Ofsted Tracker, Highlights & Insights

Welcome to SAfE’s latest Ofsted tracker, highlights and insights

This month along with Ofsted data, and inspection highlights we are asking:

How can Senior Leaders/Headteachers develop a culture of robust school self-evaluation to support continuous school improvement?

Download Surrey’s July 2024 Inspection Tracker to find your school and access data by phase and cross-phase.

Ofsted Inspection Highlights for July 2024

  • This academic year there have been 117 inspections across Surrey Local Authority, this is a 5.5% increase on inspections compared to this time last year

  • 45% of inspections have been in maintained schools

  • 67% of inspections have been in Primary schools

  • 47% of inspections have been graded (S5)

  • Schools previously inspected in 2018/19 are in the Ofsted window

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Number of Ofsted Inspections
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Percentage of published graded inspections
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Percentage of graded inspections
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Comparison to 2022/23
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Inspections in Primary Schools
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Inspections in Maintained Schools

*Data only references inspection in the 2023/24 academic year, *Data correct as of 11 July 2024, for published grades, *Data compares historic Ofsted outcomes, with graded (Section 5) outcomes since September 2021

How can Senior Leaders/Headteachers develop a culture of robust school self-evaluation to support continuous school improvement?

For senior leaders and headteachers fostering a culture of robust self-evaluation is key to driving school improvement and in identifying important strengths and areas which become a focus for development, with the ultimate aim of achieving the best provision for all pupils. Well thought out and planned school self-evaluation should be a manageable process which is not simply an event linked to inspection but an approach where it is integrated into the day-to-day life and work of the school. This takes it beyond simply judging what the school is doing well and where it needs to improve. Creating an understanding, whereby stakeholders see the tangible benefits of robust self-evaluation is a key starting point.

Whilst each school will have/develop its own approach to self-evaluation, there are key features which, if incorporated can provide a supporting structure to the process.

A clear structure and process for self-evaluation: 

Senior Leaders should formulate the reasons why self-evaluation is being undertaken, how it is completed at their school and what actions are involved in this.

A cycle of self-evaluation:

starting with an evaluation by senior leaders against the school’s key areas for improvement. Aligning the timing of this at the most effective point of the year is important in creating the most impact. Involving the Senior Leadership Team in the professional dialogue surrounding this will ensure a broader perspective to give more of a holistic insight into key areas of school practices. Following this, identifying priorities and planning for improvement linked to the school’s vision and values should take place followed by planning out of the necessary steps and success criteria. The identifying opportunities for monitoring and evaluating the work.

A well-planned monitoring schedule

A schedule will support leaders in identifying opportunities for activities to focus (and re-focus) on as key areas for improvement. Spreading these out across the school year will support the self-evaluation process in not becoming over burdensome or unmanageable, helping colleagues to engage with it meaningfully. Regular opportunities for collating information, analysing and drawing out what this means is important rather than a one-off event at the end of the academic year.  The information gathered needs to trigger actions that will make a difference not merely contribute to a (potentially) disappointing picture at the end of the year.

Making sure our intent is still well intended

With well intended activity we should see the desired impact through effective implementation. Effective self-evaluation can help us return to our overall intent and mission. What did we ultimately set out to achieve through our work, do our systems and processes support effective implementation and what data do we have to evidence this? If through our self-evaluation we realise we need to re-visit our guiding principles, then we can do that. We can discuss a new intent given the information we have and the changing nature of our contexts. If things have been implemented effectively but are not having the desired impact then ultimately, we need to re-visit the ‘why’ behind what we do.

A whole school understanding of what self-evaluation is:

its purpose and how it links with improving provision. Breaking this down into what this looks like i.e. the types of activities involved, how the findings from these are collated and analysed and how these are used and shared will create a confidence among the team in the process.

The involvement of key stakeholders:

Self-evaluation shouldn’t be limited to the Senior Leadership Team, involving everyone in the process can provide a more holistic review of the school’s performance and foster a sense of collective responsibility for improvement.

Analysis of first hand evidence

Gathered from a range of activities carried out across the year by Senior and Middle Leaders. What are we seeing and what do staff think we should be seeing? Triangulate evidence with conversations to get an accurate understanding of what it all tells us to gain an informed understanding of what we need to consider moving forward.

Discerning between quantity of actions and impact of actions

Without being belligerent; part of the challenge is asking ‘So what?’ when colleagues reel off all the actions they have undertaken. This is a focus on the difference and influence we have affected in others. Interventions may have been developed but what difference are they making and who is engaging with them? To this end we need to ensure we are getting fact (data) based responses not just anecdotal ones.

Reinforce a culture of curiosity and questioning

The whole premise of effective, robust and rigorous self-evaluation is steeped in continuous improvement. This is not a transactional process where X gets us Y but one where X leads us to consider other possibilities and improvements for the future. Great practice is not a destination but a continuum where we reflect, understand and then adopt appropriate actions to lead us to an even better position in the future.

Improve not prove

This is the ultimate message we hope that effective self-evaluation conveys to all our stakeholders. Whilst we need evidence and data to know the difference we are making; this is about continuous improvement. If we have robust, rigorous and challenging conversations built on trust then we have a better chance of adopting the most appropriate approaches and strategies that will better serve our school communities in the future.

Using self-evaluation to encourage sustainable and sustained approaches of working

If we progress to our aim of developing a whole school understanding of self-evaluation, then we hope the mindset we develop in all our staff is one where we scrutinise our approaches. We can avoid layer after layer and instead have targeted, well thought out actions that we can objectively gauge the difference they are making. We have finite resources to work with, we need to know that what we are doing is the best way to allocate them to really make a difference in our schools.

Further Reading

SAfE’s Self Evaluation Frameworks

SAfE have worked in partnership with Evaluate My School to launch a further 2 self-evaluation frameworks for:

We continue to support and update our existing frameworks for you to use:

To access our frameworks please register here.

TESTIMONIAL

“Your visit last autumn was a catalyst for some of the transition we saw recognised today, and  prepared the team for the rigour of the inspection. As always – thank you for the insight, the feedback and the benefit of your knowledge and experience.”