1. What will inspectors expect of governors? Karen Feeney Presentation to Link Governors January 2013

2. Inspections are part of the school improvement process Inspectors have a duty to evaluate carefully against all available evidence and make judgements based on the published criteria What is inspection all about?

3. Key driver is achievement – achievement and teaching grades are closely linked Inspectors need to drill down beyond the information they already have Inspection – the reality

4. Governance has its own paragraph at the end of the Leadership and Management section. Inspectors need to mention specifically ‘how well governors know about: the quality of teaching; data on the school’s performance; the use of performance management; what is being done to reward good teachers and tackle underperformance.’ Governance in the report

5. Discussions with you. Notes of minutes – the ones they are most interested in are of committees and the FGB. Sources of evidence

6. Good answers: clear about how impact is measured ‘the reading recovery teacher elicits an average of 11 months progress in 10 weeks.’ being spent on a range of initiatives and now FSM pupils are making 4 points progress per year compared to 2points last year. Unacceptable answers: a costly intervention has resulted in 100% of pupils making expected progress vague examples with no numerical data – ie we subsidise their school trips which increases their confidence How is the pupil premium funding being used?

7. Good answers: Refer to examples which show what outcomes have changed for the better as a result of the process Unacceptable answers: Talk about woolly targets Are unclear about impact of targets being met Imply that nothing really happens if targets aren’t met Imply that monitoring is not robust How is performance management used to improve the quality of teaching

8. Good answers: Take this as an opportunity to present a set of improving figures i.e. 2 years ago there was 50%good or better, now it is 80% Talk about how effective CPD has been in improving teaching Refer to an example of an individual teacher moving from requires improvement to good or good to outstanding Outline a case where capability was used successfully Unacceptable answers: Are not supported by numerical data Refer to cases where support to improve was lacking Imply that the capability process is lengthy and cumbersome Make excuses for poor performance What is the profile of the quality of teaching across the school?

9. Good answers: Make it clear how the pay structure is used to reward excellence and how increments are withheld where performance is lacking Unacceptable answers: Outline a picture of expensive staff not having impact and nothing is being done about it Are unclear about the link between pay and performance Are your best teachers your highest paid teachers?

10. Good answers: Provide accurate data i.e. boys underperform in English in KS1 but, by KS2, we have narrowed the gap between boys and girls Make it clear that the school’s targets are aspirational and there is a clear understanding of the need for accelerated progress for some pupils to help them catch up. Unacceptable answers: Show you don’t know the national context i.e. you do not measure your figures against national Are inaccurate Try to make excuses for underachievement Get attainment and progress confused Which groups are of concern in terms of their achievement?

11. Good answers: Are very clear about which subject, phase, year group and the figures involved, both where they are now and where they need to get to Unacceptable answers: Lack precision in terms of data Are inaccurate What is the school’s priority in terms of raising attainment?

12. Know your data (have a crib sheet as you can’t hold it all in your head!) Have a dummy run or two with a critical friend Do any of your answers leave the listener with the question ‘so what’ on his or her lips? If so, rephrase the answer. How can you prepare?

13. Where are our strongest teachers? What support is there for the relatively weaker teachers? How do we reward excellence? How many teachers are approaching threshold, what is their performance like? How does our salary profile compare to the average school? Questions to ask to get prepared - performance

14. How much progress have pupils made in xxxxx intervention? Is there a difference between the progress FSM pupils have made and non FSM pupils? What is the gap between FSM pupils in school and FSM pupils nationally? How does this compare to the gap between non FSM in school and nationally? Questions to ask – achievement/ppremium

15. What they are getting at is that you don’t just accept what you are told, you are there to be a critical friend. Do you look elsewhere for evidence of the school’s performance? For example LA and SIP reports can sometimes have comments in them that can lead to useful discussions. Do you scrutinise data yourselves? Do you ask uncomfortable questions about how they know that paying for FSM pupils to go on trips with pupil premium money has definitely increased self- confidence with a direct improvement in academic performance? What do they mean by ‘challenge’?

16. They want to be sure that you would have no compunctions in taking someone down the capability route once all support mechanisms had proven fruitless – so make it clear that excellence is your priority and what your pupils deserve! This goes hand in hand with how you use the system to reward excellence in performance. And how you deal with those who do not meet their PM targets. Have you got bite?

17. You are part of the vision, the heart, the ethos of the school, so be enthusiastic and aspirational, leadership and management are judged on whether they ‘communicate high expectations and ambition’. Finally