The Government's recent proposal of an overhaul into the way a school is inspected has come under criticism from head teachers who feel the new proposal will do nothing to differentiate between good and bad schools and will put the poorer schools at a disadvantage.
The new proposal focuses on things like a children’s happiness and the quality of sex education classes. ‘Wellbeing’ indicators like these could also be used by the Government as a way of ranking schools using a ‘report card’ system.
However teachers have claimed that to measure a school on happiness is ‘absurd’ because it is impossible to quantify. Officials have also highlighted that a system like these can be an extreme disadvantage to poorer schools who often take in a large number of troublesome pupils.
The Association of Teachers and Lecturers, said: ‘We are disappointed that the Government is spending time and money developing indicators which will indicate nothing of any substance.’
However not everyone was against the new proposal. Phil Revell, chief executive of the National Governors' Association, said: ‘The aim behind what the Government is trying to do – that schools should be reporting to parents on the basis of more holistic indicators than simply pupils' exam performance – is right. But the current set of measures are not good enough.'
