David Theobald
Senior Primary Adviser
12 February 2014

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Ofsted’s regional structure
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SW regional priorities
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Regional working and Ofsted’s role in improvement
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Update on maintained school and academy inspections from September 2013 and January 2014
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Comments, clarification and questions

Each region is managed by a
Regional Director who reports directly to HMCI and will be responsible for the quality of inspection and the improvement of providers in their region.
South West Regional Director -
Lesley Ann Jones

Ofsted’s reorganisation and school improvement
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The Regional Director leads a team of Senior HMI. Senior HMI will lead teams of HMI within each region. Links to LA.
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HMI will carry out monitoring visits to schools judged to ‘require improvement’ and those judged inadequate.
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HMI will lead less routine full inspections.
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The changes will enable Ofsted to focus more sharply on school improvement. Schools judged to require improvement will receive an initial monitoring inspection visit by HMI usually within 4 to 6 weeks of the publication of the s5 inspection report.
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Schools unlikely to receive monitoring visits if L & M judged to be good.
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Visits will focus on the school’s engagement with the improvement process set out in the inspection report.
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Urgency and impatience for secure and sustainable improvement.
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130,000 pupils educated in schools not yet good.

South West – key features and issues
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Early Years inspection outcomes are above the national average and levels of development are at or above national averages. Inspection grades for children's centres are well below national figures.
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Schools OE judgements broadly in line with national figures with 3% more judged good than nationally.
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Special school performance is below average – almost a third are not yet good.
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Satisfactory primary schools inspected since September 2012 are improving at a greater rate than secondary schools. Too many secondary schools are not improving; some are declining.
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KS1 and KS2 attainment and progress indices are at or above national averages. KS4 indices vary between LAs but are below national
averages.
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79% of FE provision is good or better; but some stubbornly ‘satisfactory’; high Not in Education, Employment or Training (NEET) figures.

The regional plan and priorities
• To improve the performance of pupils eligible for free school meals in the South West
• To improve the rates of progress in Bristol and increase the rates of attendance of pupils across the authority
• Improve the rate of progress of pupils in Swindon at KS4 and increase the rate of progress in maths between KS2 and KS4
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The regional plan and priorities
• Improve the relatively low achievement of pupils in Dorset compared to the region overall and the national figures
• To improve the development of learners’ English and mathematics skills so that they complete their courses successfully and progress into further study, higher education or skilled employment
• To improve the performance of schools in Bournemouth
• Focus on small schools with small / mixed-age cohorts
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Activity and reports

Schools requiring improvement
210 schools currently require improvement
HMI allocated to support 190 schools
Priorities include:
• Improve quality of teaching
• Raise pupils’ achievement
• Develop the role of middle leaders
• Strengthen leadership, including governance

Objectives
•Explore and discuss key issues around improvement together.
•Look at Ofsted’s evidence about schools that improve – and those that don’t.
•Identify from case study schools what effective planning for improvement looks like.
•Apply learning to the schools’ own context to inform planning.

Role of HMI working with schools requiring improvement
• 3 day allocation
• MV1 assesses progress since s5 inspection
• Day 2 and 3
• Recommend re-inspection

SW Getting to Good seminars
By July 2013:
•11 seminars
•116 schools invited
•90+% attendance
•Delegates: HT/DHT/CofG
•LA Advisers
•LLE/NLE/Training schools

Additional support
National Conferences:
• ‘Better English and mathematics’ conferences
• Improve leadership and teaching and accelerate pupil progress
Workshops:
• Bespoke programmes to support individual and/or groups of schools
Partnerships:
• Brokering support from high performing schools
• Working with LAs to support intervention programmes
Ofsted materials:
• Website resources

Activity at local authority (LA) level
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Regional Directors and senior HMI welcome engagement with LAs and
DCSs in their region. This could be through NLEs or LLEs. Ofsted has written to all Local Council chief executives setting out the broad regional structure.
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A good practice survey of LAs providing effective support to their schools completed, awaiting publication.
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HMCI announced a programme of focused s5 inspections in LAs with low proportions of pupils in good or better schools.
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The Framework for inspection local authority arrangements for supporting school improvement is published and operational.

Local authority arrangements for supporting school improvement
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For the first time, teams of Ofsted inspectors are inspecting local authority arrangements for supporting school improvement.
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The rationale is to find out why some authorities have such a disproportionate number of under-performing schools.
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Ofsted can then challenge and work with local authorities to raise standards and close the gap between the worst and best performing authorities in England.
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The inspections are five-day in length, and Ofsted have conducted four so far, two are published.
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The new framework came into force in June 2013 and available on website.
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These new inspections will determine whether councils are providing the right level of support and challenge to schools in their jurisdiction as well as promoting high standards and fair access to educational opportunity for all their children.

• A summary of changes to school inspection arrangements from September 2013 and January
2014
• Where you can find more information

Changes, which came into effect from September 2013 and January 2014 are to support headteachers, staff, governors and stakeholders in their work to provide the best education for pupils and learners.
The changes have derived from:
• an evaluation of section 5 inspections
• recent surveys Unseen Children and Most Able
Students
• and national priorities for school inspection.

Inspectors judge the quality of education provided in the school and its overall effectiveness - taking account of four 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 and those with special educational needs
• the impact of the pupil premium funding on eligible pupils.

Inspectors will 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 read in primary schools, and in Years 7 &
8 in secondary schools
• scrutinise pupils’ work and look at data
• involve the headteacher and senior managers fully during the inspection, including during inspection team meetings

Greater clarity in grade descriptors:
• on the consistency with which pupils’ progress from different starting points in English and mathematics should meet national figures for achievement to be good
• that school proportions should be close to, or above, national figures for achievement to be good.

Pupil premium
• More emphasis on the progress of those for whom the pupil premium provides support.
• For achievement, and OE, to be outstanding, their progress in English and mathematics should match, or be rapidly approaching, the high level of progress of other pupils.
• If their progress is falling further behind that of other pupils in either English or mathematics, leadership and management are likely to be inadequate.
• Risk assessment will include their progress.

The most able pupils
• Closer focus on the achievement of the most able.
• Underachievement of the most able pupils can trigger judgements of inadequate achievement and inadequate teaching.
• When considering how effectively the pupil premium is used to provide support, inspectors must take account of its impact for the most able pupils who are in receipt of the PP.

• Inspectors must not favour a particular or preferred approach to teaching or planning lessons. It is for a school to determine how best to teach and engage pupils to secure good or better learning.
• There is a further focus on testing and checking Key
Stage 1 assessments, through classroom observation, book trawls and other first-hand evidence, to ensure that a school’s assessment of pupils’ performance is robust.
• Inspectors will evaluate whether teaching meets the needs of, and provides sufficient challenge to, the most able pupils.

Inspectors must take account of:
• the views expressed by pupils of their experiences of others’ behaviour and attitudes, and their understanding of the importance of positive attitudes in school and in later adult life.
• a range of evidence in order to judge behaviour and safety over an extended period.
• a school’s track record; the circumstances that led to any reported serious incidents; and observe pupils and discuss with them matters such as behaviour outside lessons; break times; and at the beginning and end of school.

Inspectors must also consider:
 Pupils’ attitudes to learning and how it helps or hinders their progress in lessons
 How well pupils display a thirst for knowledge and love for learning
 Pupils’ responses to staff instructions and requests, allowing lessons to flow smoothly and without interruption
 Whether pupils’ attitudes to learning are positive across subjects, years, classes and with different staff
 Whether pupils are safe; risk, and extremist behaviour

Focus on:
• in secondary school inspections, on careers information, advice and guidance available
• how primary school sport funding is being used to support physical well-being among pupils
• greater recognition of leaders in schools in difficult circumstances.

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Focus on:
• strengthening governance – if governance is weak, inspectors will recommend an external review of governance
• awareness on e-safety
• promoting Parent View.

 Inspectors should refer to Ofsted’s good practice and other reports when making recommendations.
 Consider more specific recommendations around improving literacy and reading in secondary schools.
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Pupil premium spending likely to be included in an external review of governance where governance is weak.

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‘Do not insist that there must be three years worth of data, or that these data must show good progress or achievement, before judging a school’s overall effectiveness to be good overall. A school can be good if teaching, leadership and management, and behaviour and safety are good, and if there is sufficient evidence that progress and/or achievement of current pupils are good also. This is often the case when a school is improving from requires improvement, serious weaknesses or special measures. However, inspection reports must state clearly if this is the case.’

When considering data on pupils’ progress shown in RAISEonline and for each year group of pupils currently in the school, inspectors should pay particular attention to the proportions that are on track to make, or have made, expected progress and more than expected progress. They should consider separately the progress of pupils from each starting point in comparison with the national proportions provided in the expected progress tables in RAISEonline. When considering year-by-year progress, inspectors should bear in mind that aggregate figures using average point scores (APS) mask the detail of progress from each starting point for each pupil. The DfE does not define expected progress in terms of
APS. Footnotes in the achievement section of the School inspection handbook provide clarification of the DfE’s definition of expected progress from each sublevel. Inspectors should not assume any aggregate APS increment to be required for progress to be good or outstanding. They should bear in mind that the proportions of pupils on track to make, or making, more than expected progress are key indicators for good or outstanding progress.

• In making a professional judgement about children’s achievement in the Early Years Foundation Stage inspectors must consider the proportions that have made typical or better progress taking account of staggered entry and full- and part-time attendance and the length of time children have been at the school. They should consider the achievement of different groups of children, especially those who are vulnerable to underachievement [1] , as well as their readiness for
Year 1. The evidence for this judgement should be captured on an evidence form.
[1] Note that it is appropriate for inspectors to ask schools how they use pupil premium funding to support children in the Early Years Foundation Stage.

The progress made in the Early Years
Foundation Stage and Key Stage 1 must be taken into account when making the judgement about achievement in the whole of a primary school. It is not

• Inspectors must not give the impression that
Ofsted favours a particular teaching style.
Moreover, they must not inspect or report in a way that is not stipulated in the framework, handbook or guidance. For example, they should not criticise teacher talk for being overlong or bemoan a lack of opportunity for different activities in lessons unless there is unequivocal evidence that this is slowing learning over time.
It is unrealistic, too, for inspectors to necessarily expect that all work in all lessons is always matched to the specific needs of each individual.