Ofsted has today set out how its proposed new inspection model and school report cards will work.
A consultation on the proposals will run until April 28, with findings reported in the summer.
The return of inspections after the summer break will then be delayed until November to allow enough time to implement the changes, Ofsted said.
You can read our news story on the changes here, and a Q&A with Ofsted boss Sir Martyn Oliver here.
Here’s your usual handy Schools Week explainer…
1. Report cards to judge schools on 9 areas…
Report cards will judge schools on eight areas, plus safeguarding. Early years and sixth forms will also have their own categories – meaning a school could have 11 ratings in total.
Ofsted said these areas “represent the component parts of great education provision” and “provide the nuance” parents and professionals want.
They will allow inspectors to “highlight poor practice with more precision – pointing laser-like to specific issues, not shining a floodlight on the whole provider”.
Each evaluation area will have a drop-down box that contains more information about the findings.
The inspection areas for schools (state and independent) are:
- Leadership and governance
- Curriculum
- Developing teaching
- Achievement
- Behaviour and attitudes
- Attendance
- Personal development and well-being
- Inclusion
- Safeguarding
- Early years in schools (where applicable)
- Sixth form in schools (where applicable)
For initial teacher training, there will be six:
- Leadership
- Inclusion
- Curriculum
- Teaching
- Achievement
- Professional behaviours, personal development and well-being
2. … 5 traffic-light ratings from ‘causing concern’ to ‘exemplary’
Each of the new areas will be rated using a five-point, traffic light system.
Ofsted said this will allow inspectors to “validate and celebrate success”, give reassurance where leaders are showing the “first signs of improvement”, and “identify where leaders’ attention needs to turn next to avoid outcomes declining”.
The five ratings will be:
- Causing concern (red): needs urgent action to provide a suitable standard of education for children and learners
- Attention needed (amber): some aspects of provision are inconsistent, limited in scope or impact and/or not fully meeting legal requirements or non-statutory guidance expectations. However, inspectors think leaders “have the capacity to make necessary improvements”
- Secure (light green): offering a “secure standard of education” by meeting the above standards
- Strong (green): practice is “consistently secure across different year groups and subjects”. Leaders “working above and beyond” what’s expected
- Exemplary (dark green): all evaluation areas are graded at least secure and, in an area that is “consistently strong”, there is “a feature of practice that could be considered as exemplary”
Ofsted said the middle three grades would “typically capture where most providers would sit across the range of evaluation areas”.
Ofsted does provide a brief summary of other grading options. But they say a three-point scale wouldn’t support continuous improvement, four ratings wouldn’t allow them to “break down” ‘good’ into “more parts, and a 7-point scale was “unnecessarily complicated”.
Here is an example of what a new report card inspection will look like …
3. Inspectors ‘recommend’ exemplary – national panel decides
Inspectors can only recommend a school gets an exemplary rating. This will then be “moderated and confirmed” by a “national quality and consistency panel”.
Consideration will include how the school’s work is embedded and sustained over time, whether it is making a “tangible difference” to children’s learning and is being shared with others to “support system improvement”.
Any schools with ‘exemplary’ will be invited to submit a case study to be published on the Ofsted Academy website, potentially through a series of “national best practice reports”.
Oliver said the new top grade will “help raise standards, identifying world-class practice that should be shared with the rest of the country”.
4. Bye bye ungraded inspections
From November, all inspections will be ‘full’ inspections. There will be no more ungraded inspections.
This will “simplify inspection: every school will know exactly what kind of inspection it will receive and how often”, Ofsted said.
Currently most schools get full inspections roughly every four years. Ofsted has not said at what frequency they will happen under the new framework.
5. One red and schools will be put in a category…
The definition for schools that fall into categories of concern is set out in law:
- Schools with widespread issues: ‘special measures’
- Schools with more specific (but still serious) issues: ‘serious weaknesses’
This will remain, but the lesser category will be renamed to ‘requires significant improvement’. This will prevent confusion, Ofsted said.
Schools will be be deemed to require significant improvement if…
- They get a red ‘causing concern’ rating (or safeguarding ‘not met’) in any area, but not in leadership
- They get a red rating for leadership but no other red grades and are meeting safeguarding requirements
Schools will be deemed to be in special measures if…
- They have a red rating in leadership and at least one other area (or safeguarding ‘not met’)
6. … one amber and it’s a monitoring inspection within 18 months
All schools that are either causing concern, or have *any* area graded ‘attention needed’ (amber), will get a monitoring inspection within 18 months.
Monitoring visits to the latter will focus on just the ‘attention needed’ areas. If schools show “significant signs of improvement”, the area will be upgraded to ‘secure’. Monitoring will continue until all areas are secure.
Ofsted said this will mean schools with a lower rating aren’t waiting years for another inspection to show they’ve improved.
Schools deemed as ‘requires significant improvement’ will get five monitoring inspections within 18 months.
Schools in special measures will get six monitoring inspections within 24 months.
Government has also published its own intervention plans today.
7. Ofsted to publish number of SEND kids, absence data
Ofsted said it also wants to “take into account the context that a provider operates in”, which was “a strong theme in the Big Listen”.
They plan to “summarise” information on schools and the local area alongside the report card. This includes:
- Characteristics of children: including those who are disadvantaged and those with SEND
- Outcomes: performance data for all children and for particular groups, including those who are disadvantaged. They will highlight trends in performance data
- Absence and attendance: including those with persistent absence
- Local area data: including deprivation and relevant characteristics of the local community, availability and quality of other educational and care provision in the area, as well as any provision/services a child or learner may move onto next
8. Toolkits mean schools ‘won’t have to guess what’s in inspector’s minds’
Ofsted will publish toolkits for each evaluation area to “take any mystery out of inspection, so providers can be clear about what we will and, importantly, will not look at”.
Oliver described this as “unprecedented” and meant leaders would “no longer have to guess what’s in inspectors’ minds”.
They will “contain the standards” Ofsted will inspect against and “describe the quality they would expect to see at each point on the scale”.
Conversations will start with leaders’ “own evaluation of how their provision is doing”, based on the toolkits, published data and professional standards.
9. Nominated staff member to work with inspectors
All inspections will start by discussing a school’s work against the ‘secure’ criteria. To decide grades, inspectors will focus on leadership of the area and the extent of inclusive practices.
If secure is met, inspectors will consider higher grades. If not, they’ll look at the lower grades.
If the emerging grade is “at odds” with leaders’ views, inspectors will ask leaders to “suggest who else they should speak to and what other evidence they could consider” to make sure they’ve got broad enough evidence.
“Professional dialogue between inspectors and leaders will be a priority,” Ofsted added.
Every school will also be asked to nominate a senior staff member to “work closely with the inspection team”.
This will make sure leaders are “fully included in the inspection process”. Such nominees are already used in further education inspections.
10. How new inclusion focus will work
The toolkits also show how Ofsted plans to hold schools to account for providing inclusive education.
Inclusion, along with leadership, will feature as a key question across all evaluation areas, for all remits.
Inclusion is defined as:
Inclusive providers are at the heart of their communities. They have high expectations and aspirations for every child and learner. They are particularly alert to the needs of those who need the most support to achieve well, including those with SEND.
Leaders set a clear and ambitious vision for inclusion at the provider. They communicate this to children, learners, staff, and parents and carers. They create a culture in which every child and learner belongs, and feels safe, welcomed and valued. They make sure that all children and learners access a high-quality education, taught by experts with high ambition who strive to develop every child and learner’s potential.
Leaders work in a close and effective partnership with parents and carers and other agencies to secure the best possible outcomes for every child and learner, regardless of their starting points. Inclusive providers are relentless in identifying and removing barriers to participation and learning, so that all children and learners can achieve and thrive.
11. Curriculum deep dives gone, more focus on results
Inspectors will no longer do deep dives. Ofsted said inspectors “had challenges in gathering evidence” through this process – which delved into the curriculum of specific subjects – because of “time limitations”.
Removing deep dives will “give inspectors and providers significantly greater flexibility”. Inspectors will instead discuss the “most appropriate activities tailored to the specific provider”, normally based on “leaders’ improvement priorities”.
Report cards will “place more emphasis on children and learners’ outcomes,” Ofsted said.
“This does not mean exam results alone. It means looking at whether children and learners achieve well at every stage of their learning journey, so that they can move confidently and smoothly into the next phase of education or training – or into employment.”
