Rochdale schools fall foul of Ofsted

Ofsted's new inspection regime has come under fire as figures showed almost half of country’s schools were not giving pupils a good education.

Just 18 percent of Rochdale’s schools were rated ‘outstanding’ and 18 percent were rated ‘good’, whilst 55 percent were rated ‘satisfactory.’

Nine percent of the borough’s schools were declared inadequate in the autumn and spring term 2009/10, according to figures published by the inspectorate.

Nationally the majority of schools are only reaching a ‘satisfactory’ rating. This follows a new inspection regime which came in last autumn.

The new regime puts more emphasis on classroom observation, pupil attainment and views of parents and pupils.

Nationally, the figures show that of 3,990 school inspections carried out from September to March 2010, the proportion of schools judged to be outstanding was 11 percent. This is a slight increase on the autumn term. Forty-two per cent were judged good, 38 percent satisfactory with 5 percent given notice to improve and 4 percent judged as requiring special measures.

Union leaders have accused Ofsted of "moving the goalposts".

Christine Blower, general secretary of the National Union of Teachers, said: "Schools are caught between the devil and the deep blue sea coping with an inspection regime which has unilaterally shifted the goal posts in terms of what is success and failure, and artificially created failure where none existed before."

John Dunford, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said: "A school that was graded good in the previous framework could well be downgraded to satisfactory under the new one even though they are offering a better quality of education.
"Of course, we want schools to keep striving for higher standards but it is not helpful to parents or schools when the basis for the grading system changes every four years."

Ofsted said that under the new regime, introduced in September last year, it was focusing more on weaker schools, with good and outstanding schools inspected less frequently.

Ofsted chief inspector Christine Gilbert said: "Greater involvement for senior staff in the inspection process and more inspection time in the classroom means that the new framework is helping ensure schools are better able to understand their weaknesses and areas in need of development."