Ofsted plans new early years inspection framework

Ofsted has today published its response to the “Big Listen” consultation. For the early years, it undertakes to: On the differences between early years and schools inspection, they noted “Frustration from professionals who felt inspectors on primary school inspections do not have the early years expertise needed to inspect Nursery or Reception phases.” They have […]

Government announces end to one-word Ofsted judgements

We welcome the Department for Education’s announcement that the government are moving ahead with their manifesto commitment to scrap single-word Ofsted judgements for schools, effective immediately, and with a new report card being introduced from September 2025 for all schools, including maintained nursery schools. The announcement confirms that a parallel change will apply to settings on […]

Resisting intensified accountability: is now the time for inspection reform?  

by Dr Jo Albin-Clark, Edge Hill University and Dr Nathan Archer, Leeds Beckett University Inspection in the news Being involved in education in England involves navigating an intense policy landscape where accountability is entangled with surveillance and performativity (Spencer Woodley, 2014; Kilderry, 2015). Ofsted, the regulatory accountability mechanism in England, has seen heightened scrutiny recently […]

Ofsted’s Annual Review highlights importance of early years workforce

Ofsted’s latest annual review highlights the impact of recruitment and retention challenges and finds a link between inspection outcomes and the proportion of graduates in a setting. It recognises the work which settings are doing to address the impact of the pandemic on young children. It found that 96% of providers on the early years […]

Open letter to HMCI Amanda Spielman regarding the Early Years Curriculum Review

The open letter below was sent to Ofsted in November 2023. Download Ofsted’s response We the undersigned are writing to you about the recently published Ofsted document Best start in life part 1: setting the scene. While we welcome Ofsted’s recognition of the vital role of the early years, we are concerned that as a […]

The Ofsted early years curriculum review

The Ofsted early years curriculum review Best start in life part 1: setting the scene, has just been published, which they describe as being part of their series of “subject-based curriculum research reviews”.  It aims to examine “the factors that contribute to a high-quality early education” and trails a future series of reviews which will focus […]

Ofsted’s thinking on Cultural Capital – some concerns and questions, by Helen Moylett

Raymond Williams maintained, after years of examining constructs of culture and society that  “Culture is one of the two or three most complicated words in the English language” (1983: 87) So it is surprising that Ofsted has seen fit to insert the term “cultural capital” into the proposed Education Inspection Framework (EIF) without even a […]