Outstanding schools in England will no longer face routine Ofsted inspections², the new education secretary has said.

英国教育标准局新任教育部长称，英国优秀的学校将不必接受教育部门例行审查。

Inspectors³ will no longer have to make routine visits to all schools" width="226" height="170" src="/upimg/100528/4_072241_1.gif" />
Inspectors will no longer have to make routine visits to all schools

Michael Gove said the move would allow education inspectors to focus their efforts on failing schools instead.

Under the plan, the 2,000 primary, 600 secondary and 300 special schools rated as outstanding by Ofsted would only be inspected if there were warning signs such as bad exam performance.

Currently they are inspected every five years.

The news comes just days after Mr Gove announced plans to allow all outstanding schools to automatically become academies, outside of local authority control.

'Freed from inspection¹'

In an interview with the Times Educational Supplement (TES), Mr Gove said: "Outstanding schools will be freed from inspection, [but] if there are certain indicators⁴（指示灯，指示器） that flash 'danger' then it will be triggered and there is always the parental⁵ request for an inspection if there are problems as well."

Measures to reform Ofsted and change inspection rules for top-performing schools will form part of the Education and Children's Bill, which is due to be published in the autumn.

Mr Gove did not give details of how schools which are not routinely inspected will be monitored.

But plans for a "traffic light" monitoring system that would show if a school is deteriorating⁶（退化，恶化） were suggested by the Conservatives last October.

'Greatest impact'

Mr Gove said that freeing up Ofsted in this way would give more time for "no notice" inspections, and allow inspectors to spend more time in failing schools.

"Of course things can change, heads and leadership teams can change, there can be changes of intake⁷, changes of staff, changes of funding.

"But there are a number of ways in which lights can flash and we can see what's happening," he told the TES.

An Ofsted spokeswoman said: "Ofsted already focuses inspection on where it will have the greatest impact for children and learners. We will work with the government on what this means in practice."