This information is intended to be a quick guide on what to expect during your Ofsted inspection and what could happen as a result of such an inspection. It is not possible in such a brief document to cover all the issues so please feel free to contact the Union office if something is worrying you or you would like further clarification.

Ofsted provide a description of the inspection process in "Framework for Inspection", which can be found at www.ofsted.gov.uk. If you encounter any difficulties accessing this document, you could ring the Ofsted Publications Centre on 07002 637833. Ofsted have ceased publication of the "Inspection Handbook" - all the information is meant to be in "Framework".

BEFORE AN OFSTED INSPECTION
All schools must be inspected at least once within three years of the end of the school year in which the last inspection took place, although the period could be shorter in the case of schools which Ofsted judged to be "causing concern" at the last inspection. Schools do, however, have a right to request a change to their inspection date. Schools will receive between two to five days notice of an inspection. In circumstances where Ofsted believe pupils' safety to be at risk they could arrive without notice.
The Registered Inspector meets the staff to explain the procedure and to answer questions and may say placatory things such as, "Our team only wants to help your school to be a better place". The Registered Inspector also meets with the Head and Chair of Governors to agree procedures.

SELF-EVALUATION
The school's self-evaluation, recorded on the Self-Evaluation Form, will be considered by the inspectors. Although it is not compulsory for a school to have done a self-evaluation, Ofsted is "strongly encouraging" schools to do so and to up-date it annually. It should be linked to the School Development Plan. The idea, say Ofsted, is to identify for the inspectors areas which are important to the school and which should therefore provide a significant focus of the inspection. There is a danger here in that teachers who work in such areas may be subjected to more inspection time. It is important that the management does all it can to protect these teachers from stress and that the inspectors observe their own rules about stress and over-inspection (see next page).

PUPILS AND PARENTS
Schools must notify parents of the inspection and let them know how they can inform the inspectors of their views. Ofsted provide schools with a questionnaire for this purpose but schools may also want to use their own methods. Given the short notice of inspections, any meetings with parents would probably need to be held in the period before an inspection is expected.
The school may want to conduct its own survey of pupils' views but this would not replace discussions between inspectors and pupils during the inspection.
Inspectors must take notice of any views expressed to them by parents, pupils, staff and governors.

CODE OF CONDUCT FOR INSPECTORS
All Registered Inspectors are required to abide by the following code of conduct when inspecting schools and to ensure that their inspection teams do so too. If they don't, please let the Union know.
The principles of the code are:
i - to be objective and impartial in evaluating the work of the school;
ii - to be honest and fair in making judgements;
iii - to maintain integrity, courtesy and sensitivity in all dealings with staff;
iv - to minimise stress, particularly by avoiding the over-inspection of individuals and by not asking for paperwork to be specially prepared for inspections;
v - to maintain as priorities the best interests and well-being of pupils and staff;
vi - to maintain purposeful and productive dialogue with staff;
vii - to respect the confidentiality of information, with particular regard for the judgements made about teachers.

All members of staff, not just the Headteacher, have the right to inspect the CVs of the Inspection Team.
They could be displayed in the staff room.

LESSON OBSERVATIONS
The inspectors will observe a sample of lessons and classes to experience a cross section of the work of the school. They may only see part of a teaching session. Judgements about the quality of teaching, however, are not based solely on lesson observations, but also on, for example, pupil progress. For the purpose of the inspection teachers are grouped into areas, such as departments in Secondary schools or Key stage areas in Primary schools, and the Head and area co-ordinators receive feedback about these areas.
All judgements which the inspectors make about the school, including lesson observations, are recorded on a 4-point scale: 1 = Outstanding; 2 = Good; 3 = Satisfactory; 4 = Inadequate. This scale, importantly, does not identify individual teachers - it is used to calculate the % of lessons that were deemed to be satisfactory or better and those deemed to be less than satisfactory.
Clearly, it is still possible for individuals to be identified, especially in small schools or small departments, but, say OFSTED, this is not the intention. Also, inspectors do have the right to discuss the work of an individual teacher with management, but they must discuss matters with that teacher first.
It is a good idea for schools to monitor who has been observed, and for how long, to ensure that teachers are not being over-inspected and that a fair cross - section of the school is being seen.
Each inspector has specified curricular areas on which to collect evidence. Teachers in Primary Schools may wish to note who visited them, for how long and for which subject areas the inspector was responsible.

 

 

 

 

 

FEEDBACK
Inspectors are required to offer oral feedback to individual teachers on the quality of teaching seen. This should take place either at the end of the lesson seen or as soon as possible afterwards. Although it is not compulsory to receive this feedback, members are advised to use the opportunity to give their point of view and challenge any points with which they disagree in a professionally assertive, rather than a defensive or antagonistic, manner. Teachers do not receive a grade, but a verbal report of the inspector's judgement which must be clear about any identified strengths and weaknesses.

INSPECTORS GET EVERYWHERE
They will appear in canteens, at breaks, before and after school etc. They will want to talk to subject and SEN co-ordinators, heads and deputies and year leaders. However, if they wish to attend any extra-curricula activities they will have to ask permission from the staff concerned. They will also select a number of individual pupils for a more detailed examination of their work: this may involve shadowing and interviewing them and collecting in their books, profiles etc.

NATIONAL CURRICULUM SUBJECTS - KS 1 AND 2
Although primary schools have to teach Design and Technology, Science, RE, Geography, History, Art, Music and PE, teachers do not need to teach the detailed Programmes of Study relating to them. Ofsted inspectors should therefore not criticise schools for not teaching the Programmes of Study in these subjects. Inspectors will expect the Programmes to be followed in the core subjects of English, Maths, Science and IT.
The national LITERACY and NUMERACY strategies are also not statutory and schools cannot be
criticised by Ofsted for not implementing them. However, schools would be criticised if their own strategies were deemed to be ineffectual.

TOWARDS THE END OF THE INSPECTION
Schools which have been given an “Improvement Notice” will now receive an HMI monitoring visit within six to eight months, and will be re-inspected by Ofsted after one year.

Until March 2007, Ofsted will trial new monitoring arrangements for schools they have found generally satisfactory, but with “pockets of underachievement”. Participation in the trial is voluntary and may consist of telephone conversations with the Headteacher rather than visits to the school.

Verbal feedback is given to subject/area coordinators in the presence of a member of the senior staff who will take notes. Accuracy of information can be corrected but judgements made cannot. The subject coordinator will be expected to feed this back to colleagues. The Registered Inspector seeks the views of the other inspectors as to whether or not the school is "failing, or is likely to fail to give a satisfactory standard of education to its pupils." A school is considered to have serious weaknesses when one or more of the following factors are present:
• standards are unsatisfactory either across the school as a whole, or in particular key stages -
particular attention is given to unsatisfactory standards in English, mathematics and science; (but although inspection judgements are informed by the contextualised value added indicators, they are not determined by them).
• the quality of teaching and learning is unsatisfactory in more than approximately 1 in 8 lessons;
• there are concerns about the standard of the pupils' behaviour and conduct, or about
relationships generally;
• the management is ineffective;
• the school does not give value for money;
• the level of attendance is low;
• there are a large number of exclusions.
On a second inspection, the school's capacity to maintain standards is also reported upon.

If it is the case that the school is considered by the inspectors to be "causing concern" then the school may become subject to "Special Measures". The Registered Inspector informs the headteacher orally and contacts Ofsted's Schools at Risk Team (SART). Within 3 weeks, HMI visit the school to check on aspects of the Inspector's report. If they agree that the school is failing, then the school is subject to Special Measures. This involves follow-up visits from HMI to see if the school is implementing its action plan and if this is likely to eliminate the school's weaknesses.
If, in Ofsted's view, the school is causing concern but does not warrant Special Measures, it can be given an "Improvement Notice".

Although the normal period between inspections is three years, Ofsted may decide to return to a school in the interim period. There are no automatic triggers to bring this about, but a significant deterioration in any of the factors listed above could alert them.

AFTER AN OFSTED INSPECTION
A verbal report is given to the headteacher and other invited members of staff (usually the senior management team). This is usually reported back to the rest of the staff. A verbal report is also given to the Governors. The written report must be published by Ofsted within three weeks, and the school has the responsibility of providing parents with a copy of this. A press release should be prepared - carefully. A post-inspection action plan has to be drawn up to address those areas highlighted in the report as needing improvement. Examples of issues that might have to go into the action plan are :-
• some aspect of the work of a curriculum area where the National Curriculum is not being met.
• an issue that might need looking at as a whole school.
• addressing pupils' spiritual development.

STRATEGIES FOR SURVIVING AN OFSTED INSPECTION

WORKLOAD
Teachers should not be required to create documentation especially for Ofsted inspections.
Ofsted itself makes it clear that " demands on the school are kept to a minimum and the school is dissuaded from producing extra documents for the inspection."
The inspectors will want to see information which has been prepared or is in the process of being prepared as part of the normal running of the school, such as a school development plan and subject handbooks. But Ofsted does not require any of this to be completed.
It is important to make sure you are attempting to implement what your development plan or handbook says you are.
It is vital that the new shorter notice period (two to five days instead of six to ten weeks) reduces the
pre - inspection workload and does not condense unreasonable expectations for preparation into the shorter period.
Remember : You are protected by the NUT's ballot on bureaucracy from writing documentation specifically for an inspection, and from carrying out clerical tasks such as typing and photocopying. You are also protected from being required to undertake additional work arising from the transfer of teaching work to unqualified persons, or from extra work triggered by the appointment of support staff.

BE REALISTIC
Prioritise and do what you feel will have the most benefit for the staff and pupils at your school. For those areas that you have not addressed, show that you plan to do them in the future and if possible state what year/term this will be. Don’t say you will ‘never’ attempt something (even if you think it’s a waste of time/unworkable/impracticable) because they may argue that you are not meeting statutory requirements/not giving pupils full access to the National Curriculum/neglecting your responsibilities and therefore not doing an adequate job. If you can anticipate the criticism and prepare your response during one of the many discussions you will have with your curriculum inspector, you may avoid the criticism appearing as an action point.

Looking at Ofsted reports on other schools and the subsequent action plans of schools is a good way of understanding what concerns inspectors and what areas of "weakness" they may identify in your school. These are available from the Bradford NUT office. People whose schools have been inspected can also share strategies which they might not want to commit to paper.

WORK TOGETHER, HOWEVER DIFFICULT THIS SEEMS

It is probably unwise to see OFSTED as an opportunity to get off your chest your gripes about how badly managed your school is, how you have extra work to do because so-and-so does nothing, about how you could achieve great things if only your pupils had more supportive backgrounds etc. Trying to show you work closely as a team will help to get your school a report which will not leave you with too much work to do after they have gone.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

September 2006

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