What do school leaders and the public really think?

Most people running schools really don’t like Michael Gove. He won’t care: schools are improving. Our latest survey with The Key network shows that 47% of school leaders are VERY dissatisfied with their Whitehall department. They have never loved the centre much – under Labour some 24% were similarly very dissatisfied and only 2% very satisfied.

But despite their dislike of Gove’s political/ideological approach, both parents and indeed Heads and governors all agree that schools have improved since Gove arrived in Great Smith Street. Some 47% of the same group that loath Gove say the quality of education has improved since 2010, and 20% think it has got worse. The figure for parents is 43% better, 22% worse.

Depending on your politics this may be due to the amazing efforts of Mr Gove, or indeed hard work by public servants on the ground in spite of provocation. Or both. But either way it is encouraging.

There’s also good news for OFSTED. Despite most school leaders saying its judgements are inaccurate (64%), they turn out to be pretty much spot on when we compare them with school leaders’ own ratings of how their school is doing. Especially on the quality of teaching! So overall some 79% of heads in “outstanding” schools rate the quality of teaching at their school is excellent or very good. In “good” schools it’s 63%, for “in need of improvement” it is only 34% and only 10% of heads at “inadequate” schools rate their teaching as good.

So whatever they think of OFSTED, it must be encouraging that their views are aligned on overall judgements. In other sectors, for other regulators, in my experience this has not always been the case.

What do school leaders and the public really think from Ipsos

• Read the full findings of our survey for The Key network