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

Ofsted data, 30 June 2012 Many of England’s schools are outstanding, but a third are less than good Raising standards, improving lives

Going to a ‘satisfactory’ school can close the door to A levels and the top universities. A A* A C and belowB B

Note these are all pupils who were high- achievers at the end of primary school. A A B B A* C and below

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  As well as raising the bar, we are also reorganising to support improvement in every local area  We will stay with schools until they become good: with focused support from HMI

Exam performance of pupils in London schools has now outstripped all other English regions

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.

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

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  why they are spending it in this way  how it is making a difference for their disadvantaged pupils  how governors are holding their schools to account for the way in which this money is spent

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 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 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

Being ready for inspection The best way to ‘be ready’ for inspection is by ensuring that:  teaching is of the highest quality  the leadership of teaching is excellent  leadership and management including governance are strong  pupils achieve their potential and work within a culture and ethos of high expectations for all 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  Inspectors’ training materials will be available online shortly

Questions