Trials for a “new approach” to inspections will start in the first week of next term, Ofsted has announced as it ploughs ahead with reform despite sector concerns over moving too quickly.
The trial will involve visits to a “small number of volunteer schools” to “informally test elements of the proposed inspection framework”, the inspectorate said.
It will come before a consultation on introducing new report card inspections is launched later in January.
Later in the term, and in “parallel with the consultation”, Ofsted will then “formally pilot the new approach in schools” as well as other education providers. These pilots will help to refine and improve Ofsted’s proposals”.
Following consultation, and any changes to the proposed approach, Ofsted will run further pilot inspections of a range of volunteer providers to test the final model, it said.
A series of events will also be held to inform and support education professionals, it added.
It comes after the government scrapped single-phrase headline Ofsted grades for schools with immediate effect at the start of this academic year.
As a replacement, a new national report card system is set to be rolled out for schools from next September.
Consultation on the report cards and wider changes to Ofsted’s education inspection framework is due to start in January. However sector leaders are concerned at both the speed of the changes and that Ofsted is leading on “reforming itself”.
The inspectorate today published its first ‘big action listen monitoring report’, setting out the actions it’s taken off the back of Ofsted’s wide-ranging public consultation earlier this year.
Of the 132 commitments made in the Big Listen and in response to Dame Christine Gilbert’s independent learning review, just under a third (42) have been completed.
