We recently attended the Schools and Academies Show 2019 at the Excel in London and sat in on the seminar with Matthew Purves, Ofsted’s Deputy Director for Schools, who discussed the new education inspection framework.
This article outlines the key points we took from the seminar, detailing what you can expect from the new inspection framework with the proposed 4 key judgements and the potential change for all inspections to be two days.
The emphasis of the framework is to place the curriculum at the heart of the inspection and takes the focus away from the generation and analysis of internal data, allowing teachers to be ‘educators’ and not spending time on producing data ‘for Ofsted’.
The proposed new framework’s 4 key judgements:
- Quality of education – looking at what is actually taught, how the curriculum translates into the classroom, it will include the way teaching and assessment is used. It will also look at the standards that pupils achieve and what they know, and can do, as a result of the education they have received.
- Personal development – the inspectors will look beyond the purely academic, vocational or technical and instead ask what the school is doing to support the wider development of the whole child, including their character, resilience, values and the advice and support that the child receives to enable them to move to the next stage of their life.
- Behaviour and attitudes – does the school provide an environment that children can learn in, for example is it a school where low level disruption or bullying is tolerated, or is this dealt with quickly and effectively. One of the questions asked will be whether the school has high expectations of all its pupils and do they implement those expectations consistently and fairly.
- Leadership and management – questions will be asked by inspectors about the vision, ethos and ethics of the school. They will ask whether the leaders systematically support and develop staff to enhance their contribution and ultimately what the children learn. This judgement will also look at whether the school ensures all pupils are properly safeguarded from abuse and neglect.
One other big change being proposed, is that inspectors will spend 2 days on-site in almost all inspections, taking away the one day ‘short inspection’ of good schools. For some small schools the two days on-site may seem excessive and this is still being considered as part of the consultation. The inspectors will attend the school the afternoon before the inspection commences, to allow them to prepare with the leaders collaboratively for the following two days. Schools may differ in their opinion as to how effective having the on-site preparation will be.
The consultation commenced 2 years ago working alongside inspectors, colleagues form unions and professional associations, teachers, leaders, parents, governors, researchers and analysts to gather the evidence that shapes the framework with over 300 events across England alongside 200 pilot inspections. This consultation has been very different to others as the draft inspection handbook has been placed in the public domain and stakeholders have been asked to comment on this.
The next steps will be for Ofsted to read through all the consultation responses, with the hope of publishing the final handbook during May and the new framework to be implemented by September.
If you have any questions in relation to the new education inspection framework or any other HR matter, please do not hesitate to get in touch on 01924 827869.
