Survey suggests parents support Ofsted report cards

According to an online poll by YouGov, commissioned by Ofsted, 67% of parents said they prefer plans for new report cards over current inspection reports, while just 15% said they preferred the current reports.

On the proposals currently out for consultation, 78% of parents surveyed agreed the information in report cards would be useful to them, and the same proportion said the new cards would make it easy to compare schools. Meanwhile, 86% said report cards were easy to understand and 84% found the use of colour coding helpful.

When asked which of the 11 proposed evaluation areas for schools they considered to be the most useful, approximately half of parents ranked behaviour and attitudes highest (51%), followed closely by personal development and well-being (48%), then safeguarding (41%) and achievement (35%).

The survey also found that 79% of parents said they trust what Ofsted says about a school in inspection reports, and 66% support Ofsted continuing to grade schools on a scale (10% said they were opposed).

Ofsted’s Chief Inspector, Sir Martyn Oliver, said in a speech to Parentkind: "The changes we’re proposing will do things differently. We will report on a much wider range of areas. Things that matter to parents. Things like behaviour, achievement, attendance, teaching and the curriculum, leadership and governance, and inclusion – really looking in detail at how schools make sure their pupils all have a sense of belonging, especially those who are disadvantaged, vulnerable, or have special educational needs. For each area, parents will be able to see a clear grade, and a description of what we found when we inspected the school.

"Report cards will help give a more balanced picture of schools. Because the best schools aren’t perfect and have areas where they could do better, and the schools which might be seen as ‘weaker’ will have aspects of their work that they do really well. In that way a school’s report card will be much closer to a child’s school report. Going back to my art teacher days, the one-word grade paints a monochrome picture of a school, we want to paint it in colour."