With some anticipation, the starter pistol has finally fired on Ofsted’s ‘Big Listen’. This listening exercise is an open invitation from Ofsted to its range of stakeholders to contribute insights, feedback, and suggestions aimed at refining and improving its services.
It could mark a significant turning point in how educational quality and school performance are evaluated by the inspectorate. However, just as all eyes fall on Ofsted, it’s worth thinking about our own role in the success of this venture. In short, asking ourselves how can we, through the feedback we give, help Ofsted to help us?
Underlying the important nitty gritty changes people would like to see are some interesting tensions that are likely to play into the feedback Ofsted receives, and how it acts upon it.
Let’s take a look at a few of these.
Funding
Some consideration of increased funding for Ofsted often surfaces in discussions about its operations. Indeed, in Ofsted’s response to the education committee’s recent report, it made the point that its funding is down in real terms since 2010, as well as being significantly down and as a proportion of the government’s school spend. It is hard to imagine how Ofsted can meaningfully look at improving its services without addressing this resourcing issue.
However, we should be mindful that any calls made for additional funding are in addition to school funding and not instead of it. With recruitment problems and crumbling buildings, it is hard to make the case for diverting funds away from schools towards inspection.
Scope
A second point to consider is whether such funding would be for enhancing Ofsted’s existing practice or whether it would be intended to add some additionality to its service. Many a commentator or pressure group has suggested aspects of schooling that Ofsted should add to its roster of criteria. We’re likely to see some of this resurface through the Big Listen.
But concerns have already been raised about the validity and reliability of Ofsted's judgments, reflecting broader anxieties about the subjective nature of assessing school quality. Encouraging Ofsted to delve into new areas fraught with subjectivity could exacerbate these concerns rather than alleviate them.
A key outcome of The Big Listen surely must be a reduction in the burden inspection places on the system. We should be mindful of not giving feedback that, even inadvertently, runs counter to this outcome.
A return to the golden era?
You occasionally sense a nostalgic undercurrent in some quarters for a return to what is perceived as Ofsted's 'golden era’ – the halcyon days when HMI roamed free, scattering their wisdom like petals on the breeze. Such sentiments, however, overlook the broader changes since in the educational landscape. They also overlook the fact that some of that wisdom was wrong.
We're now part of a more complex, higher-stakes accountability ecosystem, characterised by more demanding stakeholders, advanced metrics for assessing school quality, and heightened expectations for school performance. Exhortations about what Ofsted used to do, or how it used to operate, often miss this. Instead, engagement with 'The Big Listen' should recognise Ofsted's role within this broader ecosystem, emphasising systemic changes that are coherent with the landscape as it is today.
Being bold
None of this is to say the feedback Ofsted receives should be anything less than bold. One area we’re likely to see comment about, although it is not specifically raised in the consultation questions, is the future of single word/phrase judgements. Only a short time ago this felt a ‘no-go’ area in accountability reform discussions. Now it feels there could be broad agreement.
Such a shift could fundamentally alter the landscape of school evaluations, moving towards a more nuanced understanding of school performance that reflects its complex and multifaceted nature. But in practice, this change would require both Ofsted's initiative and the Department for Education's (DfE) agreement. It is worth thinking about how feedback can support both parties to coalesce around this outcome.
Feedback matters
'The Big Listen' represents an important moment for children, parents, teachers, leaders, inspectors, and government. Our engagement in this process is crucial. By offering thoughtful and considered feedback, we can help Ofsted refine its approach to better serve our schools and, ultimately, children.
We won’t all agree but I hope we will find enough common ground between us to give Ofsted and government clear, consistent and constructive feedback about what and how to do better when inspecting schools.
As teachers and leaders know well, when bringing about improvement, the quality of feedback matters.
The CST Blog welcomes perspectives from a diverse range of guest contributors. The opinions expressed in blogs are the views of the author(s), and should not be read as CST guidance or CST’s position.
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