Firstly I want to explain the rationale underpinning the changes to the new inspection framework.
The Education Bill, which is currently before parliament, sets out proposals for some broad changes to the way schools are inspected. This has enabled Ofsted to develop a new framework, which we believe will make an even greater difference to schools and the pupils they serve. We want to have a stronger impact on driving improvement and raising standards. As with all frameworks, we are building on the strengths of the current framework and looking to raise expectations.
And we are also taking this opportunity to streamline the inspection process and sharpen our focus even more on what really matters in schools: the quality of teaching and learning; pupils’ achievement; behaviour and safety; and the effectiveness of the school’s leadership and management. The slimmer framework will allow inspectors to spend even more time observing the quality of teaching in classrooms, and they will be able to focus on key issues such as literacy, including listening to children read.
We consulted widely on the proposals during the summer and they were, on the whole, well received. We also tested the proposals in pilot inspections involving almost 150 schools and they worked well. Thank you to those of you who contributed to the consultation or took part in a pilot inspection. You have played an important role in helping us develop the new framework.
This brings me to an outline of the key changes.
From January 2012, inspectors will make four key judgements, in addition to judging the overall effectiveness of the school: achievement, the quality of teaching, behaviour and safety, and leadership and management.
The pilot inspections demonstrated that this new streamlined framework will allow inspectors more time to getting underneath these essential aspects of the work of schools.
The presentation following this address will set out the changes in detail but I want briefly to outline the features of the key judgements and the rationale that underpins them.
First, let me consider achievement.
Our key challenge is to continue to raise pupils’ achievement, achieve better rates of progress and secure higher standards of attainment for all pupils. Attainment, typically shown by test and examination results, continues to be an important factor in our judgements. These results make a difference to pupils’ future careers or further studies. But let me stress, a key element in our judgement on achievement will also continue to be pupils’ learning and progress. We are interested in the difference a school makes for the pupils attending and will use ‘value-added’ measures as part of a sharper focus on assessing pupils’ progress from their starting points and the school’s success in ‘narrowing the gaps’ for different groups of pupils. Inspectors will be interested in how well schools are improving the achievement of those groups of pupils whose achievement nationally is not as good as their peers. In all schools, inspectors will evaluate and report on the achievement of disabled pupils and those with special educational needs.
An important aspect of this framework is the priority given to pupils’ achievement in early reading and literacy. Teaching children effectively to read so that they attain the expected standards by age seven is a core duty for primary schools. Otherwise we know children will struggle at secondary school and later in life. Inspectors will give this area of school life the highest priority, including hearing pupils read. And where achievement in reading is low, or some pupils are making inadequate progress, there will be close attention to the systematic teaching of phonics. Inspection evidence is clear that the success of the most effective primary schools in securing good standards of literacy for pupils is based on the systematic teaching of the basic skills of reading and writing.
Second, teaching.
There is no doubt that the quality of teaching is the single most crucial factor in promoting the achievement of pupils. In 2009/10, in her Annual Report, the previous Chief Inspector highlighted a number of concerns about the quality of teaching in our schools. The Annual Report pointed out that the variation in the quality of teaching, and the high proportion of teaching that is no better than satisfactory, are key factors impeding overall progress. Too much teaching in schools is still not good enough to make the differences in progress and attainment that we need. In 2009/10 in 50% of secondary schools and 43% of primary schools inspected, teaching was no better than satisfactory.
That’s why our new framework will see even more time being devoted to the most important activity in any school, namely the quality of teaching. Inspectors will also continue to consider the full range of evidence available to them. We are interested in the quality of teaching over time – not just the snapshot seen on the inspection.
Of course, the quality of teaching is also a really big factor in the management of behaviour, which brings us on to the third key judgement, behaviour and safety.
All parents have a basic expectation that schools will keep their children safe and that teaching and learning will be unfettered by disrupted lessons. In most schools this is the case and this reflects well on teachers and senior leaders. But we have to expect the same high standards in all schools. That’s why inspectors are going to consider more carefully whether the school is a safe place for all pupils, and spend more time considering whether they are free from bullying and whether behaviour is good enough. Inspectors will listen to pupils and the views of parents, and will follow these up to get a picture of the school as it really is.
The last of the four key judgements is leadership and management.
Our evidence shows that the effectiveness of leadership and management is pivotal to schools’ improvement. Effective leaders know their school well and set ambitious targets based on perceptive self-evaluation. They closely monitor and track pupils’ learning and progress to target areas where improvements are needed. In particular, we know the decisive impact the best leadership and management can have on improving teaching and learning, and raising standards of achievement.
The new framework will focus on how school leaders are improving achievement for pupils by helping them to overcome specific barriers to learning. One of the ways a school can do this is to develop a high quality curriculum, which best meets the needs of all pupils and this will be a key aspect of our judgement on leadership and management. Ensuring that the school complies with its duties to safeguard children will also be a key part of the judgement on leadership and management.
In judging the overall effectiveness of the school, inspectors will evaluate the quality of education provided by the school by taking account of the four key judgements and considering how well the school is promoting the pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development. Together these aspects will provide a full picture of the quality of education provided and the experiences of the school’s pupils.
Other framework changes
In addition to the changes to inspections themselves, we are planning to change some of the wider aspects of our inspection arrangements.
Since 2005, inspections have been increasingly proportionate to need – with more frequent inspections and monitoring visits for weaker schools, and less for those that are good or outstanding. We are continuing to develop this approach to the timing of school inspections in the new framework.
The Education Bill proposes that most schools judged outstanding at their previous inspection will not be subject to routine inspections unless there are concerns about their performance. Most schools judged good at their previous inspection will be inspected within five years of the end of the academic year when their previous inspection took place, again, unless concerns are raised in our risk assessment.
Spending less time inspecting good and outstanding schools will allow us to increase our focus on schools that are inadequate and on satisfactory schools where standards are not improving or are slipping. The slow rate of improvement in some satisfactory schools has been highlighted in Ofsted’s last two Annual Reports. We will continue to monitor a high proportion of satisfactory schools where improvement is slow. If the monitoring visit continues to show little or no sign of improvement, this may bring forward the next full inspection.
We are also trialling some changes to the monitoring arrangements for inadequate schools in categories of concern – those given a notice to improve or placed in special measures – to help them improve quicker and be taken out of the category sooner than is typically the case at present.
Finally, we are proposing that schools, through the appropriate authorities, should be able to request an inspection, for which Ofsted would recover the costs. We do not know what demand will be like for this. But you would be surprised at the number of schools that contact us to request an inspection, particularly those that are striving to be outstanding.
I need to remind you that the new arrangements are subject to the passage through parliament of the Education Bill. We are publishing in draft at the moment and intend to replace with final versions after Royal Assent, later in the autumn. In the next part of the conference, my colleague (Patrick Leeson) will take you through these changes in more detail.
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