The Work of Ofsted - Children, Schools and Families Committee Contents


Memorandum submitted by The Association of Professionals in Education and Children's Trust (Aspect)

  1.  The Association of Professionals in Education and Children's Trusts (Aspect), formerly the National Association of Educational Inspectors, Advisers and Consultants (NAEIAC), offers the following comments on the work of Ofsted to the House of Commons Children, Schools and Families Committee, for consideration prior to its meeting with Ms Gilbert in May 2008. As the representative body for inspectors and other school improvement professionals, Aspect enjoys regular contact and dialogue with HMCI, Ofsted officials and Ofsted contractors over issues of current concern to our members and to local authorities, schools and colleges, as well as with DCSF and relevant national agencies in the education and children's services arena.

SUMMARY OF SUBMISSION

  2.  Our submission may be summarised as follows:

  The announcement, within the Government's Children's Plan, that Ofsted will be reviewing the present school inspection framework for England, in order to reflect a broader range of school-level indicators related to the five outcomes for children highlighted by the Every Child Matters agenda, raises a set of practical issues which will need to be considered and resolved in designing an effective, rigorous and potentially more proportionate inspection system for 2009 onwards.

REVIEW OF SCHOOL INSPECTION FRAMEWORK

  3.  The DCSF's Children's Plan for England, published by Secretary of State Ed Balls in December 2007, contains a significant and welcome reference to the development of "strong school level indicators that, taken together, measure a school's contribution to pupil wellbeing, using existing indicators ... and developing new ones, for example for bullying, obesity, entrance to the youth justice system and destinations on leaving". The plan confirms that Ofsted has been requested to duly reflect these indicators in designing the cycle of school inspections to start in 2009, in order to strengthen the accountability of schools and also of local Children's Trusts. The Plan further confirms that this process of review of the Section 5 inspection framework will coincide with a greater emphasis on inspection according to risk. An Ofsted consultation paper on these changes is therefore expected shortly, and Aspect has already been involved in dialogue over these developments via the Ofsted Inspectors' Forum. We believe that all schools should be actively engaged with the Every Child Matters agenda, which is not yet the case on available research evidence, and that a revised inspection framework can assist progress towards this objective.

  4.  While we certainly recognise the importance of building effective links between local schools and colleges and other children's services, as positively encouraged by the ECM agenda, we also acknowledge other significant factors justifying a level of review of the current framework. These include:

    (i) the slow but visible and logical trend towards more inter-school partnerships and federations,

    (ii) significant developments in curriculum reform affecting both the primary and secondary phases, as well as the emergence of the new Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS), and

    (iii) the increasing weight rightly attached to personalised learning and to pupils' and parents' opinions of school performance. We also note the emphasis on achieving a yet more proportionate school inspection system, reflecting broader trends within public sector inspection arrangements.

  5.  The following points arise, among others, in light of the above considerations:

    (i) Classroom observation remains important to the continued rigour of a school inspection regime since learning and teaching are at the heart of school-based activity. Current full inspections and Reduced Tariff Inspections (RTIs)—the latter reflecting the concept of "lighter touch" inspection for higher-performing schools—often involve only 10-minute lesson observation sessions, which, as we have previously pointed out to the select committee, can prove frustrating not only for inspectors but also for the teachers and support staff involved. In devising an even more proportionate inspection system, it is important to identify and retain an effective element of classroom observation which can be accepted as credible by inspectors and school-based staff alike.

    (ii) Future inspection arrangements for clusters or federations of schools, which may vary considerably in their precise local form, should supplement—and not reduce or replace—the continued formal inspection of individual local schools and colleges, in order to sustain the basic accountability of schools to parents, local communities and society at large.

    (iii) Effective liaison is required between Ofsted inspectors and the local authority school improvement professionals who regularly support and challenge the same local schools, in order to share relevant information over a school's performance and its consequent categorisation for the purposes of determining the level of inspection required under a more tailored and proportionate Ofsted system. Useful lessons can be learned from Scotland about closer and effective working between inspectors and local authority school improvement officers, and the ongoing problem of varying effectiveness of School Improvement Partners (SIPs) will need to be considered and resolved through higher-level training and professional development provision.

    (iv) Appropriate training will certainly be required for school inspectors to work under the revised Ofsted framework from September 2009 onwards, given the introduction of a broader range of school-level indicators relating to the five ECM outcomes. Inspectors have already worked in the context of certain ECM-related grade descriptions, but it has at times been difficult to apply these with full confidence when undertaking short inspections. New training therefore represents a key facet of the broader inspection workforce strategy which will be required to ensure the efficient implementation of the revised framework over the period ahead.

    (v) The nature of the process for securing the input of pupils and parents to an inspection should be carefully designed to both recognise the principle of their genuine involvement and remain manageable for the inspectors themselves, given practical constraints on inspectors' time. There can be a considerable volume of communication to be absorbed. Administrative support to handle this specific aspect of an inspection tends presently to be available for RTIs but should be considered for all inspections as this workload is likely to grow.

    (vi) The re-designation of schools for determining specialist status is now allied to the Ofsted inspection system and will presumably continue to be so. School leaders are often particularly concerned over this matter and highlight this in dialogue with inspectors. Moves towards a still more proportionate inspection regime should duly allow for this factor, especially if currently high-performing schools are to receive an even "lighter-touch" process.

    (vii) The duty placed on schools since 2007 to promote community cohesion, under the Education and Inspections Act 2006, is to be reflected in Ofsted inspection reports from September this year. While pilots have been conducted to ascertain suitable approaches to the implementation of this duty, inspectors will need further clarification since this affects teaching and learning, the school curriculum, equal opportunities at several levels and community engagement and extended services.

FURTHER INFORMATION

  6.  Aspect trusts that the above points will be of interest to the Children, Schools and Families Committee, and would be willing to respond to any requests for further information which may assist the Committee's deliberations on the work of Ofsted in this period of significant change linked to the ECM agenda.

April 2008





 
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