On the first day of the new school year for many, the government scrapped overall inspection grades.

However, Ofsted will continue to publish the four graded sub-judgments for the rest of this year at the very least. These are

  • Quality of education
  • Behaviour and attitudes
  • Personal development
  • Effectiveness of leadership and management

But what difference will this really make? Do these sub-judgments tend to be the same as the overall effectiveness grade?

Let’s crack open the data to find out.

Data

I use data on published inspections for the 2023/24 academic year published by Ofsted. I only include inspections that resulted in an overall inspection grade. In other words, I exclude ungraded inspections. What will become of such inspections in future doesn’t seem clear (to me, at least).

In total, there were 3,660 inspections in the 2023/24 academic year broken down as follows:

  • Nursery: 45
  • Primary: 2760
  • Secondary: 655
  • AP: 58
  • Special: 142

83% of the inspections in 2023/24 were graded good or better. This is a lower figure than the headline statistic that 91% of schools are graded good or better. Ofsted’s risk-based approach to inspection means that schools more likely to be less than good are disproportionately inspected in a given year.

Number of schools with sub-judgments that are the same as overall effectiveness

First of all, let’s calculate how many schools have exactly the same grade for each of the four sub-judgments as their overall effectiveness grade.

In almost all cases, schools graded outstanding overall were outstanding across all four sub-judgments.

70% of schools graded good were graded good across all four sub-judgments.

However, schools graded requires improvement or inadequate were more variable.

Schools graded good or better for sub-judgments but RI or inadequate overall

569 schools were graded requires improvement (RI) overall in 2023/24. Another 51 were graded inadequate.

Many of the schools graded RI, and a small proportion of those graded inadequate, were graded good (or better) for at least one of the four sub-judgments.

62% of schools graded RI overall were graded good or better for at least 2 of the sub-judgments.

Summing up

So what difference will this make?

Schools graded inadequate for any of the four sub-judgments will continue to face intervention. In effect this is no change. An inadequate rating on any of the four sub-judgments would have led to an overall rating of inadequate.

Almost all schools graded outstanding are outstanding across all four sub-judgments, so there will be almost no change for them.

Most schools graded good overall will face no change. The majority are graded good for all four sub-judgments although there is a small amount of variability. 28% of schools graded good in 2023/24 were judged outstanding on at least one of the four sub-judgments. Just 1% were judged RI on at least one sub-judgment.

It will make more of a difference for schools graded RI, though these are relatively small in number. Most schools graded RI overall in 2023/24 were graded good or better for at least 2 of the 4 sub-judgments. In other words, anyone looking at sub-judgments for a school judged RI overall will be faced with a variable set of sub-judgments.

This should mean less of a cliff-edge between schools that would previously have been judged good or RI overall.

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