Ofsted’s one-word ranking system for schools won’t be missed, because it never made sense: “outstanding” couldn’t possibly mean “outstanding”, because anything less than that meant “not good enough”. You could call it Orwellian, but that would suggest it was merely a simplification of existing language; it was more of a system of anti-meaning, where “outstanding” meant “fine”, “good” meant “rubbish”, “requires improvement” meant “run by idiots” and “inadequate” meant “poses an active danger to children”.
Teachers, being teachers, broadly knew what the words meant and had been saying this for years. Politicians and the media tended to write that off as the cavilling of slackers who didn’t like to be held accountable, because if there is one thing both sectors understand, it’s that slackers don’t like to be held accountable.
