Governor Briefing

Occasional Papers to Support and Inform School Governors

2019: 1 THE NEW OFSTED FRAMEWORK

As has been widely trailed in the Press, OFSTED have begun working to their new Inspection Framework which sets out the way schools will be judged from now on.

These notes are extracted from the article published in the NGA Magazine: Governing Matters (March/April 2019: pages 12-13).

“A school improvement industry has grown up that is specifically targeted at managing and defending schools’ scores and outcomes, rather than focusing on what is really going on in classrooms.The effect of this is often an excessive and unnecessary workload for teachers and leaders as they generate, upload and analyse data. This focus becomes a barrier to further improvement because by putting the attention on ‘scores’, it draws attention away from the substance of education – what is taught, how it is taught and the impact it has on children… We (OFSTED) intend to return inspection to its proper role, providing first-hand evidence of the quality of education in schools and counterbalancing rather than reinforcing the focus on data…We want to make sure conversations are about what matters to young people: the substance of their education… The revised framework will focus on what young people learn through the curriculum rather than depending on data. At the heart of the education inspection framework is a new quality of education judgement. Inspectors will look at how schools decide what to teach and why, how well they do it and whether it leads to strong outcomes for young people…. There is not, and will not be, an Ofsted curriculum. Those responsible for governance play a vital role in ensuring that schools deliver a high quality of education to all pupils. Inspectors will report separately on governance in the leadership and management section of the inspection report. They will explore how governors carry out their responsibilities...”

— OFSTED