New Ofsted Framework for September

Ofsted released a new draft framework for inspections on the 20th June 2012, which they will be putting into place for September. As ever, Perspective will be updated to reflect these new changes and keep senior and middle leaders abreast of what they need to consider to change their evaluation processes in light of the new framework.

Some of the most important elements of the change are outlined below, but Perspective users will have a fuller breakdown and expert guidance to help them over the coming weeks.

• schools cannot be judged as ‘outstanding’ for overall effectiveness unless they have ‘outstanding’ teaching
• an ‘acceptable’ standard of education is defined as a ‘good’ standard of education
• a school that is not yet ‘good’, but that is not judged ‘inadequate’, is a school that ‘requires improvement’
• a school that is ‘inadequate’ overall and that requires significant improvement, but where leadership and management are not ‘inadequate’, is a school with serious weaknesses
• a school that is ‘inadequate’ overall, and where leadership and management are also ‘inadequate’, is a school requiring special measures
• schools that are judged as ‘requires improvement’ will normally be monitored and re-inspected within a period of two years; the timing of the re-inspection will reflect the individual school’s circumstances and will be informed by what inspectors find at the monitoring visits
• if a school is judged as ‘requires improvement’ at two consecutive inspections and is still not ‘good’ at a third inspection, it is likely to be deemed ‘inadequate’ and to require special measures
• inspectors will normally contact the school by telephone during the afternoon of the working day prior to the start of a section 5 inspection
• inspectors will evaluate the robustness of performance management arrangements, and consider whether there is an appropriate correlation between the quality of teaching in a school and the salary progression of the school’s teachers.