Beef up Ofsted's improvement role, urges IoD

Tuesday 17th October, 2006

Commenting on the publication of today's House of Commons Public Accounts Committee report, Improving poorly performing schools in England, IoD Director General Miles Templeman said:

"Aspects of this report will make disturbing reading for parents, pupils, employers and the Government. Though a minority of the overall school population, seriously underperforming schools damage the education of too many children, exacerbate the country's skills deficiencies, and store up problems for employers, employees and the taxpayer."

Miles Templeman called on the Government to strengthen Ofsted's quality improvement role:

"There are three measures the Government must take. Firstly, Ofsted should offer more advice on school improvement, learning useful lessons from the ALI's approach in treating inspection as the first step towards quality improvement. In this regard, current plans for the new inspectorate are nowhere near ambitious enough. An explicit part of the inspectorate's role should be the dissemination of good practice, advice and support to help all schools improve.

"Secondly, the Government must make certain that a beefed up improvement role does not come at the expense of rigorous inspection.

"Finally, given the obvious link between effective leadership and high performance, ensuring that all schools have good, permanent head teachers should also be a top government priority."