The majority of school leaders are opposed to Ofsted’s proposed report card grading system for inspecting schools, a survey has suggested.
More than nine in 10 (92%) said they disagreed with Ofsted’s plans to grade schools across at least eight areas of a provision using a five-point scale, according to the snap poll by school leaders’ union NAHT.
Paul Whiteman, general secretary of the NAHT, has called on the watchdog to reconsider its “ill-thought-through plans” and go back to the drawing board.
The findings come after Ofsted launched a consultation on Monday on its plans to introduce a new report card system for schools in England.
Schools could be graded across a variety of different areas – including attendance and inclusion – using a colour-coded five-point scale.
But a poll, of 3,045 NAHT members in England, suggests 96% of respondents do not think that Ofsted will make meaningful changes in response to the views shared by the profession during the consultation.
The survey, which ran between Monday and Wednesday, also attracted more than 1,900 individual free text comments citing concerns in under 48 hours.
One school leader said: “They have done incredibly well to make a stressful and blunt approach to school inspection even more stressful and blunt.
“It will increase inconsistency, drive up workload and create exponentially more stress on headteachers and leaders.
“It has been done with haste, has not taken sufficient voice from the profession and, along with other changes is being rushed through, will be disastrous.”
Another leader said: “I cannot see how this new inspection model will have any positive impact on schools and especially the pressure faced by leaders.
“Feels like lengthening the stick to beat us with.”
Mr Whiteman said: “School leaders are ambitious about standards, but these proposals will increase the workload of teachers, driving them away from the classroom.
“When these proposals were leaked at the end of last year, we warned that they would not work.
“Rather than rethinking the plans, Ofsted is pressing ahead with a model that has attracted almost universal criticism.
“Ofsted needs to go back to the drawing board, urgently reconsider these ill-thought-through plans, and listen to the profession.”
The Government announced last year that headline Ofsted grades for overall effectiveness for schools in England would be scrapped.
Previously, Ofsted awarded one of four single-phrase inspection judgments: outstanding, good, requires improvement and inadequate.
Now schools in England would receive gradings – from the red-coloured “causing concern” to orange-coloured “attention needed”, through the green shades of “secure”, “strong” and “exemplary” – for at least eight areas of a school’s provision under the new proposals.
A separate poll of teachers this week suggested that only 6% felt positive about Ofsted’s proposals.
A poll by Teacher Tapp, of 9,683 teachers, found that more than a third (35%) felt somewhat or very negative and 21% felt neutral about the proposals.
Nearly two in five (38%) said they had not seen the new plans, according to the poll carried out on Tuesday.
On Monday, Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson said she “fundamentally” rejected the idea that giving more information on where schools need to improve is “not something that parents want”, after unions and the sister of a headteacher who took her own life following an inspection criticised the plans.
An Ofsted spokesperson said: “We want our inspections to raise standards for all children and provide better information for parents.
“We would encourage everyone to look at our detailed proposals and respond to the consultation.”
