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.
Ofsted labeled the schools' performances "concerning" and said that a "higher proportion now require improvements or are inadequate than is the case for all schools nationally, especially for the primary school".
Spielman said: “Regular inspection gives parents confidence in the quality of their child’s school. Exempting outstanding schools deprived parents of up-to-date information. It also left a lot of schools without the constructive challenge that regular inspection provides.
“The exemption was a policy founded on the hope that high standards, once achieved, would never drop, and that freedom from inspection might drive them even higher. These outcomes show that removing a school from scrutiny does not make it better.”
Ofsted has said it will inspect all previously exempt outstanding schools by the end of July 2025.
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