School leaders' unions consider encouraging members to quit as Ofsted inspectors
In a letter to Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson and Ofsted chief inspector Sir Martyn Oliver, the unions said the proposed action 'underlines the strength of feeling' about the reforms.
This month, Ofsted said it would delay setting out its final plan for school inspections in England until September – just weeks before new report cards are due to be rolled out in November.
Under the plans, set out in February, schools in England could be graded across eight to 10 areas of a provision using a colour-coded five-point scale.
They would receive ratings, from the red 'causing concern' to orange 'attention needed', through the green shades of 'secure', 'strong' and 'exemplary' for each area of practice.
But in a letter on Tuesday, the leaders of the ASCL and the NAHT highlighted heads' concerns over the timetable for reforms and the five-point grading scale.
The unions have both warned that the intention to start inspecting under a new system in the autumn term is 'entirely unacceptable' and it will negatively affect staff's wellbeing and mental health.
It comes after four education unions called on the Government to delay the introduction of school inspection report cards to the beginning of the 2026/27 academic year earlier this week.
The latest letter – signed by the ASCL's Pepe Di'Iasio and the NAHT's Paul Whiteman – said: 'We are writing to you further to our joint letter with NASUWT and NEU to inform you ASCL Council recently determined that unless there are changes to both the timeframe of implementation and to the five-point grading scale, then ASCL will consider encouraging its members to withdraw their service from Ofsted as OIs in the autumn term.
'At its meeting of June 20 the NAHT resolved to do the same.
'This would be an unprecedented step for ASCL and NAHT and underlines the strength of feeling about the proposed reforms.'
Ofsted had planned to publish its formal response to its consultation on proposed inspection reforms in the summer term, ahead of the changes coming into effect in November this year.
But earlier this month, Sir Martyn said the watchdog now plans to publish its full response in September due to the scale of the feedback it received.
The inspectorate has said it will give it more time to analyse responses and carry out further testing of proposals to improve the final approach.
At the time, the Education Secretary called the delay of the publication of inspection materials – and Ofsted's consultation response – 'disappointing'.
Ms Phillipson added that it was 'important' that Ofsted delivers to the expected timescales to avoid additional challenges for school leaders.
Mr Di'Iasio said: 'We have voiced our concerns repeatedly over the past few months in discussions with Ofsted and the DfE (Department for Education), but the timetable for implementation has actually got worse rather than better, and there has been no indication so far of likely movement on the five-point grading scale.
'It feels as though we have exhausted the potential for compromise through discussion, and that we have little option other than to consider this more direct form of action.'
Last year, the Government announced 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.
The move came after Ofsted faced criticism after the death of headteacher Ruth Perry.
Mrs Perry took her own life in January 2023 after an Ofsted report downgraded her Caversham Primary School in Reading, Berkshire, from the highest to the lowest overall effectiveness rating over safeguarding concerns.
An Ofsted spokeswoman said: 'Ofsted exists to keep children safe and raise standards.
'Our inspectors do vital work to improve children's lives, including by identifying schools, nurseries and colleges where standards are not high enough.
'It is disappointing that unions are taking legal action and using disruption tactics to frustrate our vital work.'
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Telegraph
5 hours ago
- Telegraph
It is not just the state that is failing white kids, it is Labour
In an education system which has improved considerably over the previous 14 years of Conservative Government, Bridget Phillipson – Labour's Education Secretary – has been searching high and low for a figure she can use to make party political hay. Thanks to the reforms to the teaching of reading introduced by Michael Gove and I from 2010, England is now fourth in the world in the reading ability of our nine-and 10-year-olds according to the authoritative PIRLS study. And in maths England has risen from 27 th in 2009 to 11 th in the latest PISA survey of over 80 countries. These figures are challenging for a Labour politician who is keener on making partisan jibes than doing the hard work of raising academic standards in our schools. Labour have lighted upon one figure – the proportion of 'white working-class children' achieving a strong pass (Grade 5) in English and Maths GCSEs which they cite as 19 per cent compared to the overall figure of 46 per cent. I put that phrase in inverted commas, because the figure they quote is actually for white children eligible for free school meals, which is by no means the same as working-class, and Bridget Phillipson knows that, or should do. Nevertheless, I agree that the figure is too low. But let's look at those statistics when Labour were last in office and before our reforms to the education system were in place. The problem is the grading system of GCSEs was changed in 2017 from letters to numbers. The most accurate comparison is between a Grade 4 (known as a Good pass) and a Grade C in the old system. Back in 2010, 30.9 per cent of pupils eligible for Free School Meals achieved a C grade or better in their English and Maths GCSE. In 2024, some 43.6 per cent of pupils eligible for Free School Meals achieved a Grade 4 or higher in their English and Maths GCSEs. I wish I had the figure to compare a Grade 5 with the old grading system in 2010 but because the Grade 5 lies between an old B and a C that direct comparison isn't possible. But these show how much genuine progress was made amongst all children from disadvantaged backgrounds between 2010 and 2014. And Bridget Phillipson knows that or should do. These figures reflect the reality that there was significant improvement in standards in our state schools between 2010 and 2024, due to a real focus on phonics in the teaching of reading, better teaching of maths by the adoption of methods common in the highest performing countries in the world, particularly east Asia. It has been achieved through a stronger knowledge-rich curriculum and more support for schools to improve behaviour. The last Conservative Government gave schools more autonomy, to free them from the 'progressivist' ideology that was driving down standards when Labour were last in power. The UK fell from 7 th in reading in 2000 to 25 th by 2009 and from 8 th to 28 th in Maths, over those years of Labour government, a decline that we reversed through hard work and reform in the years after 2010. The autonomy we gave to schools through the Academies programme (combined with strong accountability), and which helped drive up standards, is now being undermined by the current Government through measures in their Schools Bill currently going through Parliament. The stronger curriculum we carefully introduced between 2013 and 2017, and which schools have adopted and are teaching well, is threatened by the Government's curriculum and assessment review that is still to produce its final report. Everything Bridget Phillipson has sought to do since becoming Education Secretary in 2024 has been to undo the reforms that successfully drove higher academic standards in our schools. Am I content that only 19 per cent of white children eligible for free school meals achieved a strong pass in English and Maths GCSE last year? Of course not. But our reforms were helping these children. Everything Labour is now doing will simply make the education system worse. Mercia School in Sheffield, a free school, the type of which Labour have refused to create more, achieves astonishing results in a disadvantaged part of that South Yorkshire city. At Mercia School 80.6 per cent of their pupils (of all ethnicities) eligible for free school meals achieve a grade 5 or better in their English and Maths GCSE. If the current government were serious about standards they would be learning from Mercia and similar schools and spreading that success across the school system as a whole. Instead, their Schools Bill removes many of the freedoms and much of the autonomy which have underpinned the success of schools like Mercia. The suggestion that the Conservative Party failed to deliver for schoolchildren – of any group – is absurd.
Telegraph
5 hours ago
- Telegraph
Phillipson: Failure of white working-class children holding back Britain
A failure to ensure that white working-class children succeed is holding back Britain, the Education Secretary has said. Ahead of GCSE results day on Thursday, Bridget Phillipson warned that four-fifths of children from white working-class backgrounds were falling short in the English and maths skills required to get on in life. She said the demographic had been 'let down' and said the UK's productivity was suffering as a result. Writing for The Telegraph (read the article below), Ms Phillipson said: 'There is one statistic that stands above the rest. In 2024, only 19 per cent of white British, working-class children achieved a strong pass in maths and English GCSE. 'This data goes back to 2017. Alarmingly, it looks almost identical today to how it did then. It's appalling, and I won't stand by and watch those numbers continue to grow. It's not just the life chances of those children that are being damaged – it's also the health of our society as a whole. Swathes of human capability and productivity lost.' Last week, the Education Secretary said she was concerned that white working-class children were being 'written off' by society. Her latest comments go further, suggesting that the impact of failure among the demographic is hurting the economy. Britain's sluggish economic growth over the past few years has been blamed on low productivity levels, which have been languishing since the 2008 financial crisis. Productivity – the amount of output for each hour of work done – doubled in the 35 years before the global recession, but has risen just five per cent since then, according to the Institute for Fiscal Studies. Officials are concerned that failure to provide young people with the skills they need to succeed will only exacerbate the problem, meaning fewer people entering the world of work and more on benefits. Ms Phillipson's remarks also show the Government is increasingly concerned that the UK is failing families in traditional Labour heartlands, as the party struggles to keep pace with growing support for Nigel Farage's Reform UK. This year's GCSE results are expected to show a similar pattern to last year, when more than a fifth – or 21.8 per cent – of all entries were awarded the top grades. But Ms Phillipson warned that while Thursday would mark a day of celebration for many, the headline figures would cloak high levels of underachievement among some of the poorest pupils. Most jobs require applicants to prove they achieved at least a 'standard pass' of grade four – equivalent to a low grade C under the former marking system – in their English and maths GCSEs. However, some require a 'strong pass' of grade five, which sits between the old grades C and B, in the two compulsory subjects. Those who fail to achieve a grade four in their English and maths GCSEs are also required to resit the subjects if they stay on at school until they pass them. Experts have warned that the low pass rate for resits means many pupils are condemned to a demoralising doom loop of exam failures – while others are put off from sixth form altogether. 'Good isn't good enough' Ms Phillipson said: 'Young people from the best schools will be collecting their results this week not only with a world of opportunity ahead, but with experiences that will last a lifetime behind. A rich school experience built on strong academic foundations, with sport, music, the arts not a 'nice to have', but woven into the fabric of their education. 'But while this country is a good place to go to school, good isn't good enough. The images on television and the headline statistics we'll see this week mask the reality of a system that works for some children – even most children – but continues to let down tens of thousands more.' The Education Secretary said efforts to tackle the problem would focus on 'turning around the crisis in school attendance ', since poor performance among white working-class pupils is thought to be closely linked to high absence levels. More than 147,600 pupils were classed as severely absent in the autumn term of 2024, meaning they missed at least half their classes. That was an increase on the year before and the highest rate for an autumn term since comparable data began in 2016-17. Earlier this month, the The Centre for Social Justice think tank warned that, without urgent action, absences would drive up the number of young people missing out on future education, employment or training by nearly 180,000. This would result in an estimated lifetime cost to the taxpayer of £14bn in lost earnings and from young people going on benefits, it added. The Government is preparing a series of interventions to get to grips with soaring underachievement levels in a white paper to be unveiled in the autumn. Plans include publishing more data on how white pupils are performing, as well as harnessing artificial intelligence to identify schools that are falling short. Ms Phillipson said: 'There is more to do. And it's why our schools white paper later this year will present an ambitious vision for a child's school experience, for how we push up outcomes for all young people, for how we stretch the most able to turn a B into an A, and for how we transform the prospects of young people from deprived backgrounds. 'As someone who grew up as one of those children, and as both a local MP and Secretary of State representing those children, I am absolutely determined to make sure they do better. ' Our job is to change the odds By Bridget Phillipson Exam results days are an annual celebration of education, the power of teaching, learning, hard work, knowledge and skills – from young people and their teachers alike – culminating in opportunities that last a lifetime. These days symbolise so much of what is good about going to school in this country. And young people from the best schools will be collecting their results this week not only with a world of opportunity ahead, but with experiences that will last a lifetime behind. A rich school experience built on strong academic foundations, with sport, music, the arts not a 'nice to have', but woven into the fabric of their education. But while this country is a good place to go to school, good isn't good enough. The images on television and the headline statistics we'll see this week mask the reality of a system that works for some children – even most children – but continues to let down tens of thousands more. The record numbers of young people from disadvantaged backgrounds going to university are defying the odds. Our job now is to change those odds. And there is one statistic that stands above the rest. In 2024, only 19 per cent of white British, working-class children achieved a strong pass in maths and English GCSE. Fewer than one in five of all white British children on free school meals are leaving school with the maths and English skills to succeed in work and life. This data goes back to 2017. Alarmingly, it looks almost identical today to how it did then. It's appalling, and I won't stand by and watch those numbers continue to grow. It's not just the life chances of those children that are being damaged – it's also the health of our society as a whole. Swathes of human capability and productivity lost. 'Determined to make sure they do better' As someone who grew up as one of those children, and as both a local MP and Secretary of State representing those children, I am absolutely determined to make sure they do better. Better is not going to be simple, nor easy, nor quick. These are issues that run not only through our schools and classrooms, but into our communities. And they take root at the very earliest stages of a child's life and education. It's why I've made the early years my number one priority as Education Secretary, because the single best way for us to close the gaps that emerge by the time young people leave school, is to stop them opening up at all. It's why we are revitalising family services by opening a Best Start Family Hub in every local authority, because better support for parents can only help when it comes to better support for children. And it's why the progress we're making on turning around the crisis in school attendance is so vital – because young people cannot be on the path to success if they're not in the classroom to begin with. But there is more to do. And it's why our schools white paper later this year will present an ambitious vision for a child's school experience, for how we push up outcomes for all young people, for how we stretch the most able to turn a B into an A, and for how we transform the prospects of young people from deprived backgrounds.
Telegraph
19 hours ago
- Telegraph
Primary school pupils in white working-class regions ‘among worst performing'
Primary school pupils in white working-class regions are among the worst performing in the country, a report has suggested. The Institute for Government (IfG) think tank said disadvantaged white pupils in England have 'particularly poor educational outcomes' compared to their peers. In a report published on Wednesday, it found that councils in the bottom fifth for performance of disadvantaged pupils were 'disproportionately likely' to have large shares of pupils from white working-class backgrounds. Bridget Phillipson, the Education Secretary, last week sounded the alarm over the 'national disgrace' of under-performance among the demographic. She warned that 'far too many' white working-class children were failing to get the exam results they needed to move on in life and risked being 'written off' by society. Pupils across England, Wales and Northern Ireland will receive their GCSE results on Thursday, a week after A-level results were handed out. This year's cohort were mostly aged 11 when schools were first closed during the Covid pandemic. The IfG report analysed pupil performance at Key Stage 2 – when children are around the same age, in their final year of primary school. It claimed that educational inequalities across England have 'grown wider and more pronounced' since the pandemic, with only 10 local authorities recording the same or better attainment levels last year than before the first Covid lockdown. Disparities have grown especially among the poorest children, in part because they were less likely to have access to laptops or quiet office spaces during the pandemic, the think tank said. It meant fewer than half of disadvantaged pupils – or around 46 per cent – met the expected standards in reading, writing and maths for Year Six last year. The results were particularly stark among regions with high rates of white working-class children, with only 41 per cent meeting the required standards for 11-year-olds last year. It included areas such as Knowsley and Blackpool, while almost all of the top performing regions in Key Stage 2 attainment were in London. Along with pupils from mixed white or black Caribbean backgrounds, white working-class children were the only pupils with attainment rates lower than the national average last year, the IfG said. By contrast, close to half of disadvantaged children from mixed backgrounds met that benchmark, with the figure rising to nearly 60 per cent for both disadvantaged black pupils and disadvantaged Asian pupils. The IfG cited previous research by the Commons education committee, which suggested that white British children's performance may be particularly vulnerable to disadvantage. It said this was because they were more clustered in rural or coastal areas with 'lower funding ... higher teacher vacancies, longer travel times and worse digital infrastructure'. The think tank suggested tackling high absence rates would help to improve performance among disadvantaged pupils. The Telegraph revealed last week that the Government was preparing a series of interventions to address low attainment measures among certain demographics in a white paper to be unveiled in the autumn. Measures being considered by ministers include plans to expand an AI-powered attendance tool, showing schools how they fare against those with similar demographic make-ups. The Department for Education currently publishes data showing school absence levels among minority ethnic groups, but is understood to be alarmed at figures for white working-class pupils.
