2025 Spring Term

The know zone

  • Free breakfast clubs: good for everyone?
    Tiffnie Harris highlights the impact that the government's plans for free breakfast club provision will have in primary schools in England. More
  • You hold the power
    Leaders play a crucial role in ensuring that their schools and colleges provide good careers guidance says Beth Jones from the Gatsby Charitable Foundation. Here, she highlights the recent changes made to the Gatsby Benchmarks. More
  • Mission impossible?
    Julia Harnden provides a summary of what the government's funding settlement for 2025/26 means for school and college budgets. More
  • Rising from the ashes
    The 'bonfire of BTECs' has now been extinguished - so where do we go from here? Following the outcomes of the Rapid Review, Kevin Gilmartin clarifies the findings and looks at the post-16 landscape going forward. More
  • Stop the FE funding drought
    ASCL's Dr Anne Murdoch says colleges have been starved of funding for far too long and the government must use the upcoming Spending Review to end this injustice. More
  • Report cards
    It is essential that the inspection system is clear to parents and has the confidence of the profession. Currently, as they stand, Ofsted's proposed new report cards are worse than single-word judgements. What are your thoughts? Here, ASCL members share their views. More
  • Clear direction of travel
    Headteacher Martin Blain says he's proud to represent the primary sector on ASCL Council. Here, he shares his passion for Council and shaping children's lives to open up opportunities both in the UK and around the world. More
  • Do it 'your way'
    Carl Smith says there's never a shortage of people telling school and college leaders how to do their jobs. Here, he shares some advice on how not to be a head. More
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It is essential that the inspection system is clear to parents and has the confidence of the profession. Currently, as they stand, Ofsted’s proposed new report cards are worse than single-word judgements. What are your thoughts? Here, ASCL members share their views.

Report cards

Flying below the radar

The proposed Ofsted report cards must be seen in the context of statutory powers the DfE has to intervene (DfE Statutory Guidance on Support and Intervention in Schools, November 2024 tinyurl.com/yvyxzpsf). This document states: “Regions group will only mandate academy conversion, governance change or academy trust transfer of a school in relation to educational standards if Ofsted has judged it to be ‘requires significant improvement’ or ‘special measures’.”

Under current proposals, Ofsted report cards identify nine separate areas for judgement, as opposed to what were formerly four. If any of the nine areas is judged ‘causing concern’, the outcome of the inspection will be at least ‘requires significant improvement’, triggering academisation for a local authority maintained school or the possibility of being moved into another trust if the school is already academised.

This is an implication currently ‘flying below the radar’ and begs the question of how regional improvement for standards and excellence (RISE) advisers might be deployed in following up on such judgements.

Ian Lane
Education Adviser

Yet another stick

Teacher workload is a national concern. The Teacher Wellbeing Index report for 2024 concluded that 84% of senior leaders and 78% of school teachers are “stressed” (tinyurl.com/ y6t83fc6) and the National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER) shows secondary initial teacher training (ITT) recruitment reaching only half of its target, falling teacher recruitment and retention rates and teachers feeling they “spend too much time on administration, data input, marking and lesson planning” (tinyurl.com/s5sct6uh).

The proposed Ofsted report card for FE and skills inspection completely ignores all of this and under ‘leadership’, will grade workload using a descriptor in ‘causing concern’ of “staff workload is unsustainable”, and strong is where “staff morale and retention is high”. The national issue needs to be addressed first.

It is disappointing that subjective descriptors are still being proposed to grade providers and being used to grade an area that is for the most part beyond the control of a leader.

There will need to be clear guidance for inspection teams and providers on how ‘workload and staff morale’ is going to be measured; otherwise this will become yet another ‘stick to beat’ the profession with.

Justine Barlow
Principal, Notre Dame Catholic Sixth Form College

Baffling

I’m baffled that, in an effort to reduce the emphasis on graded box-ticking inspections, Ofsted has proposed more grades and metrics that schools will be judged on. It illustrates two aspects that are wrong with the education system. First, every five years, one unelected official in the shape of the HMCI can dictate the education policy for the country. Second, the recruitment and retention crisis in the profession will accelerate if these proposals are implemented, as they will drive more good people away from teaching. All the talk of ‘standards’ is meaningless if you don’t have anyone upholding them.

Mark McKelvie
Headteacher, Pudsey Grammar School

Missed opportunity

The framework as proposed is at odds with the moment. Almost as if it began with the answer and the time between has been spent searching for the right question. Can't work out whether Ofsted is about to eat itself or whether a conveyor belt of slightly different perverse incentives and unintended consequences to the ones before lie ahead. The timeline for implementation leads one to suspect the latter. A missed opportunity for our young people. A consultation response pointing out what needs attention and causes concern in the framework is on the to do list.

Guy Maidment
Headteacher, Dunraven School

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