Ofsted has announced an engagement programme to help schools familiarise themselves with its new inspection framework.
The watchdog will hold a webinar for each school type - maintained nurseries, primary schools, secondary schools, non-association independent schools, university technical colleges (UTCs), special schools and alternative provision settings - from September.
Union bosses have accused Ofsted of “scrambling” the programme together and warned that only giving schools half a term’s notice before new inspections start will not work.
Ofsted is set to launch a new school inspection framework in the second half of the autumn term as it moves to a report card system that could mean schools being assessed in up to 11 areas.
As Tes previously revealed, Ofsted has delayed the publication of its finalised inspection plans until after the summer. It held a consultation on its report card proposals earlier this year.
New Ofsted inspections next term
However, it is not delaying the start of the new inspections, which are still set to begin in November, meaning that schools will not get a term’s notice between its finalised plans being published and inspections starting - as Ofsted had previously said would be the case.
This decision was revealed in an exchange of letters between Ofsted chief inspector Sir Martyn Oliver and education secretary Bridget Phillipson, who described the delay in Ofsted publishing its finalised plans as “disappointing”.
Union leaders have warned the education secretary that giving schools less than one term’s notice of plans for a new inspection system will place “wholly unacceptable pressure” on schools and teachers.
And earlier this week Leora Cruddas, chief executive of the Confederation of School Trusts, reiterated the trust sector body’s unhappiness with the timing, urging multi-academy trust leaders to reassure “anxious” heads.
Ofsted chief ‘aware of concerns’
Commenting on the engagement programme today, Sir Martyn said: “I want to reassure education providers that, through our national engagement programme and published materials, they will be able to familiarise themselves with the changes during the first part of the autumn term - while routine school and further education and skills inspections are on hold.”
He said Ofsted inspectors will all receive extensive training on the new system between now and November, and “many will have had the experience of a full pilot inspection”.
“I know there are some concerns about the timeline for these changes, that’s why we are planning such a comprehensive programme. I have every confidence that our approach will support a successful rollout of new-look inspections in November,” Sir Martyn added.
Pepe Di’Iasio, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said: “Scrambling this programme together in order to try to allay the widespread concerns about the speed of implementing major changes to the inspection system is surely not the answer.
“The sensible thing would simply be to delay its introduction in order to give providers time to familiarise themselves and their staff with the new framework. The inspectorate and government must also reconsider the planned five-point grading scale, which is a recipe for chaos.”
Paul Whiteman, general secretary of the NAHT school leaders’ union, said: “Ofsted is increasingly looking like a ship ploughing ahead into a storm, ignoring all the weather warnings and cracked hull reports from below deck.”
He said the watchdog “appears to have completely ignored what the sector has said about the timing of the new inspection regime”.
“For all the talk of listening, the preference now seems to be to dismiss and press ahead regardless. The idea that a completely new approach to inspection can be rolled out next term when it hasn’t even been finalised yet is for the birds,” Mr Whiteman added.
Schools can find out how to The webinars will also be recorded and posted on YouTube.
In addition, there will be webinars for initial teacher education providers.
Nominee training
Ofsted already uses a system of nominees to support inspections of further education and skills providers. Nominees aim to “help the inspection process run smoothly and collaboratively, through planning, communication and engagement with the inspection team”.
It is now introducing nominees for schools and other education settings.
Ofsted has said it will offer a short online training package tailored for nominees. These sessions will provide an overview of the inspection framework and more information on how nominees can work with inspectors during an inspection.
The inspectorate said that more details about the nominee training package will be released after it publishes its finalised inspection plans in September.
It will not be mandatory for every school to appoint a nominee.
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