National categorisation of schools in Wales to end

The Welsh government has said that National Categorisation will finish and be replaced by a self-evaluation system where good practice can be shared and failure is urgently addressed.

By moving away from categorisation, a summary of each school’s improvement priorities and development plan will be made public and published.

Reviews have shown that pupil assessment and school accountability have too often been blurred, leading to unintended consequences in the classroom.

Assessment should be used in the best interest of pupils, enabling teachers to adjust teaching strategies to support their progress. While accountability, led by Estyn, drives improvement through better transparency and enabling judgement on performance. The framework published today distinctly separates the two.

There will also be more regular Estyn inspections. From September, Estyn will inspect schools under their new framework with plans to increase the number of inspections from September 2024.

The Minister for Education and Welsh Language, Jeremy Miles said: "By putting learner progression at the heart of our reforms, we will be supporting every learner to reach their full potential.

"Assessment and accountability are both critical to raising standards, but they each have a very different role to play, assessment is about understanding an individual pupil’s needs and accountability is about how the school’s overall performance is evaluated. But, the difference between the two has become blurred, which can have a detrimental effect on teaching and learning.

"By bringing national categorisation to an end we are doing two things. First, replacing it with a framework which sets out clear expectations so that every pupil is supported properly.

"And second, providing better, and more up to date information on each school’s improvement plans, so that the focus is on learner progression rather than on headline descriptions. I’m confident that this framework will encourage more collaboration between schools, which will deliver high standards and aspirations for all our learners and support their well-being."