Scrapping Ofsted grades 'should be first step'

Helen Slack said the new system would have a positive effect

A head teacher believes scrapping the one or two-word Ofsted grading system should be "the first step" in re-evaluating the whole process.

Helen Slack, who has been the headteacher at a Birmingham school for 16 years, said an inspection in October 2022 put her and other staff under "unrelenting and unnecessary pressure".

Ms Slack welcomed the change because the grades led to "so much pressure", but added more needed to be done to make the process more positive.

She said schools should be given notice of when inspectors will come and possible improvements discussed with staff.

Twickenham Primary School in Kingstanding, Birmingham, kept its good rating, but Ms Slack said the whole inspection process was "horrendous".

She said the decision to scrap the practice of issuing overall one or two-word grades for schools in England was "great" but wanted to see what other changes would result from a review of the system.

"I think it is probably the first step in looking at the whole process because there are a number of things that really need to be looked at in my opinion," she said.

She said they had been waiting for four years for the inspection and the uncertainty added "unnecessary and unrelenting" pressure.

She described the process as "not supportive in the slightest" and found herself under an "indescribable" pressure.

"It felt like it was just about catching you out and trying to find things to find fault with," she said.

She worried about the school being downgraded and how this would affect the community, teachers, children and families.

Ms Slack said she felt the changes to the Ofsted grading to the would be "the first step"

Ms Slack has called for Ofsted inspectors to give notice before they arrive and for "professional dialogues" to take place during inspections.

"All the great things you're doing in school and all the things you're trying to improve aren't necessarily looked at because it's just that one overriding word."

"We want the children to have the best education, so we don't want an easy ride, we just want it to be fair and positive and not to be negative," she said.

She added the Ofsted experience badly affected her mental health and she thought she was going to have a breakdown halfway through.

Ms Slack added "none of it brought about school improvement, none of it was a positive thing".