The government has unveiled its new system of grading schools – and quickly received low marks from angry teaching unions.
The one or two-word judgments on which schools were assessed in England for years – “good”, “outstanding” down to “requires improvement” or “inadequate” – are out.
The new system, outlined by Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson, will see schools assessed in nine separate areas – such as leadership, behaviour, achievement, attendance and safeguarding.
They will be given one of five grades – from “exemplary” to “causing concern” – and a traffic light rating of red, amber and green.
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New regional teams, with a budget of up to £100,000 per school, will help turn around “stuck schools” which repeatedly fall into the lowest categories.
The battle lines were quickly drawn between those who claim this will lead to anxiety for teachers and be too confusing, and ministers who say parents have a right to more detail.
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The headteachers’ union ASCL said report cards “appear to be even worse” than single-word judgments.
One education leader told the Financial Times the colour codes were like the spice chart at Nando’s. “It’s still lemon and herbs, extra hot”, they said, claiming evaluating more areas would make school leaders more anxious.
The education secretary used a speech in Westminster to hit back at her critics, saying: “I fundamentally reject this idea that somehow providing more information and shining a light on areas where there’s need for improvement, but also where there’s excellence, is somehow not something that parents want”.
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The system was ripped up following years of criticism of Ofsted, culminating in the death of Ruth Perry, a headteacher, who took her own life two months after her school, Caversham Primary in Reading, was downgraded from “outstanding” to “inadequate” over safeguarding concerns.
Her sister, Professor Julia Waters, called the new proposals a “dangerous rehash” of the old system.
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The education secretary said England’s schools – of which 90% are now rated good or outstanding in one of the key achievements of the last Conservative government – may now be victims of their own success.
Few parents, she said, feel that the “good” rating – which has been applied to schools in both the top and bottom 1% of attainment – gives a full picture.
Inspectors will now have to make more complex and more regular judgments.
A trial over the next three months will help determine if parents find it easier to make choices for their children, or find they have good options to choose from.
