New plans revealed by Sir Michael Wilshaw this week are ‘the biggest reforms to inspections in Ofsted’s 20-year history’ (TES). The new common inspection framework will come into effect from 1 September 2015 (Ofsted).
Under the new framework, any schools classified as ‘good’ will have a short visit every 3 years, rather than every 5 years under present inspection frameworks, in order to identify any signs of decline; triggering a full inspection if found.
Wilshaw also spoke out against the use of worksheets, stating that HMIs ‘would also be asking if the school leaders were “people who tolerate scrappy worksheets” or if they insisted that their pupils had “good materials” to work with, including textbooks, for use in both class and for homework.’ (TES)
Changes to Ofsted’s inspection workforce have also been announced – ‘Ofsted will contract directly with inspectors for maintained schools, academies, non-association independent schools and further education and skills inspection’.
As a result of this change, 1,200 school and college inspectors have been removed ‘after assessing them as not good enough to judge schools’, with the plan to bring inspections in-house to ‘improve quality and consistency’ (BBC).
