The “unwritten agreement” between parents and schools in England has broken since the Covid pandemic, according to Ofsted’s chief inspector, Amanda Spielman, with pupil absences remaining stubbornly high and disruptive behaviour now more common.
Delivering her final annual report as His Majesty’s chief inspector, Spielman said: “We have seen a troubling shift in attitudes since the pandemic. The social contract that has long bound parents and schools together has been damaged.
“Unfortunately, there is ample evidence that this contract has been fractured, both in absenteeism and in behaviour. Restoring this contract is vital to sustaining post-pandemic progress, but is likely to take years to rebuild fully.”
Spielman, who steps down next month as chief inspector after seven years, said parents were partly to blame for the disruption because of their increasing unwillingness to accept school rules or routine decisions such as over uniform policies.
“Some parents are increasingly willing to challenge, whether by undermining discipline codes or ignoring uniform requirements or other rules. We have also seen a greater tendency for parents to complain to us. The number of complaints rose in 2022-23, but we aren’t seeing an increase in the number that warrant action on our part,” Spielman said.
Spielman also called for headteachers to be given more guidance on “delicate choices” over the teaching of relationships and sex education or the handling of transgender and other identity issues, rather than being left without support.
“There needs to be greater central guidance, for several reasons: for more consistent treatment of children and young people in different contexts; to support schools and others under pressure; and to make sure that what is and isn’t accepted in schools isn’t simply driven by the loudest voices at the expense of quieter ones,” Spielman said.
The chief inspector warned that schools should beware of “accidentally” bringing antagonism into the classroom through heavy-handed discussion of current events. “No child should be afraid to go to school or to express a view in the classroom for fear of what their classmates may say to them or do to them, let alone their teacher,” she said.
The annual report makes no mention of Ruth Perry, the Berkshire headteacher whose family said she killed herself earlier this year after her primary school was downgraded by Ofsted inspectors from outstanding to inadequate.
The controversy over Perry’s death has increased calls for reforms to the way Ofsted inspects schools. Spielman responded indirectly to some of the critics, saying: “It is Ofsted that has to make the tough calls when provision of any kind is not good enough for children, and some contention will always flow from that.”
A survey published on Thursday by the National Association of Head Teachers (NAHT) found that four out of five school leaders in England think Ofsted’s inspection grades are unreliable, while only a fifth felt they provided useful information for parents.
When asked how they felt about their school’s next Ofsted inspection, the top five words given by leaders were: anxious, sick, stressed, terrified and dread.
Paul Whiteman, the general secretary of the NAHT, said: “This is a pretty damning indictment of how far Ofsted has lost its way. Far from driving school improvement, inspections are seen as inaccurate, unreliable, and of little use to parents or schools. Ofsted is clearly no longer fit for purpose.”