OFSTED's Issues

Poor quality inspections

OFSTED’s procedures are inadequate to form judgements that fairly reflect the quality of education and support delivered by schools

• Many OFSTED comments/reports are unfounded and misleading.

• OFSTED has inadequate resources to provide support for schools where needed. The time allocated by OFSTED to inspections (typically, half to two days) is inadequate to gather sufficient evidence to form a valid judgement about the quality of the very complex scope of education and support delivered by schools since the previous inspection (typically, five years).

• OFSTED’s evidence-gathering procedures have inadequate scope, depth and quality to form a valid conclusion about the overall quality of delivery of education schools.

• OFSTED's single-word grading is inadequate to allow parents to form a useful understanding of the quality of the education and support provided by schools.

• OFSTED refuses to share its procedures to maintain the standards or integrity of its inspectors. There is considerable evidence that it lacks even the most basic quality control procedures.

• Too many of OFSTED’s inspectors lack basic civility or competence.

• OFSTED adopts a confrontational approach to inspections.

Inappropriate complaints system

Like the Post Office, OFSTED has sole responsibility to investigate schools' complaints against its inspectors or their judgements. It offers no opportunity for complaint to an independent adjudicator. It lacks transparency in its handling of individual complaints.

• Inadequately investigated complaints allow errors and failures to remain as the basis for an OFSTED report. 

• Too often, OFSTED rejects or refuses to accept valid criticism.

• OFSTED is not trusted by the large majority of schools

• OFSTED has no transparency and accepts no accountability to schools, parents and students.