Public consultation on
proposals for the HMIE school
inspection framework starting
in Autumn 2011
Public consultation on proposals for the HMIE school inspection framework
starting in Autumn 2011
The purpose of this consultation
The purpose of this consultation is to gather the views of as many of our
stakeholders as possible about our proposals for school1 inspections. We want to
hear your comments and views to help ensure that we are meeting your
expectations and needs as far as we can. Further information on the work of
HMIE can be found in Appendix 1.
Why are we proposing changes now?
How we inspect schools needs to be regularly reviewed to ensure that it remains
up-to-date and has the greatest benefit to learners. We believe that the time is
right to review and make further changes to our approach for a number of reasons.
We now need to decide how we select schools for inspection in the future. We
have recently completed a cycle of inspections where we inspected every local
authority school in Scotland over a fixed period of time (six years in the case of
secondary schools, seven in the case of primary schools).
We want inspection to be seen as a positive, partnership experience. To do this
we need to build on our current inspections so that they focus even more on how
schools evaluate themselves (school self-evaluation) and how they are improving.
We have already made improvements in our inspections but we want to make
more.
We need to support the principles set out in the Scottish Government’s response
to a report (The Crerar Review, 20072) which reviewed the place of scrutiny in
public services. To do this we want to move towards inspections that vary in size
relative to the needs of the school and pre-school settings, while remaining
independent, transparent and clearly focused on the needs of learners and their
families.
These proposals are designed to help us meet the challenges which all public
bodies are facing of improving our impact whilst using fewer resources. In order to
do this we need to focus our inspections and make sure that we concentrate our
efforts in the places which will have the greatest benefit for learners.
We also need to continue to reduce our environmental impact. We believe these
proposals will help us do this.
The proposals are based on a process of looking at our previous work and the
feedback we’ve received. That process also included talking to some of our
stakeholders and using a group of them to advise us on the proposals.
1
The term ‘schools’ is used throughout to refer to pre-school centres, nursery schools, primary schools and those with nursery
classes, special schools, secondary schools and all through schools.
2
http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Government/PublicServiceReform/IndependentReviewofReg/latest-news/TheCrerarReview
Proposals for the inspection of schools
1. Better use of information on schools and centres to make sure we inspect
where it really matters
We recently completed a cycle of inspections which involved inspecting every local
authority school in the country within a seven year period (six in the case of
secondary schools). Since then we have continued to inspect a sample of schools
(approximately 400 schools per year) to provide a national overview of the quality
of school education in Scotland.
We propose to change how we decide which schools will be in the national sample
each year. This would mean:
•
a smaller sample of schools would be inspected each year. The sample
would cover all types of community in Scotland. For example, both small
island schools and big city centre schools would be included. The sample
would also provide us with enough evidence to have a national overview of
the quality of school education in Scotland; and
•
an annual process of ‘risk assessment’. We would work with each local
authority to identify any additional schools that should be added to the
inspection sample.
The ‘risk-based’ part of the sample will let us provide assurance that, where a
school is clearly causing concern, its inspection will be brought forward rather than
it waiting its turn in a long-term cycle. We can then focus our resources on the
schools that most need support.
We will work more closely with local authorities and make better use of the
information they hold about their schools. This will help us to make decisions
about which schools to inspect, including those which demonstrate outstanding
practice, and what we should focus on when we get there.
These proposals would enable us to use fewer resources while continuing to
inspect all types of schools to see the full range of practice. We can then continue
to share good practice with everyone working in education across Scotland.
2. Continue to inspect what really matters
We want to continue to focus our resources on what really matters to learners and
where they are most likely to make improvements. We also want to support the
aims of Curriculum for Excellence by providing an independent view of how
successfully it is being implemented. We will take a closer look at learning and
teaching, and learners’ experience of their broad general education, including
literacy, numeracy and health and wellbeing. We propose to move away from
concentrating our inspection activity on four subject departments in every
secondary school inspection, instead spreading our observation of learning and
teaching more widely across the school. Specialist inspectors will carry out
additional projects to gather evidence on specific curriculum areas and subjects
such as English and mathematics. Making these changes will help us to be more
proportionate and focus more closely on improving the skills and knowledge of
children and young people. In addition, we will also place a stronger focus on
these same areas in our learning community inspections.
3. Greater emphasis on getting everyone involved
Our current inspections focus on learners. Their views are gathered through
questionnaires given out before the inspectors arrive at the school. Some learners
have meetings with inspection teams once they are in the school. We now want to
increase the involvement of parents in inspections. This will improve our
understanding of individual schools and help us to listen more carefully to parental
views. We will consider more ways in which we can involve users directly in the
inspection process. For example, parents might be involved when we are planning
the inspection with a school.
4. Increasing staff involvement in inspection
We want to build on the success of inspecting with staff. We will encourage senior
staff, and where appropriate education authority staff, to join us on class visits and
take part in inspection team meetings. This will continue our commitment to
increase the involvement of staff in inspections and encourage them to let us know
their views. It will also allow inspection teams to understand better how well staff
know the school’s strengths and aspects for development.
5. Clearer, more accessible reports
We propose to move to shorter reports which provide assurance to the user and
learner on how their school is performing. We will also provide information on the
key areas for improvement. The report will be published online with hard copies
available if required. This move will provide confidence to users in a sustainable
and cost-effective manner.
6. Shorter period of notice
We believe that a shorter period of notice for inspection will increase public
confidence that inspectors observe the school as it normally works. It should also
minimise the anxiety experienced by staff in the school, which can build up over a
longer period of notice. Currently we give providers approximately three weeks
notice of an inspection. Once we have satisfied ourselves that we can gather the
views of users as effectively and more quickly than we do through use of current
paper questionnaires, we propose to cut the length of notice schools are given.
Conclusion
We believe that implementing the changes in this document will lead to a more
proportionate, more focused, sustainable and effective programme of school
inspection. It will enable us to focus more clearly on schools that need support
while still being able to monitor the health of the system and see and share good
practice. Overall the proposals should help us to continue to improve Scottish
education.
Including our stakeholders
By providing the information which users need (and giving it to them in forms they
find easy to access) we will improve opportunities for them to be involved in the
improvement of their education services. By including stakeholders more fully in
our inspections we will be able to see the system through their eyes and help to
improve it in the way that suits their circumstances.
Providing evidence to inform national policy development
The annual programme of inspections will continue to provide us with evidence for
monitoring progress in improvement across schools. We will then report on that
progress in the Scottish Government’s National Performance Framework. The
more focused inspections will allow us to gather information on key aspects such
as the quality of broad general education, including literacy and numeracy and on
children’s health and wellbeing. The reduction in the inspection programme will
allow us to re-direct some of our resources to undertaking more targeted thematic
reviews, providing us with more detailed information in aspects such as particular
curriculum areas or subjects or children and young people’s additional support
needs. This will help us continue to improve advice to Ministers. It will also
support schools to improve in key areas.
Promoting improvement and capacity for improvement
We want to help schools to become better at self-evaluation and identifying their
own ways to improve. Inspections are designed to support schools in achieving
this and we publish a wide range of advice and support materials for schools to
use, drawing on the best practice we see in inspections. Over and above the
regular inspection programme, inspectors will also visit schools at other times to
gather evidence on specific projects. These visits, as well as inspections, will
allow the inspectors and staff in the school to have full professional discussions
about how the school can continue to improve the quality of the provision it makes.
Next Steps
We would very much like to hear your views on the proposals. The consultation
period runs from 23 September 2010 to 17 December 2010. We will analyse your
feedback and provide a response by February 2011. We will pilot the new
inspection framework during the summer term of 2011 with full implementation
from September 2011. You can complete a questionnaire by:
Going to our website
http://www.hmie.gov.uk/generic/School+Inspection+Framework+Review
Calling 01506 600200
Or calling our text phone 01506 600236
Appendix 1
What does HM Inspectorate of Education do?
HM Inspectorate of Education (HMIE) is an Executive Agency of the Scottish
Government. We inspect where education is provided to learners and in children’s
services and provide reports on the quality of service. We make a contribution
towards the Scottish Government achieving its objectives of creating a smarter,
healthier, wealthier and fairer, greener and safer and stronger Scotland. We do
this by promoting improvements in standards, quality and achievements for all
learners in Scottish education through first-hand, independent evaluation.
HMIE’s main focus is ‘to improve outcomes for all Scottish learners’ through our
three main objectives. These are to:
•
•
•
give the people involved in education services information about our findings
during inspections. Our evaluation is independent from the Scottish
Government and Scottish Ministers. The information we share is about the
quality of the provision in education and the outcomes that are achieved for
learners;
use the evidence we find during our inspections to help us provide advice to
the people who create the national education policies on education and
children’s issues; and
share with others the good practice we have seen during inspections and
other visits, and help those who provide education to learners strengthen
their own abilities in self-evaluation and improvement.
Our inspections cover a wide range of different sectors where education is
provided. This paper presents proposals for changing the framework which guides
how we go about inspecting in the schools sector.
If you’d like to know more about the work of HMIE please visit our website:
www.hmie.gov.uk