the whole increased red tape and stuff, it’s inhibiting their ability to teach, I believe, rather than improving it.” (Year 13 pupil)

9. Ofsted’s own National Director for Schools recently acknowledged that there is variability in the quality and consistency of inspectors’ judgements, especially around perceptions about data. [3] The NUT argues that there should be an external review of Ofsted’s operations in the short term.

10. The Exam Factories? report found a number of practices which distorted teaching and learning in schools, and created harmful pressure on teachers, pupils and the nature of education.  These were found to be particularly prevalent in schools which had the least favourable outcomes at their last inspection, and/or where schools were serving the most disadvantaged pupil intakes.  Schools serving disadvantaged areas disproportionately receive less favourable outcomes.

11. In short, the schools in greatest need of assistance, and which most need to attract and retain the best teachers, are precisely those which feel driven to pursue the least favourable conditions for meaningful learning such as the excessive drilling and testing of students, with Ofsted, and real or perceived concerns relating to Ofsted, fuelling that practice.

12. The NUT recognises that there have been some recent positive changes in Ofsted.  These include seeking to discontinue the employment of inspectors through third party bodies and employing them instead directly in house, and the production of the Clarification for Schools document. Nevertheless, the NUT believes that Ofsted is more disruptive to schools than it is helpful, and is not an accurate measure of school effectiveness or the value added by schools and teachers.

13. Of particular concern are suggestions that Ofsted will ‘police’ Government policies, such as the Conservative Manifesto commitment (2015) to deny secondary schools the most favourable Ofsted judgements unless they enter pupils for all the EBacc subjects.  The NUT believes that were this policy to go ahead, it would be an explicit politicisation of Ofsted – an ‘independent’ body accountable to Parliament and not to the Government of the day.

A future for school accountability

14. The NUT believes that in the longer term, inspection by Ofsted should be replaced by a new model of school accountability which contributes to sustainable school development which should:

• be developed in conjunction with the teaching profession;
• be based on a professional dialogue between schools and those who monitor school effectiveness;
• be based on a developmental and advisory model of school improvement rather than a divisive inspection mechanism;
• not lead to additional workload pressures for school staff;
• be independent and perceived by the profession which it holds accountable to be independent;
• include a significant role for school self-evaluation, as happens in other countries;
• be organised locally, with local authorities playing a key role;
• encourage sharing good practice but should not be an instrument for dictating practice; and
• not be overly dictated by data analysis.  Professional dialogue is necessary to contextualise data and ensure that the relational element of schools, both staff and pupils, is understood and appreciated.

August 2015

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