Ofsted confirms all schools’ right to request return visits from inspectors

Every state-funded school in England can request an Ofsted inspection at any time, the inspectorate has confirmed to Education Uncovered.

This applies even to schools which are currently graded inadequate and thus in the throes of often unpopular forced academy takeovers.

This statement, though simply re-iterating a paragraph within recent versions of Ofsted’s inspection handbook, including the current one, is significant given current controversies where communities have been very keen for inspectors to re-visit their schools in cases of forced takeovers.

Education Uncovered was prompted to ask Ofsted by the case of Crigglestone Mackie Hill school in Wakefield, west Yorkshire. But the possibility of a request for a new inspection visit seems relevant to at least two other high-profile current controversies.

At Crigglestone Mackie Hill, the local MP, Mary Creagh, has reportedly written to Ofsted asking for a return inspection, after it failed a visit in December 2017.