The leader of a South Cumbria education trust has welcomed the scrapping of the overall grade in Ofsted inspections.

Professor Andrew Wren, chief executive of South Cumbria Multi-Academy Trust, believes this change will reduce pressure on schools.

He said it will allow headteachers and staff to present a more balanced view of what their schools provide.

Professor Wren said: "This is a welcome improvement and, from what I have heard about the plans from the Department for Education, there are more positives to come.

“The big issue is that traditionally staff have feared what they were going to get in terms of grading, in part because there was often a lack of consistency among inspection teams and the review has been quite critical of the culture so we are expecting significant changes.”

He participated in the Department for Education’s Big Listen project on behalf of the trust, and his feedback seemed to be among that coming through.

The consultation found that Ofsted’s culture induces stress and anxiety among staff, a need for more improvement advice rather than descriptive reports, and a desire for better collaboration and consistency.

The professor says he has already seen first-hand Ofsted moving away from being data-focused, instead listening and seeing the progress of young people and what their work looks like.

South Cumbria Multi-Academy Trust comprises of five Barrow primary schools and Chetwynde, which offers education from kindergarten through to Year 11.

Professor Wren said: “My recent experience was the inspection at Chetwynde last year, and it did feel like that was reflective of what Ofsted is aiming for, with an experience for headteachers that is altogether more human and holistic whilst maintaining the rigorous quality assurance that we all want.

“Inspectors were not just giving their judgement as good across the board at Chetwynde, but also offering ideas around improvement and signposting to support as to how to make further improvements."

Professor Wren is optimistic about the changes and looks forward to the new framework.

He said: “We have schools that will be inspected soon and I really hope that the removal of the headline judgement puts our amazing headteachers more at ease and confident to show the excellent work they do without the resulting reports headed by one or two-word judgements.

“I am really optimistic that the changes will be for the better and we look forward to seeing the new framework next September.”