The chief inspector of Ofsted has apologised that schools will no longer get a full term’s notice before inspection reforms are introduced in England.
Last month, the watchdog said it would delay setting out its final plan for school inspections until September – just weeks before new report cards are due to be rolled out in November.
School leaders’ unions have threatened to tell their members to quit as Ofsted inspectors unless changes are made to the timescale for inspection reform.
Speaking at the Festival of Education, Sir Martyn Oliver, chief inspector of Ofsted, said he was “sorry” about the delayed timescale as he acknowledged it was “difficult” for schools.
At the event at Wellington College, Berkshire, Sir Martyn called on school leaders to “judge” him on the Ofsted’s revised inspection model once it is published at the start of the academic year.
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
Under proposed report cards, set out in February, schools could be graded across at least eight 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.
During the Q&A session at the event on Thursday, Sir Martyn suggested that Ofsted ratings can alter local house prices by thousands of pounds because parents “value” them.
When asked whether Ofsted’s new report cards could affect house prices, Sir Martyn said: “Well, I don’t know.”
But Sir Martyn, who used to be an academy trust leader, spoke of how he had supported two “special measures” schools where he lived and the house prices “shot up” after they received better Ofsted ratings.
He told the audience: “They were both in special measures, both went outstanding, and the house prices went up £15,000 within a week.
“It does make a difference.”
Sir Martyn added that “parents obviously put a value on it”.
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.
But Ofsted will now publish its full response in September due to the scale of the feedback it received.
When asked whether this delay was fair on school leaders, Sir Martyn said: “I think that is difficult and again I’m sorry about that.”
On single-word judgments, he added: “We’ve been doing something for 30-plus years in a single way.
“If I look at my phone, there will be pictures of people standing in front of their schools with balloons, with an O, an U, with a T – “outstanding”, and local newspapers up and down the country celebrate.
“It happens all of the time, and we’re about to take that away and change it to something else that for more than three decades people are used to.”
Sir Martyn said: “Here’s a burning question, what’s Rightmove going to do?”
Currently, Rightmove includes the Ofsted ratings for local schools in its listings for houses for sale.
In a speech at the event, Sir Martyn said children are increasingly receiving life lessons from influencers or “AI-generated summaries”.
The Ofsted boss argued that classroom learning with human interaction “has never been more important” as many children spend much of their lives online.
He said: “Young people are growing up in an increasingly curated world in which their favoured influencers or corporate algorithms can have a disproportionate impression on their views and opinions.
“It’s more important than ever that young people are able to lift their eyes from the screen and connect with their teachers, in person.”
