Ofsted should be scrapped in Guernsey, says union

Guernsey's director of education said the island was already operating with some recommendations made by a national inquiry into Ofsted

There are calls for Guernsey to scrap using Ofsted for its school inspection system.

The NASUWT teaching union said it is "too England-centric" for the island and that it had "significant concerns" with how Ofsted operates in general.

It follows the publication of an inquiry on Monday which said Ofsted for England was "toxic" and in need of major reform.

Ofsted said inspections were needed to ensure education standards were high for all children, no matter where they lived.

The island brought in Ofsted as an inspection body at the end of 2021

The Beyond Ofsted inquiry, chaired by former schools minister Lord Knight and funded by the National Education Union, called for a "transformational" alteration to school inspections.

That reform should include an end to single-word judgements like "outstanding" or "inadequate", which the inquiry said were too simplistic to describe a whole school.

Nick Hynes, director of education in Guernsey, said the island had a "different contract" with Ofsted and as part of that a single-word judgement was not given to schools.

He said: "We already have in internal system of support, challenge and monitoring across all of our schools where reviews are carried out on an annual basis.

"Very often the external inspection through Ofsted is a validation of what schools already know through their own self-valuation."

Mr Hynes said the law required schools to have an external inspectorate, but that they "work really hard with Ofsted" to ensure it "understands the context of the island and its curriculum".

'England-centric'

Wayne Bates, national negotiating officer of the NASUWT, said: "We still are quite critical of the use of Ofsted in Guernsey, not least that despite the few tweaks that have been made to the framework, it is essentially an 'England-centric' system that is being imposed on Guernsey schools.

"Essentially that power to write the curriculum has been given back to the UK."

He added: "I believe that Guernsey should create its own school accountability framework that is right for Guernsey, rather than importing one in from the UK."

Mr Bates said the absence of a "single-word judgement" in Guernsey had led to "some overall improvement".

Ofsted said in response to the inquiry that inspections were needed to ensure a high-quality education and that "nine out of 10" schools said inspections helped them to improve.

A spokesperson said: “Children only get one chance at education, and inspection helps make sure that education standards are high for all children, no matter where they live.

"The current inspection system was developed after extensive consultation with the education sector and parents.

“We always want inspections to be a constructive experience for school staff. Our inspectors are all former or current school leaders and well understand the nature and pressures of the work.”