'Outstanding' schools to be exempted from inspections

Outstanding schools will be exempt from routine Ofsted inspections, education secretary Michael Gove has said.

This will apply whether or not these schools opt to become academies independent of local authority oversight – the government’s preferred option.

It means that the 2,000 primary, 600 secondary and 300 special schools rated as ‘outstanding’ will be inspected only if something happens to suggest their performance has deteriorated.

A Department for Education spokesman said this could be, for example, a fall in its examination scores or a request from parents for an inspection.

Schools are at present inspected every five years, and Gove said the change would enable inspectors to concentrate their work on those that needed most attention including inspection carried out without prior notice.

The exemption and other reforms to Ofsted are expected in an Education and Children's Bill in the autumn.

Chris Keates, general secretary of the teaching trade union NASUWT said: “This announcement is another example of the government’s so-called ‘freedoms’ not being what they seem. “The outstanding schools will still be subject to inspection. They will have ‘health checks’ and they can be inspected as a result of parental complaints. This announcement is nothing to do with freeing schools. It is an unsubtle attempt to encourage more schools to sign up for academy status.”