The government has scrapped single-phrase headline Ofsted grades “with immediate effect” for schools, and said the move will “follow” for other sectors like FE.
It comes ahead of a switch to new report cards next September.
Education secretary Bridget Phillipson said the removal of headline grades was a “generational reform and a landmark moment for children, parents, and teachers”.
“Single headline grades are low information for parents and high stakes for schools. Parents deserve a much clearer, much broader picture of how schools are performing – that’s what our report cards will provide.
“This government will make inspection a more powerful, more transparent tool for driving school improvement. We promised change, and now we are delivering.”
The immediate scrapping of headline grades will apply to state schools only. It will “follow” for private schools, early years settings, colleges, independent training providers, social care and initial teacher training, but the government has not said when.
The DfE told FE Week that removing single headline grades isn’t possible to implement across all sectors all at once because this “takes time and capacity”.
The department could not say whether the policy will be extended to FE and skills providers before report cards are introduced in September 2025.
David Hughes, chief executive of the Association of Colleges, said there would have been “a lot of support” from college leaders, parents and students for this to “immediately change for colleges as well”. He added: “I look forward to hearing more from Ofsted about why that has not happened”.
Report cards from 2025
Labour pledged ahead of July’s election to scrap single-phrase Ofsted judgments and replace them with a system of report cards. It followed the death of headteacher Ruth Perry.
Last November a coroner ruled an Ofsted inspection contributed to her suicide after she was told her school had been rated ‘inadequate’.
The government today confirmed the new report cards will come into effect from September 2025 following a consultation on their design and content.
Government has promised “extensive consultation with parents, schools and the sector”.
The current sub-judgments of quality of education, behaviour and attitudes, personal development and leadership and management will continue to be used this year. And schools will continue to be graded for each of those areas.
The DfE said Ofsted’s “big listen” consultation, which is set to report back tomorrow, found only three in 10 professionals and four in 10 parents supported single-phrase judgments for overall effectiveness.
Schools that have already been inspected and received a headline grade will retain it until their next inspection.
Intervention to be based on sub-grades
Ministers said Ofsted would continue to identify, and the Department for Education would “continue to intervene where necessary, in cases of the most serious concern”.
The watchdog is under a legal duty to identify schools causing concern – defined as those requiring special measures or requiring significant improvement.
Intervention will be triggered by the sub-judgment grades, often referred-to as limiting judgments because under the previous system if one is rated ‘inadequate’, the school’s overall effectiveness of a school is deemed ‘inadequate’ too.
Intervention would include issuing an academy order, “which may in some cases mean transferring to new management” and by issuing existing academies with termination warning notices.
Perry family ‘delighted and relieved’
Perry’s sister, Professor Julia Waters, said her family was “delighted and relieved” headline grades had been scrapped for schools.
But she said headline grades were “just the most visible feature of a fundamentally flawed inspection system”.
“I hope this moment marks the beginning of more extensive reform of Ofsted’s punitive inspection system, and the end of its unaccountable and defensive institutional culture. Too many people in Ofsted have mistaken nastiness for rigour and inhumanity for efficiency.”
Paul Whiteman, general secretary of the National Association of Headteachers, added: “There is much work to do now in order to design a fundamentally different long-term approach to inspection and we look forward to working with government to achieve that.”
Pepe Di’Iasio, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, added report cards have “the potential to provide parents with a more rounded picture of performance”.
“The big challenge now is to make sure that we get this right and that we don’t end up replacing one flawed system with another flawed system.”
Only for schools?
No acknowledgement of the devastating impact of one word judgements on colleges and ITP’s then?
ITP’s in particular have been dealt an awful hand by one word judgements, with many staff losing their livelihoods.
There should be a consistent approach to all Ofsted inspections.
Agree – this should be system wide not just schools. An inspection has an incredible impact and causes great concern and anxiety amongst other providers too! The thought of it makes people ill.
We have already had so called report cards in college reports in ALI times that broke down judgements for every stream such as 16-18, adults and apprenticeships. Grading meetings were longer and the process of the team making the card of grades eventually became farcical and ill-judged. Inspectors referred to them privately as ‘bingo cards’. Should we not ever learn from mistakes of the past?