The Education Secretary has hit back at union claims the Government’s new schools rating system is confusing and will make inspections “worse, not better” for headteachers.
Bridget Phillipson on Monday rejected criticism of the Ofsted grading system revamp, which will see a new colour-coded five-point "report card" scale replace single word judgments such as “outstanding” and “inadequate”.
Union leaders have derided aspects of the proposals. The General Secretary of the National Education Union (NEU), said the new system "will make things worse, not better".
But Ms Phillipson said: "On the report cards in particular, I think parents are more than able to understand and to take on board greater information about what's happening within their children's school.
"Both in terms of strengths and areas of weakness and where there is further work required on improvement.
"So I just fundamentally reject this idea that somehow providing more information shining a light on areas where there is a need for improvement, but also where there is excellence is somehow not something that parents want when all the evidence is clear that they do."
She added that the Government will "intervene swiftly'' in schools with the most serious issues.
Labour pledged to scrap the old system after primary school headteacher Ruth Perry took her own life following an “intimidating” Ofsted inspection.
NEU General Secretary Daniel Kebede said the new plans would heap more pressure on teachers.
He told LBC: "Ofsted were tasked with bringing around a system of inspection which reduced the pressure on the school system in quite tragic circumstances and unfortunately our view is this will make things worse, not better."
He added: "There are more areas of judgment, it will be conducted in two days.
“So we have questions around the reliability of Ofsted's capability to reliably gauge where schools are at with so many areas of judgement.
"But it will simply lead to headteachers trying to gather lots of evidence on all of these areas and that pressure trickles down through the school system to the teachers, to the support staff and indeed to the young people and the children. It is really worrying."
Catherine McKinnell, Minister for School Standards, said it was “insulting” to suggest parents would not be able to understand the new Ofsted ratings.
The minister told Times Radio: “Information is power and I actually think it's a bit insulting to say that this is too confusing for parents that they don't understand more information about their child's school.
“I think quite the opposite. I think parents want to understand what's going on in a child's school because actually a parent knows their child really well and they might know that a particular school that has one approach might not be the best environment for their child but actually a school that takes a really inclusive approach to their education, that might be what they want.
“So I think as well to really understand where a school is performing well and where they're not is information that parents should have and really that will drive the outcomes that we want to see which is a good local school for every child in their local area.”
HM Chief Inspector of Education Sir Martyn Oliver said Ofsted's new report card system will not please everyone, but stressed "our priority is for children".
He told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: “Ofsted exists to report to parents.
“I know that not everyone is going to be happy with any form of judgment or grade and that type of approach.
“But our priority is for children and for learners and having clarity and accountability - we undertook the largest survey in Ofsted's history last year and parents were really clear.
“They thought the single word summary judgment - one word or two words to describe an entire setting - just didn't work for them, but they were very, very clear...that 'we do want clarity, we want to know how our school or our nursery is performing'.”
