Ofsted has unveiled its plans for 鈥渇airer鈥 school report cards with a five-point grading system across up to 11 areas, the end of ungraded inspections and increased monitoring of under-performing schools. But unions have warned the new model is 鈥渨orse than single-word judgments鈥, which were scrapped last year, and will cause 鈥測et more misery鈥. The changes, announced in a consultation launched today, were prompted by a coroner鈥檚 ruling in 2023 that an inspection of Caversham Primary School in Reading 鈥渃ontributed鈥 to the suicide of its headteacher, Ruth Perry. Ruth Perry chief inspector Sir Martyn Oliver said he believed the system will offer a 鈥渕ore balanced, fairer approach鈥, with more room for 鈥渘uance鈥 than the 鈥渂inary鈥 one-word judgements. 鈥淭his process will give fairer, more rounded, better information, both to the school and to parents, as well as taking into [account] the context of a school and the individual strengths and areas of improvement.鈥 You can read a full explainer on the changes here, and a Q&A with Oliver here. Ratings: from 鈥榗ausing concern鈥 to 鈥榚xemplary鈥 Under the proposals, new 鈥渞eport cards鈥 will be used to assess schools and convey their performance to parents. Instead of single-word judgments, Ofsted is proposing to now rate schools across up to 11 different areas. Every school would be judged on leadership and governance, curriculum, developing teaching, achievement, behaviour and attitudes, attendance, personal development and well-being, inclusion and safeguarding. Those with early years provision or sixth forms would receive an additional grade for each area. Across all areas but safeguarding, schools will be given one of five colour-coded judgments: exemplary (in dark green), strong, secure, attention needed, or causing concern (in red). In safeguarding, schools will be deemed to have either 鈥渕et鈥 or 鈥渘ot met鈥 their requirements. As well as these headline grades for each area, Ofsted will publish short descriptions summarising their findings. Monitoring inspections for 鈥榓ttention needed鈥 schools Ofsted also wants to more frequently monitor schools that are under-performing. Schools with at least one 鈥榓ttention鈥 needed rating will get monitoring inspections, but they will focus only on those areas. Oliver said this would 鈥渃heck that timely action is being taken to raise standards鈥. If schools have improved, they won鈥檛 have to 鈥済o through the rigmarole鈥 of a full inspection and the rating will be upgraded. 鈥淏ut if they don’t improve and they haven’t made an acceptable standard of education, we will clearly and unapologetically call it out as we are going to raise standards for this new way of working,鈥 Oliver added. Schools falling into a 鈥渃ategory of concern鈥 will still be identified, and eligible for government intervention. The Department for Education is expected to publish details of its intervention plans today. Schools will be placed in 鈥榮pecial measures鈥 if any area (except leadership) or safeguarding is a concern, *and* leadership is also a concern. Those schools will get six monitoring inspections over 24 months. A school will 鈥榬equire significant improvement鈥 if any area (except leadership) or safeguarding is a concern, but leadership is not. These schools will get five over 18 months. The inspectorate will free up resources for more frequent monitoring inspections by scrapping ungraded inspections. Oliver said he was 鈥渃onfident that we can deliver our plans”. He also hopes to announce more “exciting things to improve our inspection model going forward鈥 after the government spending review. More information on schools鈥 demographic Inspections and report cards will also give more context on a school’s setting. They will include data on elements such as children from disadvantaged backgrounds, those with SEND, pupil outcomes, absence and attendance, and information about the local demographic. Oliver said he wanted providers 鈥渢o take the most difficult, the most disadvantaged, the most vulnerable children, and say that they know that Ofsted will have their back if they do that difficult work. 鈥淚t’s clearly nonsense if the inspectorate and regulator is at any point an excuse for people to avoid our most vulnerable children, and that鈥檚 something I鈥檓 very clear about,鈥 he added. Curriculum deep dives will also be scrapped and new toolkits to help schools understand what inspectors look for in each area will be published. Every school will also be asked to nominate a senior staff member to work closely with the inspection team, a model employed in further education inspections. ‘Worse than single-word judgments’ But unions have been heavily critical. Pepe Di鈥橧asio, general secretary of the ASCL leaders鈥 union, said the proposed report cards were 鈥渨orse than single-word judgements鈥. Ofsted and the government 鈥渁ppear to have learned nothing from the death of headteacher Ruth Perry鈥, he added, and said the new system will lead to 鈥測et more misery鈥 for the profession. The new system would be 鈥渂ewildering鈥 for teacher, leaders, and parents and that teachers 鈥渨ill vote with their feet by leaving鈥. Daniel Kebede Paul Whiteman, general secretary of school leaders鈥 union NAHT, said retaining sub-judgments 鈥渞isks replicating the worst aspects of the current system and will do little to reduce the enormous pressure school leaders are under鈥. Daniele Kebede, general secretary of the National Education Union, said the proposals 鈥渨ill make matters worse, not better鈥. He said Oliver 鈥渉as failed to deliver鈥 the changes needed, and 鈥渉as ignored the voice of the profession鈥. 鈥淗e has set a course for Ofsted to remain just as out of touch as before, just as crude in its assessments,鈥 he said, saying the proposed grading scale 鈥渕aintains the current blunt, reductive approach that cannot capture the complexity of school life nor provide more meaningful information to parents鈥. It comes after Schools Week reported the concerns of whistleblowers from inside Ofsted, who warned report cards had been 鈥渃obbled together at ridiculous speed鈥 and that leaders had ignored concerns from experienced staff. Positive response from pilots, says Ofsted However, Lee Owston, Ofsted鈥檚 national director for education, claimed on Friday that across six trials conducted at schools so far, the 鈥渙verwhelming鈥 response to the proposal has been 鈥渧ery, very positive鈥. 鈥淭he purpose of those trials was to get reaction in terms of what it is that we’ve written what it is that we’re proposing, and of course, we have made adjustments and tweaks.鈥 Oliver added that following the trials he believes the proposal 鈥渨ill be met from parents and providers with a great deal of interest鈥. 鈥淎nd there’ll be some concern, but also a tremendous amount of excitement, especially in the methodology of all of the things we’re going to propose,鈥 he said. The consultation will run for 12 weeks until April 28, with more pilot inspections due to be carried out in coming months, before a report and more trialling in the summer. A new inspection framework will then be introduced in September, with the return of inspections after the summer break delayed until November to allow for trialling of the new model and inspector training.