Academy trusts and councils have been told to “particularly” take into account ‘leadership and management’ and ‘quality of education’ Ofsted sub-judgments when deciding whether to expand schools.
Previously, Department for Education guidance stated that additional places would only be provided in primary and secondary schools rated ‘good’ or ‘outstanding’ overall.
However, headline Ofsted judgments were scrapped last month by the new government, ahead of the introduction of new broader report cards next September.
It means schools inspected this academic year won’t receive an overall grade, though they will continue to be rated from ‘outstanding’ to ‘inadequate’ for the four existing sub-judgments.
A Department for Education guidance update for both academy trusts and councils states that “it is expected that, where possible, additional new places will only be provided at schools with strong performance records, particularly taking into account Ofsted sub-judgments on leadership and management and quality of education”.
“Schools that are not currently performing strongly should only be expanded where there are no other viable options.”
The tweaked guidance did not say what else will be considered when assessing schools’ performance.
