Raising standards, improving lives
Driving and Supporting
Improvement - changes to school
inspection from September 2012
Leading Edge Conference
Maria Dawes HMI
Principal Officer, Framework Development
3 October 2012
Raising standards, improving lives
Outline
 Why change
 Changes to inspection
 Being ready for inspection
Changes to school inspection
Raising standards, improving lives
Many of England’s schools are outstanding,
but a third are less than good
Primary (16,729)
Secondary (3,151)
18
51
26
29
40
31
Ofsted data, 30 June 2012
Outstanding
Good
Satisfactory
Inadequate
3
4
Going to a ‘satisfactory’ school can close the
door to A levels and the top universities.
Proportion of pupils who were high attaining in primary school going on to
get high grades in GCSE English
A
B
C and below
Satisfactory school: English
A*
A
B
A
A*
B
C and below
C
D
Good school: English
E
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
90%
100%
Note these are all pupils who were highachievers at the end of primary school.
Proportion of pupils who were high attaining at primary school going on to
get high grades in GCSE maths
A*
Good school: maths
A
B
A*
A
B
C
Satisfactory school: maths
A
0%
10%
B
20%
30%
D
C and below
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
90%
E
100%
Raising standards, improving lives



All children need to do well, there is a particular worry about those
at the ends of the ability spectrum: both low and high achieving
pupils
A school that is not good too often has:
 Low expectations for both groups
 Too many children identified as SEN as a cover for poor teaching
 Mixed ability classes without mixed ability teaching
Far too many children who were high achievers at the end of
primary school don’t get the A and B grades they should do in their
GCSEs
Raising standards, improving lives
A good education for all

The changes, which came into effect on 1 September, are intended
to support headteachers and principals in their work to provide the
best possible education for all pupils and learners

The 12-week consultation, launched in spring, received over 5,000
responses

The views from the consultation shaped directly the new framework
Raising standards, improving lives


Good is the only acceptable standard of education

We will stay with schools until they become good: with focused
support from HMI
As well as raising the bar, we are also reorganising to support
improvement in every local area
Exam performance of pupils in London schools
has now outstripped all other English regions
%+ A*-C GCSE incl Eng and Maths by region
65
NORTH EAST
60
NORTH WEST
YORKSHIRE AND THE HUMBER
55
EAST MIDLANDS
WEST MIDLANDS
50
EAST OF ENGLAND
Inner London
45
Outer London
SOUTH EAST
40
SOUTH WEST
35
ENGLAND (Maintained sector)
2005/06
2006/07
2007/08
2008/09
2009/10
2010/11
Raising standards, improving lives
Schools that are consistently strong have clear leadership
characteristics:




The headteacher has CAPABILITY
The leadership team has CAPACITY
They ensure CONSISTENCY
They maintain CONTINUITY, planning so that changes of personnel
do not interrupt the steady improvement of the school
Raising standards, improving lives
Leadership is key

The leaders of schools that improved from ‘satisfactory’ to good or
better:
 held staff to account, with good performance management
 focused on the quality of teaching
 improved the quality of governance

Getting to good – How headteachers achieve success
That is why these things have such prominence in our new
inspection framework
The details
Raising standards, improving lives
We are continuing to focus on what really matters
Inspectors will continue to judge the quality of education provided in the school and its overall
effectiveness - taking account of four other key judgements:




the achievement of pupils at the school
the quality of teaching in the school
the behaviour and safety of pupils at the school
the quality of the leadership in, and management of, the school.
Inspectors will also consider:


the spiritual, moral, social and cultural development of the pupils at the school
the extent to which the education provided by the school meets the needs of the range of pupils
at the school, and in particular the needs of disabled pupils, those with special educational needs
and those eligible for the pupil premium.
Raising standards, improving lives
During the inspection
Inspectors continue to:

spend as much time as possible in classes, observing lessons,
talking to pupils about their work, gauging their
understanding and engagement in what they are doing, and
their perceptions of the school

hear children in primary schools or some Year 7 and 8
students read, and they will look at data

involve the headteacher or principal and senior managers
fully during the inspection, including during inspection team
meetings.
Raising standards, improving lives
We continue to use a four-point scale
The satisfactory grade will be replaced by ‘requires
improvement’




Outstanding (grade 1)
Good (grade 2)
Requires improvement (grade 3)
Inadequate (grade 4)
 serious weaknesses
 special measures
Raising standards, improving lives
We continue to inspect ‘good’ schools less frequently than
weaker schools

Most schools judged to be outstanding at their last inspection will
be exempt from routine inspection, unless concerns are raised
about their performance

Most schools judged to be ‘good’ at their last inspection will be
inspected after four or five years, or sooner if there are concerns
about the school’s performance.
Raising standards, improving lives
We require ‘outstanding’ schools to have outstanding
teaching

This does not mean that every lesson seen by inspectors needs
to be outstanding, but that over time teaching is enabling almost
all pupils to make excellent progress, acquire knowledge, deepen
their understanding and develop and consolidate their skills


Inspectors do not expect to see a particular teaching style
However, good and outstanding teaching also means that pupils
know how well they are doing and what they need to do to
improve
Raising standards, improving lives
Changes to the achievement judgement in the
new framework
Achievement has an increased focus on:


The proportions of pupils in comparison with
national figures who, from each starting
point,
 make expected progress
 make more than expected progress
This provides a focus on English and
mathematics and, in primary schools, on
reading and writing
Raising standards, improving lives
Changes to the use of data on new framework
Inspectors will place greater emphasis on transition matrices.
Raising standards, improving lives
However:
 Balancing achievement in English and mathematics with that in
other subjects is crucial.
 Consistently strong progress across a wide range of subjects is
one of the bullet points on the grade descriptors for good
achievement.
 The judgement on achievement will depend on weighing up the
learning, progress and attainment of current pupils across the
whole school with the national data that is provided for the
ends of key stages.
Raising standards, improving lives
We have replaced the ‘satisfactory’ judgement
with ‘requires improvement’

We think that the only acceptable standard of education is
a good or better education. Only a good school is good
enough

Where a school is not yet a good school, but it is not
inadequate, it will be deemed to ‘require improvement’

Inspection reports will be clear about why these schools
are not yet ‘good’, what they need to do to improve, and
their strengths
Raising standards, improving lives
We inspect schools that ‘require improvement’ earlier than
‘good’ schools

Ofsted re-inspects schools judged to ‘require improvement’ within
a maximum period of two years

We work with schools to help them to improve as quickly as
possible

The timing of the next inspection reflects the individual school’s
circumstances and will be informed by what inspectors find at
monitoring visits
Raising standards, improving lives
We expect schools that ‘require improvement’ to become good
schools within a defined timescale

If any school has been judged to require improvement at two consecutive
inspections, and is still not ‘good’ at the third, Ofsted is likely to find the school to be
inadequate at that inspection

This will be because the school is still not providing an acceptable standard of
education, and the persons responsible for leading, managing or governing the school
are not demonstrating the capacity to secure the necessary improvement

This means it will be placed in ‘special measures' unless there are exceptional
circumstances. Ofsted will therefore expect schools to improve to ‘good' within four
years
Raising standards, improving lives
We have replaced the current ‘notice to
improve’ with ‘serious weaknesses’

If a school is inadequate overall and requires significant
improvement but has leadership and management that
are adequate or better, it is likely to be deemed to have
‘serious weaknesses’

Inspectors will monitor, support and challenge schools
with serious weaknesses

Schools which are inadequate overall and which have
inadequate leadership and management will be deemed
to require ‘special measures’ as at present
Raising standards, improving lives
We evaluate the robustness of performance management within
the school

Inspectors ask schools to provide anonymised information of the
outcomes of the most recent performance management of all teachers

They evaluate the robustness of performance management
arrangements and consider the correlation between the quality of
teaching in a school and the salary progression of the school’s teachers

We take the steps needed to ensure that no individual teacher is
identified
Raising standards, improving lives
Strong performance management






PM targets sharply focused on the individual’s development needs
Teachers received consistent feedback on their progress towards targets for
improvement
Weaknesses in practice were returned to and therefore not overlooked.
There was robust evidence to tailor professional development programmes for
teachers
Teachers had the confidence to take risks as they understood that one-off
monitoring activities would not jeopardise the overall judgement of their quality of
teaching
Teachers were rewarded appropriately for their effectiveness.
Raising standards, improving lives
We have placed a greater emphasis on governance

Ofsted places greater emphasis on whether governors are:



holding schools sufficiently to account for pupils’ achievement and the quality of teaching
supporting and challenging school leaders
deploying resources effectively, including the pupil premium.

From September 20102, all inspection reports will contain a comment on the effectiveness of
governance. Where governance is judged to be weak, e.g. where a school is judged to ‘require
improvement’ or has ‘serious weaknesses’ and is graded 3 for leadership and management, the
report will make a recommendation covering improvements needed to governance

For HMI led inspections in autumn term 2012, where governance is weak and a school is
judged to ‘require improvement’, we will be piloting a recommendation that an external review
of governance should be undertaken
Raising standards, improving lives
We are looking at use of the pupil premium (PP)
 The pupil premium was introduced specifically to support achievement
of disadvantaged pupils

We have surveyed use of the PP and need to worry that schools are
not taking this initiative as seriously as they should

It is a concern that only 10% of the schools we surveyed said it was
having a significant impact on the way they work

These were overwhelmingly the schools with higher numbers of pupils
from low-income families, which is where such pupils already do
relatively well
Raising standards, improving lives

Many schools told us they don’t see the pupil premium as being
genuinely additional, and it is being absorbed into their general
budgets

If a school is already doing all the right things for its disadvantaged
pupils, and we can see that in the good progress and achievement of
these pupils, we will say so

But Ofsted will be critical of schools that are not achieving well for
disadvantaged pupils, and have not made good use of their pupil
premium money
Raising standards, improving lives

The pupil premium should not be spent on things that are peripheral
to achievement such as uniforms and trips

Many schools say they are using additional money to pay for teaching
assistants - the number of teaching assistants has in fact nearly tripled
in ten years, from 80,000 in 2000 to 220,000 in 2011

Some schools will be making good use of these staff but we need to
ask searching questions about the value for money of this spending
Raising standards, improving lives
So in summary, we will want schools to be able to show us:



what they are spending their PP premium money on

how governors are holding their schools to account for the
way in which this money is spent
why they are spending it in this way
how it is making a difference for their disadvantaged
pupils
Raising standards, improving lives
 When notifying a headteacher that the school is to be inspected,
lead inspectors ask for a meeting to be set up with a
representative from the local authority or academy chain. The
purpose of this to consider the extent and impact of the external
support being provided to the school
 Inspectors include a brief comment in the inspection report about
the nature of external support under the section on leadership
and management
Raising standards, improving lives
We have shortened the notice we give of an
inspection
 Inspectors normally contact the school during the
afternoon of the working day before the
inspection, although we reserve the right to
inspect without notice where we have concerns

A short period of notice allows the school to make
the necessary practical arrangements and inform
parents and carers about the inspection
Raising standards, improving lives
The views of parents and carers

After the initial phone call from the lead inspector,
we email a letter that schools must use to notify
parents and carers about the inspection. The letter
includes details about how to access Parent View

We ask schools to use any other means they have,
such as email or text alerts, to contact parents and
carers about the inspection and to remind them to
complete Parent View – though parents and carers
can submit responses at any time during the school
year
Raising standards, improving lives
The views of parents and carers

Schools are no longer required to administer the
circulation and collection of parent and pupil
questionnaires. From September 2012, we are using
Parent View as the main way for parents and carers
to give inspectors their views

However, inspectors also take account of parents’
and carers’ views expressed through
correspondence, through meetings, and through the
results of past surveys carried out by the school
Raising standards, improving lives
And finally…new style section 5 reports:
 are unique to the school
 are brief, and to the point
 convey the key findings to parents succinctly and



accessibly
‘tell the story’ of the school
focus on improvement
make clear recommendations
Raising standards, improving lives
And recommendations are ….
 clearly articulated
 challenging
 realistic
 achievable
 drawn from the most significant weaknesses
Even for schools judged to be outstanding it is highly likely
that there will be actions for improvement
Being ready for inspection from
September 2012
Raising standards, improving lives
Being ready for inspection
The best way to ‘be ready’ for inspection is by ensuring that:



teaching is of the highest quality

pupils achieve their potential and work within a culture
and ethos of high expectations for all
the leadership of teaching is excellent
leadership and management including governance are
strong
The grade descriptors in the school inspection handbook set out the
criteria used by inspectors when making judgements
Raising standards, improving lives
School websites

Inspectors also look at the school’s website. It helps
the smooth running of the inspection if your website
includes:
•
•
•
•
a calendar of major events including closures
the times of the school day
basic information about how your school is
organised including any alternative or specialist
provision
information provided for parents and carers
Raising standards, improving lives
Further details

The Inspection handbook explains how the inspection will be
conducted and the judgements that will be made by inspectors

It also contains the grade descriptors that are used by inspectors
when making their judgements


The ‘Inspection handbook’ is available at www.ofsted.gov.uk
Inspectors’ training materials will be available online shortly
Questions