Replacing Ofsted

After 30 years of increasing teacher workload, adding to the stress of school leaders and intensifying the recruitment/retention crisis in schools, it's time for Ofsted to be replaced.

We are calling on Government to work with us and other important stakeholders, like parents, to create a new approach to school and college evaluation which is supportive, effective and fair.

We can learn a lot from other countries with better approaches to inspection

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development ("the OECD") conducts research into countries across the globe.

    They examine:
  • what contributes to good pupil outcomes
  • what fuels equity, access and inclusion
  • what develops a strong profession and research-based practice; and
  • what retains teachers and school staff.

Evidence from the OECD suggests there are nine features that should underpin an effective accountability framework with pupils at its centre. None of these features are present in the approach taken to school inspection in England currently.

According to the OECD, effective accountability must do the following:
  • 1. Support and challenge the work of teachers and leaders and assist schools and colleges to support and improve their performance.
  • 2. Encourage teacher creativity and local innovation and promote teacher self-efficacy and agency.
  • 3. Be founded on a shared understanding of effective practices in teaching and recognise that this is the subject of ongoing research and discussion, can be highly contested and is open to interpretation and new developments.
  • 4. Reflect the complexity of teachers' professional understanding and practice and not be driven by summative performance measures.
  • 5. Support teaching quality by not increasing bureaucracy but making best use of sustainably generated information.
  • 6. Be conducted by well-trained evaluators who are accountable for their contribution to quality education. The practice of any external evaluators must be monitored by consistent and effective quality assurance providers.
  • 7. Support the development of schools and colleges as professional learning institutions with collegiate relations and professional dialogue between teachers and leaders.
  • 8. Be compatible with well-aligned procedures for teacher recruitment, registration, induction and mentoring, support structures and professional instruments of evaluation.
  • 9. Make connections between the different evaluation components to ensure that those components are sufficiently linked in order to avoid unnecessary bureaucracy, unhelpful duplication, and so that there are no conflicts between accountability processes.
Support our campaign

Things need to change. The fact that these features are identified in international research and that other countries have approaches which draw on these positive goals means that things CAN change. Because things are different, and better, in other countries.

Support our campaign today by signing and sharing the Replace Ofsted: Let Teachers Teach petition.

Together, we'll shape the future of education.

Sign the petition