14 July 2015 – Ofsted Inspection Update

London Borough of Bexley

Meena Wood

School Improvement Officer

Future of Education InspectionUpdate

‘Better inspection for all’ consultation

Further education and skills

Non-association independent schools

New Common Inspection Framework (CIF)

Short inspections for good providers

Two-year-old offer

Baseline exercise

Direct contracting of inspectors and changes to workforce

Maintained schools

and academies

Early Years

Future of inspection | 3

Changes to the way Ofsted works

To prepare for September 2015, Ofsted is :

Making significant changes in how Ofsted source, train, contract and manage all Ofsted inspectors who deliver inspections.

Tightening up selection criteria that all inspectors have to meet

Complaints investigated through Panel of Senior HMI and educational leaders ( not Ofsted inspectors)

Developing structures for closer working relationships between:

Ofsted Inspectors (OIs) – 70% are current practitioners Her Majesty’s Inspectors (HMI) – liaise with/support OIs

to share knowledge and experience of inspections. Senior HMI - manage OIs

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New Common Inspection Framework

Schools, non-association independent schools, further education and skills providers and registered early years providers.

Four graded judgements across all remits. leadership and management; teaching, learning and assessment; personal development, behaviour and welfare; outcomes for children and learners.

Greater emphasis on safeguarding, SMSC, Prevent Duty and curriculum. There will still be a grade for Early Years/Sixth form.

Framework will provide greater clarity, coherence and comparability for users, learners, parents and employers.

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Features of S5 inspections

For schools judged outstanding one judgement of the four key judgements may be G2 so long as the school is moving to G1.

Outcomes will be judged through attainment and pupils’ progress in each year group and across curriculum, in particular in English and Mathematics; disadvantaged pupils and SEND – matches or/ is improving against other pupils.

Curriculum underpinned by ‘assessment without levels’ ; assessment feedback to pupils vital element of evidence; observations triangulated against data-progress over time

SMSC is linked to curriculum; increasingly more important as evidence for OE judgement

Inspection focus Safeguarding – ‘golden thread’ throughout inspection.

Prevent Duty- evaluating impact through talking with pupils.

Schools expected to have evidence of how they have addressed the following six strands:

Leadership and governance- awareness of what constitutes radicalisation; training for school staff; engagement with external parties; referral pathways

School policies and practices (schools do not necessarily need a specific ‘prevent policy’ solely about radicalisation but it must be reflected in other school policies such as safeguarding policy, IT policy, policies about visits and visitors, school policy on lettings and bookings

Curriculum- formal and informal curriculum (such as debating societies/website forums in schools)

Short inspections for ‘good’ providers

Frequent, shorter inspections for ‘good’ schools, academies and further education and skills providers – approximately every three years.

More proportionate: the right sort of inspections at the right time.

Designed to check if the quality of provision is being sustained, and whether leaders have the capacity to drive improvement

Help support rising standards with greater professional dialogue.

Regular reporting to parents, carers, learners and employers.

Identify decline early and give schools/providers opportunity to demonstrate improvement sooner or to recognise ‘outstanding providers’.

Future of inspection | 8

Short inspections for ‘good’ providers

The HMI begins from the premise that the school will still be good

The main purpose of a short inspection is to evaluate:

Whether the school remains good Whether safeguarding is effective or not The capacity of leaders, managers and governors to

drive continued improvement – track record of improvement, accuracy of self-evaluation

Half day notice (special schools one day)

Short inspections for ‘good’ providers

One HMI in Primary, two in secondary for one day; not a S5 inspection, S8 methodology

Verbal feedback and letter, published on the Ofsted web site. This letter will not include graded judgements. Commentary on effectiveness of safeguarding arrangements, whether the school remains good and any next steps.

The potential for conversion into a full S5 if the HMI is questioning whether or not the school should remain as good or move to outstanding/RI/Inadequate. In this case Ofsted inspectors arrive between 24 -48 hours of being contacted.

HMI will inform the school by 2 pm and certainly by 4 pm that they are calling a S5 inspection.

Focus in short inspections for ‘good’ providers

Assumption that school is ‘good’ on short inspection and leaders should be honest about weaknesses – HMI will look to see whether leaders have credible plan to improve – to test through data/observation/dialogues.

HMI ‘mantra’ – show me! The ‘Quality of leadership’ is the final judgement; is there effective leadership that is moving school forward.

Impact of leadership SMSC more important now embedded in curriculum – vital part of school work.

Culture of school and ethos

 

Short inspections for ‘good’ providers

Focus in short monitoring inspections on capacity, systems leadership, identifying accurately strengths and weaknesses; ‘no excuses culture’; communicating the school’s strategy for continuous improvement to stakeholders

Check school’s leadership of teaching

Evaluate quality of teaching/ assessment/learning

Concise and accurate school self-evaluation.

Identifying ‘great ‘maverick’ leaders’ – these support doing things differently to support pupils’ interests

Framework

Personal development and wellbeing (1 judgement) and behaviour (1 judgement)

Lower grade will determine outcome. Careers guidance will be within in this judgement; readiness for next phase.

 Personal development and well being and behaviour

Attitudes/resilience Respect, conduct and self-discipline Physical and emotional wellbeing judged through

SMSC. 

Framework Leaders and governors have a deep, accurate understanding of the school’s effectiveness informed by the views of pupils, parents and staff. They use this to keep the school improving by focusing on the impact of their actions in key areas. actively promote British valuesmake sure that safeguarding arrangements to protect children, young people and learners meet all statutory and other government requirements, promote their welfare and prevent radicalisation and extremism.

For a definition of these values, see the Prevent Strategy;

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/protecting-children-from-radicalisation-the-prevent-duty

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/the-use-of-social-media-for-online-rad

What you as school leaders can do

How effective and accurate is the evidence of the impact of teaching, assessment, behavioural attitudes and SMSC on accelerating pupil outcomes ( attainment and progress over time)?

How forensically analytical is the SEF? This is the starting point for inspection:

does it reflect the capacity of leaders and managers to know the strengths of their school and the areas of weaknesses that they have tackled either successfully or not;

how effectively the school evaluates its strategies and is putting in place different strategies that work more effectively.

How do you ensure yourself that you have a deep, accurate understanding of the school’s effectiveness informed by the views of pupils, parents and staff?