Hundreds of outstanding schools in England have been downgraded after their first Ofsted re-inspections in 13 years. The watchdog said it inspected more than 500 schools over the last academic year that were previously exempt from regular inspection after being rated outstanding.
The exemption, which was introduced in 2012 and lifted in 2020, meant schools that had been judged outstanding were legally exempt from further regular inspection, with the re-inspected schools receiving their last visit from Ofsted over 13 years ago. Ofsted said just 17% of the 370 schools inspected kept their outstanding grade following their re-inspections in the 2021-22 academic year.
Ofsted's chief inspector, Amanda Spielman, said the results highlighted that "removing a school from scrutiny does not make it better". Some 62% of the previously exempt schools were downgraded to a rating of good, while 21% require improvement or are inadequate.
