ENGLAND

The Office for Standards in Education, better known as OFSTED, was created by the Education (Schools) Act 1992. It is a government department with a remit to improve standards of achievement and quality of education through routine inspection. OFSTED inspects each of the nearly 26,000 state-maintained schools and any nursery receiving government grant at least once every six years; it also plays a role in the inspection of independent schools and Local Education Authorities (LEAs). Although OFSTED works closely with the Department for Education and Skills (DfES) it is independent from it. OFSTED made the headlines when its former chief, Chris Woodhead, stepped down amidst much controversy but school inspection is generally accepted as a useful process that has helped many schools establish priorit ies for improvement.

State Schools

School inspections are conducted within a national framework, using a set of statutory criteria. Inspectors are legally required to report on the quality of education provided; the educational standards achieved; the way in which the school’s financial resources are managed; and the spiritual, moral, social and cultural development of pupils at the school.

Inspections are carried out by independent inspectors who are contracted to and trained by OFSTED but are not OFSTED employees. Teams comprise Registered Inspectors, team inspectors and a lay member, someone who has never worked in schools in a professional capacity but may have been a governor or volunteer. Nursery inspections are carried out by Registered Nursery Inspectors who work individually, not as a team.

As of January 2000, state schools may be subject to one of two kinds of inspection. Schools that have performed well in previous assessments and meet stringent criteria now qualify for a ‘short inspection’, which OFSTED likens to a ‘health check’. Most schools undergo full inspections, which involve more inspectors, last up to a week and are reported in greater detail.

In either case, schools are given six to ten weeks notice of an inspection visit. Parents or carers of children registered with the school will be invited to a pre-inspection meeting with one of the inspectors and asked to fill out standardised questionnaires so that their views can be reflected in the final assessment. The inspectors gather evidence throughout the visit, observing classes, talking to teachers and pupils, analysing schoolwork, teachers’ plans and other aspects of school administration. They will also take league tables into account.

Under the guidelines, OFSTED will present a school with a detailed report within six calendar weeks of the inspection visit. Schools are then required to issue a summary of the report to all parents within ten working days. Parents can get a of the full report from the school (you may be charged a ing fee), by visiting your local library, or by downloading it from the database of inspection reports on the OFSTED site. You’ll need Adobe Acrobat Reader to access the state or independent school reports but this is quick and easy to download. Special schools reports can be found by clicking on the state or independent links above, depending on which is appropriate. The nursery and LEA reports can be read on- or off-line as plain text. Please note that reports go onto the website some twelve weeks after the inspection but are available sooner from the school or library.

After an inspection report is filed, school governors must produce an ‘Action Plan’, outlining how the school plans to act on the findings, within 40 working days of receiving the report; parents should be sent the Action Plan five days after that. The governors’ annual reports will then detail the progress made. All parents with children in a school should, by law, receive a of the annual report. If the last OFSTED inspection report for the school you’re interested in is several years old, ask the school for a of the Action Plan. These are free if you live within three miles of the school.

If an inspection finds that a school is ‘underachieving’, shows ‘serious weaknesses’ or is ‘failing to provide an acceptable standard of education and is therefore in need of special measures’, HMI will pay frequent visits, working through the Action Plan and keeping local and central government abreast of changes.

If you wish to complain about an inspection or report, OFSTED publishes a leaflet that talks you through the formal complaint procedure.

You can find further background on inspections in the ‘About OFSTED’ section of its site, or on the Schoolsnet FAQ page on OFSTED, which suggests why parents should care about OFSTED reports and what they can do to help their child’s school get a good one. You can also find OFSTED handbooks for inspecting nursery and primary schools, secondary schools and special schools (including pupil referral units) on their site. These are written for inspectors but are an excellent resource if you want a detailed breakdown of the inspection procedure.

Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Schools (HMCI), currently David Bell, presents an annual report of OFSTED’s findings to the Secretary of State for Education and Employment, which is published by the Government.

OFSTED Helpline: (Monday to Friday 9am to 5pm)

Independent Schools

Over half of the 2200 independent schools in the UK are now accredited to the Independent Schools Council (ISC). Under a new agreement between the DfES and the ISC, the ISC is responsible for organising the inspection of all member schools. The Independent Schools Inspectorate (ISI), formed in April 2000, inspects ISC schools every six years in accordance with DfES and OFSTED guidelines. A school will know which academic year and sometimes even the term for its next inspection well in advance. Following the inspection, ISI passes basic registration information - e.g. suitability of the buildings - to the DfES and provides the schools with detailed reports, which schools are then obliged to send to parents free of charge. Reports have been public documents since January 1999, and are available from schools themselves, not the ISI. The Independent Schools Council can be reached in London on ; the Independent Schools Inspectorate is on .

OFSTED inspects the independent schools that are not accredited to the ISC. By and large, OFSTED makes short visits to these schools, for monitoring and registration purposes, which do not result in written reports. Very occasionally, the Department for Education and Skills will ask OFSTED to make a full inspection of an independent school if there is cause for concern. These reports can be found on the OFSTED site. It’s worth noting that independent schools have the right to opt out of OFSTED inspection but rarely do so in practice.

For up-to-date information on OFSTED inspection of independent schools visit the Independent Schools section of the OFSTED site. For a truly comprehensive overview of the new system and how it’s worked so far, see the Annual Report of Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Schools.

LOCAL EDUCATION AUTHORITIES

Since January 1998, each Local Education Authority (LEA) has been inspected by OFSTED in conjunction with the Audit Commission. LEAs are inspected once every five years. You can get more information on these inspections and read the reports in the LEA section of the OFSTED site.

WALES

The Office of Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Schools in Wales (OHMCI) was created by the Education (Schools) Act 1992. In 1999, Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector (HMCI), Susan Lewis, announced that the department was to be renamed ESTYN, Welsh for ‘reach’ or ‘extend’. ESTYN reports are not yet available online. If you are looking for an inspection report for a state or independent school, it is best to contact the school directly. The VTC Cymru site features more information on ESTYN, as does the BBC.

SCOTLAND

Her Majesty's Inspectors of Schools (HMI) is an Executive Agency responsible for inspections of pre-school centres and schools in both the state and private sectors, as well as the educational components of Local Authorities. Her Majesty’s Inspectors do the actual inspecting and reporting, whereas in England inspectors are contracted out. HMI publishes Scottish school inspection reports and information leaflets on its website – you’ll need Adobe Acrobat Reader to access these which you can download for free. You may also find the HMI FAQ page helpful.

NORTHERN IRELAND

The Department of Education engages its own Education and Training Inspectorate (ETI) to carry out inspections. Schools may be subject to General or Focused inspections; the Department of Education is also piloting Quality Assurance Inspections, which are conducted at the request of a school. The ETI publishes reports and explanatory leaflets for parents and carers online, all of which can be read with Adobe Acrobat Reader (you can download it for free). The ETI pages also include a handbook that describes each stage of the inspection process in schools, explaining the different sorts of inspection along the way.