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Press release: More than nine in ten parents support school inspection

More than nine in ten parents support the shorter notice inspections

In September 2006, Ipsos MORI conducted research on behalf of the Office for Standards in Education (Ofsted) into parents' attitudes towards school inspection.

The main findings include:

• 92% of parents said they are in favour of school inspections (only 4% are not in favour).
• 81% of parents consider shorter notice of school inspections a good idea, while just 14% do not. Among those in favour of schools being inspected, the proportion in favour of shorter notice was 85%.
• 82% of parents believe that it is likely that the inspection will have helped their child's or children's school to improve.
• However, only 53% of parents, whose child's school had been inspected, considered that the letter sent by inspectors to pupils was helpful, with 24% being unaware that such a letter was sent. (See notes to editors.)

Miriam Rosen, Director of Education, said:

"Ofsted's overriding aim is to contribute to better education and care, thereby serving parents and those who are educated in our schools. It is heartening that more than nine in ten parents are in favour of school inspection and more than eight in ten believe inspection has contributed to improvement at their child's school.

"But we are never complacent and there is clearly still work to be done to prove the worth of the letter to pupils. In July, when we published a survey of headteachers' and pupils' views of the letter to pupils, we said we would offer more advice to inspectors about appropriate styles of writing for different age groups, and we have done this."

Notes For Editors

1.  The research formed part of an Ipsos MORI ‘omnibus’ survey, in which face-to-face interviews were held with a nationally representative quota sample of 1,989 adults (aged 15 and over) in their own homes between 14 and 29 September. The survey results are based on 510 interviews with those people in the sample who were parents of at least one child.
2. In July the National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER) published Impact of Section 5 inspections: maintained schools in England which found that 85 per cent of 134 schools surveyed agreed that the new shorter, sharper inspection system is likely to contribute to school improvement in the future. In addition, 66 per cent completely agreed with Ofsted’s recommendations for improvement (31 per cent partially agreed) and 92 per cent of respondents thought the recommendations were helpful.
3. The NfER report also found that sixty three per cent of headteachers thought the inspection system introduced in September 2005 is less stressful than the previous system. The completion of the self-evaluation form, while considered a time-consuming process by some, was viewed positively by most respondents with 97 per cent regarding the form as helpful for self-evaluation.
4. Also in July, Ofsted published School inspectors’ letters to pupils: lessons learned and ways forward which found that, of 45 headteachers surveyed, just fewer than seven out of 10 were very pleased with the letter and an additional two out of ten were satisfied with the letter. Overall, more than nine out of 10 headteachers felt that the letter fairly reflected the key points in the report. The majority of pupils agreed or strongly agreed that the inspection letters were a good idea. Some pupils felt valued because they could see that their contribution to the inspection process was recognised within the letters.
5. Ofsted is a non-ministerial government department established under the Education (Schools) Act 1992 to take responsibility for the inspection of all schools in England. Its role also includes the inspection of further education, local authority children’s services, teacher training institutions and some independent schools. During 2001, Ofsted became responsible for inspecting all 16-19 education and for the regulation of early years childcare, including childminders.

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