Ofsted inspections matter

Anyone working in education is aware of the pressure that Ofsted inspections can bring. A positive report can attract energetic families and higher quality teachers to a school, putting it on a sustained path to improvement for all its pupils. A poor report can lead to the reverse, and harm the career prospects of those involved. The process can seem all the more intense because it is boiled down to a single word judgment, which heads can feel misses the nuances and complexities they must face.

But at heart, Ofsted reports are not for the teaching staff. They are for children and their parents looking to find the best schools. It may be that the way that inspections are conducted needs to be reformed. They have perhaps moved too far away from the core evaluation of teaching and academic rigour and towards an overbearing scrutiny of peripheral matters. But overall, the pressure to deliver an outstanding education, to attain that rating measured against clear criteria, has undoubtedly been a key driver of improved standards in recent years.

Education is critical to children’s chances in life. Regrettably, the teaching unions – which are campaigning for Ofsted to be replaced – sometimes have other priorities. But if ministers accede to their demands, the result may be a world without external benchmarking, with the unions marking their own homework, as we saw was their instinctive inclination during the pandemic, when they resisted a return to exams. That may be in their interests, but it is not in the interests of children.