As you know outstanding schools are exempt from routine inspections. There has been a great deal of debate on whether this exemption should be removed. Today (10th Jan 2020) Department for Education (DfE) launched a consultation into the removal of this exemption. DfE is seeking views from
- Head teachers, teachers and governing boards in maintained nursery schools,
maintained schools and academy trusts, including nursery schools, infant
schools or first schools, middle schools, junior schools, special schools, Pupil
Referral Units (PRUs), studio schools, UTCs, City Technology Colleges, City
Colleges for the Technology of the Arts and free schools. - Principals/ CEOs, their staff and those responsible for governance in General FE
colleges, Sixth Form colleges, designated institutions, 16 – 19 academies,
independent learning providers (including employer providers), not for profit
providers, independent specialist colleges, Higher Education Institutions (HEIs)
delivering FE or apprenticeships and local authority providers. - Local authoritie
- Dioceses and other religious authorities
- Parents
- Students
- Employers
- Any other interested individuals or organisations
The consultation will close at 5:00 pm on 24th Feb 2020. You can read about the consultation here . You can respond online using this link. If, for exceptional reasons, you cannot respond online then you can do so by post or by email (details in the pdf linked above). The response will be published in spring.
This is your chance to make your views known about this so please do respond to the consultation and encourage others to do so too.
Governing Matters 
Reblogged this on The Echo Chamber.
OfSted in its current format should be abolished. OfSted should be there as a school improvement measure I.e. as a supportive tool who go into school and rather than labelling the schools give next steps to improvement. Schools which have been classed as outstanding 10 years ago should not be exempt from this as in 10 years 2 lots have children have passed through. However these schools probably manage to keep their standards easier as their staff are not working with OfSted on their mind and can concentrate on doing what has impact on the children’s learning.
I’m in support of the removal of the exemption. I train school governors and quite often, in an outstanding school, I will find poor governance that is led in its decision making by the Headteacher which makes them unaccountable and passive. This makes systems such as safeguarding and financial control vulnerable.
That’s a good point. It is possible that in outstanding schools governors become complacent resulting in lack of challenge leading to standards dropping.
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