Quality Assurance through
School Self-Evaluation: the role
of External Review and
Inspection
David Taylor
Formerly Director of Inspection,
Ofsted
Structure of presentation
Quality Assurance and Self-Evaluation
 Working with schools on self-evaluation

Quality Assurance (QA) and
School Self-Evaluation (SSE)
Quality
 Assurance and control
 The place of SSE in a QA system

What is school self-evaluation?

Self-evaluation is the process by which a
school is able to look critically at itself in
order to improve further the quality of its
provision and its performance.
SCHOOL SELF-EVALUATION: the 3-step process
What are we
going to do next?
How do we know?
How good is our
school?
Through self-evaluation, a
school is asking questions of
itself which probe thoroughly
all aspects of quality.
Promoting School Improvement (1)

Self-evaluation aims to promote school
improvement by seeking:
 To inform improvement planning
 all staff are, or should be, involved in
improvement planning
 improvement planning must have standards
of achievement, quality of teaching and
quality of learning as high priorities;
 monitoring and evaluation are indispensable
parts of the improvement planning cycle;
 schools need to integrate a programme of
self-evaluation into their improvement
planning.
Promoting School Improvement (2)

Self-evaluation aims to promote school
improvement by seeking:
•
•
•
•
•
•
To promote effective learning and raise standards
all pupils are learners and should take part in selfevaluation;
good teachers are good learners; they continually ask
questions of their own practice to improve provision;
different people learn best in different ways;
teachers need to know how their pupils learn best;
school managers need to know what makes members of
staff effective learners and therefore effective
professionals;
parents/carers and governors have a key role in
supporting learning
Promoting School Improvement (3)

Self-evaluation aims to promote school
improvement by seeking:
•
•
•
•
To encourage a climate of professional trust
self-evaluation is most effective when the
process is transparent;
everyone is part of the self-evaluation process;
no-one hides behind status;
positive outcomes for teachers and pupils are
evident and people have faith in the process;
good practice is celebrated in more than one
way.
The Improvement Cycle
Where are we now?
How well are we doing?
Vision
Collaboration
How do we know
we’ve got there?
Effective
learning
Core
values
and
ethos
Leadership
Data
Teaching &
learning
strategies
What’s the plan?
What is it most
important to focus
on?
Improving schools’ selfevaluation

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Improved training in leadership and management
More available data
Growing use of external performance indicators
Effective use of classroom observation
Understanding how to carry out self-evaluation
Involving all staff in planning
and self-evaluation
Staff should:
 Understand the planning and evaluation process
 Have ownership of it
 Focus on pupils’ attainments and experiences
 Engage in appropriate professional development
 Review their approaches to teaching and learning
Internal and external:
complementary roles
SSE: event or process?
 Which comes first?
 Frameworks and criteria
 Training and development

Working with schools on selfevaluation
Preparing for self-evaluation
 Data collection and data analysis
 Understanding how to evaluate
 Collecting evidence
 Securing trust
 Self-evaluation and staff appraisal

Six ‘acid tests’ for effective SSE
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Is the SSE based on a good range of convincing
evidence?
Does the SSE identify the most important
questions about how well the school serves its
pupils?
How well does the school compare with similar
schools and use such comparative data?
Does the SSE include the views of key groups,
especially parents, pupils and wider community?
Is SSE integrally linked to key management
systems?
Does SSE lead to action to achieve he school’s
longer-term improvement goals?
A focus on learning outcomes (1)

Taking responsibility for learning
Good features:
Learners
 Know their most effective ways of learning
 Can apply themselves to learning effectively
 Sustain concentration
 Appreciate what they need to do to make
progress
A focus on learning outcomes (2)
Learners
 Plan sensibly how they will achieve their
learning goals
 Seek appropriate help in working towards their
goals
 Show initiative and take responsibility
 Work well without supervision
 Review their progress and adjust their learning
as necessary
A focus on learning outcomes (3)

Taking responsibility for learning
Shortcomings:
Learners:
 Have limited awareness of how they learn best
 Plan inadequately to address deficiencies
 Rely too much on others for assurance and
support
 Are easily distracted
A focus on learning outcomes (4)
Learners:
 Do not work well without direct
supervision
 Are too compliant and passive
 Work too slowly
 Seek the direction of the teacher too
readily
 Are uncertain about their own progress.
A focus on effective leadership
action (1)
Leadership has consistently been shown as the key
factor in determining the success of a school.
Leaders who seek to transform their schools tend to:
 Have self-knowledge and clarity about values and
commitment
 Focus on developing people, and empowering
them to bring about a shared vision which
produces good learning outcomes for pupils
 Be found operating at all levels in the school, not
just the senior management team
A focus on effective leadership
action (2)
Leaders who seek to transform their schools tend to:
 Encourage, manage and sustain school
improvement
 Manage the organisation well, respond to change
effectively and welcome greater school autonomy
and innovation
 Ensure that there is an unvarying focus on
improving teaching and learning
A focus on effective leadership
action (3):


Take early, firm intervention to secure effective
leadership and management
Establish and implement systems to identify key
priorities for improvement through effective data
management, ie:
 Gathering, analysing and presenting data on
pupils’ achievement
 Using the data to identify good practice
 Surveying the opinions of staff and students
 Gaining the commitment of staff
A focus on effective leadership
action (4):

Focus on dealing with issues in a staged manner,
with measures to ensure early success, eg:
 Developing pride and self-esteem
 Targeting specific under-performance, while
developing long-term improvement strategies
 Improving attendance, punctuality, uniformwearing
A focus on effective leadership
action (5):

Focus on teaching and learning:
 Establishing a set of core behaviours
 Re-skilling teachers in their repertoire of
teaching methods
 Implementing a firm and consistent policy on
behaviour (around the site as well as in
classrooms)
 Supporting and building on models of excellent
teaching
 Establishing collaborative working as a way of
improving teachers’ practice
A focus on effective leadership
action (6)

Introduce models of leadership and teaching
quality:
 Building effective leadership teams throughout
the school
 Bringing in new staff with developing teaching
skills (eg Advanced skills teachers)
 Coaching staff to develop their teaching skills
1. Characteristics of the School
Context of school and learners
 School aims

2. Views of Learners, Parents/Carers and
other Stakeholders
How are views gathered?
 What do they say about provision?
 How are findings shared?
 What action is taken?

3. Achievement and Standards
What are the standards achieved? Are there
significant trends?
 Are there any underachieving groups?
 How do you know?
 What action do you intend to take?

4. Personal development and well-being
(‘Every Child Matters’ outcomes)
Learners should :
 Be healthy
 Be safe
 Enjoy their learning and achieve
 Make a positive contribution to the
community
 Be prepared for the future and for their
economic well-being
5. Quality of provision
How effective are teaching and learning?
 Do the curriculum and other activities meet
the needs and interests of learners?
 How well are learners cared for, guided and
supported?
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Example: Teaching and Learning
TEACHING AND LEARNING
Themes
Elements
Quality of teaching
Assessment
a)
b)
c)
d)
e)
f)
g)
a)
b)
c)
d)
e)
professional knowledge
planning
creating an effective learning environment
involvement of parents/carers
effectiveness of teaching strategies
support and challenge for learners
impact of teaching upon standards
range and appropriateness of assessment strategies
quality and consistency of judgements
quality of feedback to learners
use of assessment information to inform planning
record-keeping and reporting
6. Leadership and Management
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How effectively do leaders and managers set a clear
direction?
How effective is performance monitoring?
How well are equal opportunities and inclusion promoted?
What is the adequacy of staffing, resources and
accommodation?
How effective are links with other providers and agencies?
How effective are Governors?
7. Overall effectiveness and efficiency
The extent of improvement since the previous
inspection?
 Is there sufficient capacity for further
improvement?
 What steps are being taken to improve
provision?

Some key questions for
discussion
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Suppose you were a person such as a ‘school
improvement partner’, how would you set about
working with a school on SSE?
How does a school inspection/review gain
evidence of the effectiveness of SSE?
What should happen if the inspection/review
disagrees strongly with the results of the SSE?
How far should SSE go in incorporating the views
of students, parents and the wider community?
How should schools develop the skills of
evaluating lessons and outcomes for students?
Some conclusions

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Inspection/review and SSE should complement
each other and dovetail closely, using related:
 Frameworks
 Criteria
 Data sources
Effective SSE has clear goals, clear evaluation of
teaching and learning and of leadership and
management
The whole school community should be involved
in SSE
Inspection has much to offer in developing and
improving the quality of SSE.