The role and performance of Ofsted

Memorandum submitted The Association for Science Education

The Association for Science Education (ASE) welcomes the opportunity to respond to the Education Committee consultation on the role and performance of Ofsted.

The Association for Science Education is the membership organisation for the science teaching profession. This response has been formulated in consultation with ASE’s national Primary Science and 11-19 committees and ASE’s special interest groups of the National Advisers and Inspectors Group for Science (NAIGS), and the Association of Tutors in Science Education (ATSE). Together these groups bring expertise and a range of viewpoints, including initial teacher education, education research, classroom practitioners and professional development.

As a member organisation of the SCORE partnership, ASE has also contributed to, and supports, the response from SCORE which is included in the Appendix. [1]

· What the purposes of inspection should be (relating not only to schools but to all organisations, settings and services under Ofsted’s remit).

The Association believes the purposes of inspection should be to:

1. Seek robust evidence to judge and report on the quality of provision for the education, care and wellbeing of the young people within the organisation being inspected

2. Seek robust evidence to judge and report on the quality of provision of individual subjects within different school environments to support improvements in teaching and learning

3. Produce and publicise reports regarding the quality of provision, identifying the good practice and areas for improvement observed during the inspection process

4. Seek robust evidence to judge and report on the quality and accuracy of the organisation’s self- evaluation process and findings identifying good practice and areas for improvement

5. Trigger swift and effective intervention in those organisations where provision is deemed inadequate or practice is potentially damaging to young people.

And additionally for initial teacher education providers, to ensure and enhance the impact of a high quality workforce through:

1. Supporting and encouraging organisations that use their own research to underpin their teaching

2. Providing a mechanism for promoting best practice in initial teacher education such as a focus on the value of appropriate practical work including outdoor science

3. Providing an independent quality assurance mechanism that contributes to the value that universities place on their education departments.

· The impact of the inspection process on school improvement

1. The inspection process has improved significantly over the history of Ofsted inspections. The process of inspecting an organisation’s self evaluation is much more powerful than merely inspecting provision

2. The process of inspection exposes and publicises weakness in practice and provision which continues to sharpen actions relating to organisational improvement and prevents organisations from deferring implementation of improvement strategies

3. The inspection process can be perceived as the reason for organisational self-evaluation and improvement rather than the monitoring of self-evaluation and improvement.

· The performance of Ofsted in carrying out its work

1. Performance of Ofsted has been good for many years but has been weaker more recently in certain areas. Subject reporting is now reliant upon small samples of school inspection reports rather than drawing on all school inspection reports and so there is much less evidence for supporting organisations to act upon

2. The Association recommends that Ofsted’s subject specific reports in future are informed by significantly larger numbers of subject specific visits, which are based on the useful new Ofsted guidance for inspectors; and which focus on student achievement, the quality of teaching, the curriculum and the effectiveness of leadership and management

3. Science is core subject in primary education but compared with the other core subjects, mathematics and English, fewer primary schools are visited in preparing primary science subject reports. The Association recommends that all core subjects are treated equally in terms of inspections and consequent reporting.

· The consistency and quality of inspection teams in the Ofsted inspection process

1. Ofsted have a responsibility to ensure that their inspectors are experienced, well-trained and of the highest calibre. For subject inspections, teachers expect their inspectors to be experienced and interested subject enthusiasts, and for science this is generally the case

2. Most inspection teams are both fair and reasonable in their conduct of inspections and so few inspection results are unpredictable. This is how it should be. There are, on occasion, inspectors who interpret the inspection framework slightly differently or place different emphasis on different factors and these inspections can cause enormous concern to individuals within the organisation and within the supporting organisations. There is currently limited appeal against such inspection judgements and process for limiting their actions.

· The weight given to different factors within the inspection process

1. Limiting judgements do cause issues. Some very effective organisations are deemed merely satisfactory overall because of a limiting judgement

2. Since the 2009 framework, there have been some harsh safeguarding judgements within school and initial teacher education settings

3. The Association recommends that the inspection system shifts its emphasis towards improving teaching and learning across the system as a whole and takes particular account of the quality of practical work in science. Teachers of science and their leadership team should be able to demonstrate a sound understanding of the three main purposes of practical work and to provide ample, purposeful opportunities with clear intended learning outcomes for pupils to 1) develop their knowledge and understanding of the natural world, 2) learn how to use scientific equipment or follow standard procedures and 3) develop their understanding of the scientific approach to enquiry. The Association recommends that inspectors look for evidence that teachers are regularly providing a range of high quality practical experiences including enquiries and investigations, teacher demonstrations, techniques and procedures in appropriately resourced laboratory spaces, the school grounds and beyond.

October 2010