Source · Select Committees · Education Committee

Recommendation 23

23 Deferred Paragraph: 84

Develop an alternative to single-word overall judgements for complex school performance assessments.

Conclusion
The Department and Ofsted should work together as a priority to develop an alternative to the current single-word overall judgement that better captures the complex nature of a school’s performance, and ensure that these changes interact effectively with Department policies. In doing so, they should look at other jurisdictions both within and outside the UK, to assess what has worked well beyond the English context.
Government Response Summary
The government states that developing an alternative to single-word judgements is a matter for the Department for Education (DfE), not Ofsted, and commits to engaging with the DfE on it.
Paragraph Reference: 84
Government Response Deferred
HM Government Deferred
Many of the recommendations in the Committee’s report fall to the DfE, rather than Ofsted. We will engage with the DfE on inspection grades (Recommendation 14), on ensuring the consequences of inspection are proportionate (Recommendation 16), on support for schools that need to improve (particularly through our monitoring programmes) (Recommendation 18) and on considering new approaches to inspecting safeguarding (Recommendation 26). However, these are matters for the DfE, as is Recommendation 19 on improving the transparency and accountability of the work of the regional directors. ... Nearly all of the other recommendations fall to the DfE (Recommendations 4, 14, 16, 18 to 19, 26 and 28), and we commit to engaging with them on all relevant matters. We note that Recommendation 19 is not a matter for Ofsted.