Ofsted's plans to develop a schools inspection system that is "more proportionate to risk " (their words) go out for consultation today, but headteachers are already jumping up and down and complaining about some of the new proposals.
Not content with introducing a revolutionary 'short, sharp' inspections system in September 2005 which left many schools reeling, the government's education watchdog wants to introduce further change with the prospect of more regular inspection for some schools which are nominally 'satisfactory'.
At one end of the scale, high-achieving schools with consistently high standards will be subject to even lighter inspections in the future, which could amount to just one inspector turning up for just one day.
Nice work if you can get it.
Trials of this new approach are already taking place in some local education authorities. And schools with a notice to improve will, sensibly, be monitored prior to being resinspected one year after being placed in that category. But now Ofsted is also proposing to raise the bar for schools judged overall to be 'satisfactory' , but which might have pockets of under-achievement such as a low-performing department . Those schools face the prospect of more frequent inspections and monitoring, to prevent them from deteriorating between inspections and falling into a category of concern when they are reinspected after three years.
The proposals will be hotly debated at this weekend's annual conference of the Association of School and College Leaders (formerly SHA) in Birmingham. Yesterday general secretary Dr John Dunford said: "It is a sensible use of resources for Ofsted to reduce the amount of inspection for schools that are performing highly, but it is completely unacceptable to increase the amount of inspection for schools judged 'satisfactory'."
In his speech to conference on Sunday, Dr Dunford will say: "Weighing the pig more often does not fatten it. But the Office for Pig Weighing knows nowt about pig fattening, so those who need most sustenance will get most weighing.The last thing that these satisfactory schools need is more inspection. What is required is a more coherent support system to help them improve. The pressure on school leaders is growing all the time. Last term the 'bar' was raised by Ofsted and more schools failed their inspections.
To league tables, Ofsted inspections and national testing is to be added yet more pressure if the education bill becomes law and local authority inspectors are encouraged to sack heads if they do not turn schools around fast enough."
It's clearly a difficult time for head teachers. But is Ofsted is sending out mixed messages? With the Easter teacher conference season looming, Ofsted could find itself once again 'the bogeyman'.
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