Branwen JeffreysEducation Editor
BBC
Ofsted’s new ‘traffic light’ rating system for schools across England came into force this week – but does it mark meaningful change or, as one expert argues, “high level tinkering”?
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When Nick Green quit teaching after 17 years, one factor drove him above all others: to never go through another Ofsted inspection.
“I got out to avoid the vile process,” says Nick, 63, who was a primary school teacher and head teacher in Derbyshire. “I saw teachers become different, unlikeable people with Ofsted; I saw them cry, shout and hide in toilets. It was horrific.”
Inspections of his own schools were, he says, mostly positive – the majority received “outstanding” ratings and he never had one that was ranked below “good”.
But even so, he says that he felt weighed down by “the feeling that your career was on the line” if a judgement went the wrong way.
The same, he adds, was true of colleagues across the country.
Nick Green
After 17 years of teaching, Nick Green says the stress of inspections contributed to his decision to quit
Nick, who is 63, is retired now, having worked until recently as a senior lecturer in education, and contacted Your Voice, Your BBC News to share his story. He joins a line of teachers, head teachers and education unions that have criticised Ofsted’s past inspection methods – often on account of the blunt rating system: “outstanding”, “good”, “requires improvement” or “inadequate”.
Only now, everything has changed.
From this week, those old rankings – which were scrapped last year – have been replaced with new colour-coded report cards with more detail. Some call them a “traffic light system”; critics have likened them to Nando’s spice cards.
Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson is firm that they will provide parents with “rich, granular insight”. But not everyone is convinced.
A letter signed by more than 30 people – including the leaders of four teaching unions in England – warns the new system will “continue to have a detrimental impact on the wellbeing of education staff and hence on students’ school experience”.
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Bridget Phillipson backs Ofsted’s new rating system, saying the previous four categories were “too blunt” and “too vague”
The National Association of Head Teachers (NAHT), which mainly represents primary head teachers, has said it will ballot on whether to take strike action over the new system in England.
But some inspectors are reported to be concerned by the changes for entirely different reasons.
One whistleblower told a newspaper last year that Ofsted was “bending over backwards” to make inspections less stressful – at pupils’ expense.
Whatever side of the argument you sit on, the sheer vigorousness of the debate prompts the question: what really is the most effective method of assessing a school – and are we thinking about how to rate them in entirely the wrong way?
The tragedy that sparked calls for change
It was a tragedy involving one head teacher that was a catalyst in bringing this system under the spotlight.
Ruth Perry had been the head of Caversham Primary School in Reading for more than a decade when Ofsted inspectors arrived in November 2022.
Afterwards she learned they had decided to downgrade the school from outstanding to inadequate, the lowest grade.
Two months after the inspection, Mrs Perry died by suicide.
A coroner later ruled an Ofsted inspection had contributed to her death – and issued a report calling for changes.
PA Wire
Ruth Perry was 53 when she took her own life
For over three decades, Ofsted – the Office for Standards in Education, Children’s Services and Skills – has inspected schools, colleges, nurseries and childminders across England.
In Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland inspections are carried out by separate bodies entirely, with their own methods.
There had long been criticisms of the Ofsted system, including from within the teaching profession, about the pressure inspections brought and how useful they were.
In the report calling for changes following Mrs Perry’s death, system-wide issues were highlighted – and the possibility a school could be judged “inadequate” despite being good in almost every respect was raised.
In the wake of an independent study commissi
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