Ofsted has responded to its ‘Big Listen’ consultation and announced the ending of one-word judgements, as well as a plan to focus on ‘inclusion’ in future reports. This signals an end to an accountability framework that made everything worse in selective areas. Grammar schools were regularly rated ‘Outstanding’ and seemingly congratulated for their clever plan to only admit middle-class pupils who had already proven their ability to succeed in exams. De facto secondary modern schools were more likely to be rated ‘Requires Improvement,’ mostly because they had a challenging task educating the vulnerable and disadvantaged pupils rejected by neighbouring grammar schools.
It is good to see that Ofsted intends to consider how schools meet the needs of vulnerable or disadvantaged children. We hope this means that grammar schools, and other socially selective schools, will be challenged for their poor record on admitting disadvantaged pupils. Grammar schools admit, on average, just 6.7% of pupils taking free school meals, while the average in non-selective schools in selective areas is 28.4%. Grammars also have a woeful record for admitting SEND pupils, with just 0.3 per cent of statemented pupils in grammar schools (compared to 2 per cent in non-selective schools in selective areas) and 4.3 per cent of SEND pupils without statements (compared to 15.5 per cent at non-selective schools in selective areas).
We can only hope that Ofsted makes no concessions for schools with selective admission policies. Why should they? When the National Association of Secondary Moderns challenged the school’s inspectorate for not taking their school’s context into account they were told ‘it’s not fair on pupils to judge schools according to different criteria.’ Grammar schools should be judged in the same way as other schools, and be rated ‘inadequate’ when judged for inclusion.
The current accountability system creates incentives for schools to reduce the inclusiveness of admissions, and even to remove ‘difficult’ pupils from school rolls. Schools with low levels of disadvantage and high prior attainment have been shown to be more likely to receive positive judgements from Ofsted. This is clearly unfair, but it also creates an imbalance in our school system. Teachers and school leaders face stress and harsh judgements if they work in challenging schools, so they are incentivised to work in ‘easier’ schools, such as grammar schools. We face a teacher recruitment crisis and this is only bad news.
CF supports Ofstedās plan to look at inclusion in its criteria for inspection, this is a positive change that could make our school system work better for pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds or with special educational needs.