Quality Managers Network October 5th 2011 Estyn update on the New Inspection Framework

The judgement of this Quality Indicator will influence all others. Standards 1.1. STANDARDS: This is the driver. The judgement of this Quality Indicator will influence all others.  

Lines of Enquiry Lines of Enquiry   Lines of Enquiry The inspection team will decide what the ‘lines of enquiry’ are going to be … and what is ‘sector leading’. They will ignore the College’s attempt to ‘guide’ the inspection process via suggestion through the College SAR. But... if the College SAR judges any aspect as ‘excellent’ then Estyn will inspect that area.

with the emphasis on Literacy. Regardless of ‘lines of enquiry’ which the College data or SAR might dictate, Safeguarding and Literacy will be main enquiries for inspection... with the emphasis on Literacy.

Literacy Estyn guidance publication: A strategy and guidance for inspecting literacy for pupils aged 3 to 18 years (Sept. 2011). A shorter post-16 version will be released next month, explaining how Estyn will inspect literacy in F.E institutions. “Literacy is the skill which underpins everything”; “You cannot access numeracy without the comprehension which literacy affords”; “Literacy is the most important driver”; “Improvement in literacy is the most important thing”.

Literacy Estyn pre-inspection literacy data analyses will involve comparing the Initial Assessment data with Essential Skills Wales enrolment data and then asking: Have an appropriate number of learners been screened on entry? Have the learners been matched against their diagnostic entry results?

Literacy Estyn inspectors will: Interview the ‘Learning Lead’ for literacy; Select a learning area, select a class, request the class register, request the internal assessment screening results, select learners .. and then examine how many learners have actually taken the opportunity for literacy support.

Literacy Student File/Portfolio scrutiny: Current files/portfolios will be deposited in the Estyn base room; Four files/portfolios per inspector; No more that two files/portfolios per class; The files/portfolios will cover a range of learning areas and course levels.

Estyn will examine the student files/portfolios to evaluate writing skills, spelling, punctuation and grammar. Inspectors will want to see that marking is: up to date; uniform (Is there a consistent approach to spelling, punctuation and grammar?); signposting learners to appropriate resources to help with improvement. Literacy

Safeguarding: Is there a Safeguarding Policy? Have all staff received training in Safeguarding?

Two weakness in particular were identified : Teaching Teaching: No provider was awarded an ‘excellent’ judgement for teaching last year. Two weakness in particular were identified : Work is not differentiated enough to meet the needs of learners; primary schools do well here! The problem is to challenge the most able ... and to maintain the interest of the less able; There is far too much teacher directed information ...more ‘active’ learning is needed.

“In order to improve further, you need to ….” Assessment Assessment: The main focus of assessment should be on how learners can improve. Assignments/portfolios should be ‘marked for improvement’. “In order to improve further, you need to ….”

Data Data: Estyn are unlikely to shift from using National Comparators … but will ‘look’ at the LOR; Estyn are very mindful that ‘completion’ rates are not reliable. Reasons? Completion rates are reported differently by different providers; There are too many examples of ‘data manipulation’ (Marion Jebb), with providers ‘treating data in different ways’; Some providers have ‘taken underperforming courses away’ and not included failing courses in their DfES returns; some have re-categorised learners following the final freeze etc.

Attainment (rather than success) will be the main focus of scrutiny.   Because of this ... Attainment (rather than success) will be the main focus of scrutiny.

Attainment As a consequence, value added data and grade profiles will be important. Estyn will look at a small sample of learning areas (3 or 4 at most) representative of the provider, focusing on main qualifications with the largest number of learners. The focus will be on main qualifications, not the large number of additional qualifications, because the main qualifications ‘are the reasons that the learners are here’ and ‘main qualification attainment is the cause of progression’.