In defence of Ofsted

When it comes to Ofsted, people often like to trot out the old adage that ‘you don’t grow a pig by weighing it.’ Others might rebuttal that you grow the pig by measuring its progress and making necessary adjustments to its diet, hence the need for inspections. However, a new report by Beyond Ofsted, an National Education Union-funded inquiry, is now suggesting that the pig will grow best if we allow it to self-evaluate its weight instead. 

There is no doubt that radical reform is needed. Trust between schools and Ofsted has completely broken down; too many schools operate in a culture of fear because inspections have become more punitive than supportive; the current process demoralises teachers, who are already in worryingly short supply and are leaving in droves; meanwhile the fate of a school can hinge on a subjective, single-word judgement that is rarely a meaningful representation of reality for parents.