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A message from Matt Dunkley CBE:

17 May 2019 weekly update

17 May 2019

This week, Matt highlights the outcomes from Ofsted’s Inspection Framework consultation and shares the new framework and inspection handbooks; and extends an invitation to the Summer Headteacher Briefings.

Dear Colleagues

New Ofsted Inspection Framework - outcome of consultation

Ofsted has published this week the outcome of the consultation on its new education inspection framework, which will take effect from September 2019:

  • Inspections to focus on what children actually learn, ahead of results
  • Designed to discourage culture of ‘teaching to the test’
  • New ‘behaviour’ judgement to give parents reassurance on bullying
  • Lead Inspector on-site preparation plans removed.

From September 2019, Ofsted will refocus inspections of schools, Early Years settings and Further Education and skills providers, to make sure that learners are receiving a high-quality education that puts them on a path to future success.

Ofsted inspectors will spend less time looking at exam results and test data, and more time considering how a nursery, school, college or other education provider has achieved their results. That is, whether they are the outcome of a broad, rich curriculum and real learning; or of teaching to the test and exam cramming.

Inspectors will focus on the intent of the curriculum, how it is implemented and its impact. Inspectors will have more conversations with teachers about how their teaching and the curriculum impacts pupils. Pupils will also be engaged more by inspectors - they will be asked about what they have learnt.

The changes follow a 3-month public consultation, which prompted more than 15,000 responses - the highest number Ofsted has ever received.

Read the consultation outcome report

  • Ofsted have confirmed that it will proceed with its headline proposal for a new ‘quality of education’ judgement, after it received strong support from three-quarters of respondents.
  • More than three-quarters of respondents also supported plans to introduce two new key judgements, evaluating learners’ ‘behaviour and attitudes’ separately from their ‘personal development’.

Together, these changes will make it easier for Ofsted to recognise and reward Early Years providers, schools and colleges that are doing the best they can for their pupils, particularly those working in challenging circumstances.

Schools will be empowered to always put the child first and be actively discouraged from negative practices, such as ‘off-rolling’, where schools remove pupils in their own best interests, rather than that of the pupils. Such schools are likely to find their ‘leadership and management’ judged inadequate under the new framework.

All inspection judgements will continue to be awarded under the current 4-point grading scale: outstanding; good; requires improvement; and inadequate. Reports will be redesigned and shortened to give parents the key information they need to know about a school and a sense of how it feels to be a pupil there.

The new framework and inspection handbooks published on Tuesday 14 May 2019 will be used across all education inspections from September 2019.

Summer Headteacher Briefings: July 2019

I would like to formally invite you to attend my Summer Term Briefings in July. We have been lucky enough to secure Sir Kevan Collins, Chief Executive of the Education Endowment Foundation and his Deputy Stephen Fraser, who will present data about Kent schools to us and share proposals for a joint education project. This will be an exciting opportunity that I would encourage Kent Schools to link in to. The dates for the briefings are as follows:

  • Monday 8 July - 9am for a 9:30am start to 12pm - Ashford International Hotel, Simone Weil Avenue, Ashford, Kent TN24 8UX
  • Monday 8 July - 1:30pm for 2pm start to 4:30pm - The Spitfire Ground (Canterbury Cricket Ground), St Lawrence, Old Dover Road, Canterbury, Kent CT1 3NZ
  • Tuesday 9 July - 1pm for 1:30pm start to 4pm - Mercure Maidstone Great Danes Hotel, Ashford Road, Maidstone, Kent ME17 1RE

To book a place, please email cypesupportteam@kent.gov.uk confirming your name, school and the session you are able to join. An agenda will be available on the day.

Matt Dunkley CBE
Corporate Director
Children, Young People and Education