1. Archdiocese of Westminster Headteachers' Conference
Christine Gilbert, HMCI
15 July 2008

2. Inspecting community cohesion
Raising standards, improving lives
‘When you understand someone else’s culture, you’re more likely to respect them.’
- Lower 6th form pupil quoted in ‘Diversity & Citizenship Curriculum Review’ (Ajegbo, Kiwan & Sharma 2007)

3. Inspecting community cohesion
Raising standards, improving lives
The duty on schools is to promote community cohesion (from September 2007)
The duty must be linked to the leadership of the school, as it is on the governing body
This duty is linked to the effectiveness of the school’s provision – what it is doing about it
The duty to inspect schools’ contribution to community cohesion starts from September 2008
The school should not be judged according to the local community, but according to what it is contributing

4. What is community cohesion?
Raising standards, improving lives
Diversity appreciated and valued
Common values
Sense of belonging
Strong and positive relationships
Equal life opportunities
Knowing rights and responsibilities
Trusting each other and local institutions
Shared vision for community
Shared access to English
Many definitions are being produced……

5. Inspecting Community Cohesion – all dimensions
The different social dimensions of community
Ethnicity and culture
Religious and non-religious
Socio-economic
Engagement & Ethos
Equality & Excellence
The Global Community
Teaching, Learning & Curriculum
UK Community
Community in which school is located
The school’s contribution can be grouped under these headings.
School Community
The different scales or geographical dimensions of “community”

6. Inspecting community cohesion
Raising standards, improving lives
Inspection can be built around three key questions:
What does the school know about the communities it serves?
How has it used that knowledge to promote community cohesion and serve the needs of its users?
How does it know whether its strategy is successful?

7. Inspecting community cohesion
Raising standards, improving lives
Typically, inspectors may
look at data from the SEF, RAISEonline (+ other) to identify issues about e.g. ethnicity, deprivation, attendance of groups, other indicators
Engage with school leaders about their understanding, strategies and evaluation of impact

8. Inspecting community cohesion
Raising standards, improving lives
Typically, inspectors may:
examine evidence on curriculum - e.g. work on ‘citizenship strand 4’ – teaching and learning - e.g. strengths/weaknesses – skills/confidence in teaching ‘difficult/uncomfortable topics’ – ideally by observation.
examine evidence on equity and excellence – e.g. initiatives to promote achievement of groups and supporting data; participation rates; attendance at parents meetings (& who is/is not represented); governing body (likewise)
observe learners/staff working, playing, socialising – ethos and engagement – analysis of racist incidents; makeup of exclusions. Does reality match with school’s perception?
critical: talk with learners – attitudes, behaviour, meaningful interaction

9. Inspecting community cohesion: in summary
Raising standards, improving lives
Leaders understand the duty
Sound knowledge of school and local community needs
Relevant strategy to meet needs
School promotes understanding and meaningful interaction
Accurate understanding of impact of its work and how it might improve
All groups are integrated into life of school/community
Learners demonstrate understanding, appreciation and trust

10. Inspecting community cohesion – preparation
Raising standards, improving lives
draft guidance developed and tested over last 3 terms
trials last summer – inconclusive
wide consultation and engagement
further trials this spring – range of schools – 64 schools –more conclusive and very useful
training this term for HMI and AIs
monitoring schedule for autumn 2008 / spring 2009

11. Inspecting community cohesion: spring term 2008 trials
Raising standards, improving lives
tested further the draft guidance, inc. grade criteria
involved HMI/AI
gained feedback from inspectors on grades, use of guidance and manageability
gained feedback from headteachers on schools’ understanding, the process and its manageability
identified clear areas of strength
and where improvements in process and practice are needed, inc. manageability

12. Spring trials: evaluation carried out through 5 key questions
Raising standards, improving lives
Were the trial community cohesion judgements secure and well-substantiated by sufficient, robust evidence capable of withstanding challenge?
Was the draft inspection guidance material helpful in coming to a sound judgement?
Was it possible to make the judgement alongside all other inspection judgements?
Was it possible to draw appropriately on the views of pupils in making the judgement?
Do our planned arrangements enable inspectors to accurately and fairly judge how well schools contribute to community cohesion?

13. Inspecting community cohesion: the trials
Raising standards, improving lives
Trials were successful
Judgements “made sense”
Most CC judgements robust and well founded
The issues raised by some inspectors and schools warrant action…

14. Inspecting community cohesion: follow-up to the trials
Raising standards, improving lives
Amend SEF to have a discrete section on community cohesion (questions matching the inspection guidance)
Extra planning time for RTI
Inspection guidance amended to:
emphasise need for canvassing learners’ views
highlight importance of schools’ identification of needs
Keep under review – monitor next year

15. Changes to school inspection
Raising standards, improving lives
All schools will have been inspected under section 5 by August 2009 and we are developing new arrangements
A formal three month consultation period on the proposals for new arrangements ends on 11 August

16. Changes to school inspection Raising standards, improving lives
Inspections will be proportionate to risk and focused on improvement
The health check
A stronger focus on well being.
ECM indicators – these are contentious:
The Children’s Plan, published by the Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF),
sets out the intention to ‘develop strong school level indicators that taken together measure
a school’s contribution to pupil well-being’ and to ‘ask Ofsted to reflect
these indicators in designing the cycle of inspection starting in 2009’.
Ofsted is considering how to approach these but has made no firm decision.

17. Changes to school inspection Raising standards, improving lives
An increased focus on the achievement of different groups of children and young people, teaching and learning and the capacity to improve
Capacity: we will monitor where capacity is no better than satisfactory.
Self-evaluation is important; a school that doesn’t know its strengths and weaknesses is
unlikely to be able to put in place well targeted plans, which lead to improvement. Inspectors will look
closely at the targets the school is setting itself and its pupils and ask whether they are sufficiently
challenging, whether they are realistic, and whether the resources being allocated to them are likely to
lead to their achievement.
Grade descriptors: We will retain the 4 point scale and intend to clarify the grade descriptors for
each grade. We will define clearly what criteria constitute each grade threshold. We will introduce
absolute performance indicators which define inadequate and which all schools will have to achieve
to be judged satisfactory.
The report: will contain recommendations setting out what actions the school needs to take to improve.
So for example, where a school is satisfactory the recommendations will concentrate on what the school
must do to become good. Of particular importance will be the clarity of recommendations; they must leave schools
in no doubt about what needs to be done.

18. Changes to school inspection Raising standards, improving lives
Clarity about grade criteria and the introduction of grade thresholds
The 2006 Act that set up the new Ofsted also set out the purposes of the new organisation.
One of the three key purposes of Ofsted is to take account of the views of users.
The new arrangements will place parents’, pupils’ and staff views at the heart of the process.
This is particularly important if inspection is to become a six year event in the better schools.
Users’ views: We intend to gather users’ views, nationally through a survey and locally in collaboration with local
authorities. This information will be benchmarked and shared with local authorities and schools and
reported in ‘health checks’ and inspection reports.
Surveys will also provide important indicators of parents’ and pupils’ perceptions of schools’ contributions
to ‘Every Child Matters’ outcomes, such as whether children feel safe or how well the health of children
and young people is promoted. Ofsted will be discussing these options with the DCSF over the coming
months.
In addition, more attention will be given to the ways in which schools engage with parents, pupils and the
community, gathered their views and take action on them.
These arrangements will supplement the parental questionnaire currently used in school inspection.
Ofsted is currently benchmarking the responses to these questionnaires in order to compare the views of parents
in one school with those of another.

19. Changes to school inspection Raising standards, improving lives
The involvement of the senior management team in the process
Partnerships: There are a number of partnerships which have an impact directly on the
outcomes children and young people achieve in the school where they are registered. We are
keen to ensure that these are drawn into the accountability framework.
A number of measures will be put in place to do this. The first will be to strengthen the school
self evaluation form, by grouping the questions on partnership into a single section and asking
about the school’s engagement in and/or contribution to wider partnership working in the following:
school improvement
14-19 implementation
those pupils at risk of exclusion or excluded
extended services.
Schools working in partnership will be asked to demonstrate how well they understand the experience the
learner is getting across the partnership, and how working in partnership results in high quality teaching,
better learning and more effective outcomes for the learner.
Where a school has a close partnership with another institution, we will ensure that wherever
possible the inspection of members of the partnership is conducted at the same time.
Inspecting a specific focus: An inspection may have a particular focus; this could be specific
to a locality, for example, where a Comprehensive Area Assessment identifies a weakness within
an area, such as provision for looked after children. We trialled this in the regions last term and
the evaluation of this work will help us to develop the methodology.

20. Changes to school inspection Raising standards, improving lives
Testing the views of parents annually
Capturing the views of children and young people
Capturing the views of school staff
Partnerships: There are a number of partnerships which have an impact directly on the
outcomes children and young people achieve in the school where they are registered. We are
keen to ensure that these are drawn into the accountability framework.
A number of measures will be put in place to do this. The first will be to strengthen the school
self evaluation form, by grouping the questions on partnership into a single section and asking
about the school’s engagement in and/or contribution to wider partnership working in the following:
school improvement
14-19 implementation
those pupils at risk of exclusion or excluded
extended services.
Schools working in partnership will be asked to demonstrate how well they understand the experience the
learner is getting across the partnership, and how working in partnership results in high quality teaching,
better learning and more effective outcomes for the learner.
Where a school has a close partnership with another institution, we will ensure that wherever
possible the inspection of members of the partnership is conducted at the same time.
Inspecting a specific focus: An inspection may have a particular focus; this could be specific
to a locality, for example, where a Comprehensive Area Assessment identifies a weakness within
an area, such as provision for looked after children. We trialled this in the regions last term and
the evaluation of this work will help us to develop the methodology.

21. Changes to school inspection Raising standards, improving lives
Defining accountability through inspection
- co-ordinated inspections of federations and partnerships
Partnerships: There are a number of partnerships which have an impact directly on the
outcomes children and young people achieve in the school where they are registered. We are
keen to ensure that these are drawn into the accountability framework.
A number of measures will be put in place to do this. The first will be to strengthen the school
self evaluation form, by grouping the questions on partnership into a single section and asking
about the school’s engagement in and/or contribution to wider partnership working in the following:
school improvement
14-19 implementation
those pupils at risk of exclusion or excluded
extended services.
Schools working in partnership will be asked to demonstrate how well they understand the experience the
learner is getting across the partnership, and how working in partnership results in high quality teaching,
better learning and more effective outcomes for the learner.
Where a school has a close partnership with another institution, we will ensure that wherever
possible the inspection of members of the partnership is conducted at the same time.
Inspecting a specific focus: An inspection may have a particular focus; this could be specific
to a locality, for example, where a Comprehensive Area Assessment identifies a weakness within
an area, such as provision for looked after children. We trialled this in the regions last term and
the evaluation of this work will help us to develop the methodology.

22. Changes to school inspection Raising standards, improving lives
No notice inspection
Partnerships: There are a number of partnerships which have an impact directly on the
outcomes children and young people achieve in the school where they are registered. We are
keen to ensure that these are drawn into the accountability framework.
A number of measures will be put in place to do this. The first will be to strengthen the school
self evaluation form, by grouping the questions on partnership into a single section and asking
about the school’s engagement in and/or contribution to wider partnership working in the following:
school improvement
14-19 implementation
those pupils at risk of exclusion or excluded
extended services.
Schools working in partnership will be asked to demonstrate how well they understand the experience the
learner is getting across the partnership, and how working in partnership results in high quality teaching,
better learning and more effective outcomes for the learner.
Where a school has a close partnership with another institution, we will ensure that wherever
possible the inspection of members of the partnership is conducted at the same time.
Inspecting a specific focus: An inspection may have a particular focus; this could be specific
to a locality, for example, where a Comprehensive Area Assessment identifies a weakness within
an area, such as provision for looked after children. We trialled this in the regions last term and
the evaluation of this work will help us to develop the methodology.