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Ofsted chief: scrapping 'satisfactory' rating will focus headteachers' minds Ofsted chief: a quarter of 'outstanding' schools may be downgraded
(40 minutes later)
The head of Ofsted has said scrapping the "satisfactory" rating given to schools during inspections would help focus the minds of headteachers. A quarter of schools rated as outstanding may be downgraded, the chief inspector of England's schools is to warn.
Under grading guidelines being implemented by Sir Michael Wilshaw, the rating will be replaced by "requires improvement" in a bid to improve teaching. In his first speech as head of Ofsted, Sir Michael Wilshaw will say that unless schools have outstanding teaching, they will be stripped of an overall outstanding rating.
The education watchdog's chief inspector said schools would then be given between 18 months and three years to improve or face being placed under special measures. Speaking at a school in Borough, south London, Wilshaw will warn that outstanding schools are expected to share their expertise with underperforming schools and should not be doing this unless their teaching is of the highest quality.
The Ofsted head, who on Tuesday will deliver his first keynote address since taking up the post, told ITV's Daybreak: "Satisfactory is not good enough and has been recognised so for a long time. Michael Gove, the education secretary, said in September he was concerned "so many" schools were judged outstanding when their teaching obtained a rating of only "good".
"Children just have one chance in school, they don't have more than one chance, and if we let our children down over the 10 years they are in primary and secondary school that is not good. However, Wilshaw's comments will be viewed by teachers as another criticism of their performance. In recent months, unions say government rhetoric against the profession has reached record levels.
"They don't achieve the qualifications and the success they need to achieve." The National Association of Head Teachers has said "constant castigation" has lowered morale.
It is also understood that a quarter of schools given an overall "outstanding" rating by Ofsted will have their status reviewed under the new grading system, while schools will also face "no-notice" inspections. Wilshaw has previously said he wants the "satisfactory" rating inspectors give schools to be replaced by "requires improvement".
Wilshaw said he hoped the measures would "focus headteachers' minds and also governors'" on the improvements that needed to be made at schools. In changes planned to be introduced in the autumn, schools will also no longer be given notice of some inspections.
Speaking on BBC's Today programme, Wilshaw said 6,000 schools were labelled as satisfactory and half of these had failed to be upgraded over six or more years. The reforms will "focus minds and ensure headteachers make more effort", he said.
But Clare Bradford, head of Henbury school in Bristol, whose school has been rated satisfactory for eight years, said the changes were difficult for schools in challenging areas and described the reforms as "radical".
Chris Keates, the general secretary of the NASUWT teaching union, said Wilshaw's statements "call into question every Ofsted judgment which has ever been made on any school".
"He is trashing the school system, trashing the reputation of Ofsted and removing anything that parents can rely on by which to judge a school.
"This is puerile game-playing at expense of schools, their teachers and pupils.
"The secretary of state's strategy of letting outstanding schools automatically become academies is now in tatters."