Ofsted has introduced a number of changes to inspection from September 2024.

These changes only apply to the inspection of state-funded schools. They do not apply to the inspection of other settings inspected under the Education Inspection Framework (EIF).

Ofsted will be reviewing the EIF and its approach to inspection more generally during the academic year 2024/25 and will consult on its proposals. NASUWT will actively engage with Ofsted throughout the review and will be pressing for significant reforms to inspection.

The key changes to the inspection of state-funded schools from September 2024 are:

• Removal of the grade for overall effectiveness from graded inspections: Ofsted will, however, continue to grade the four sub-areas (quality of education; behaviour and attitudes; personal development; and leadership and management).

• Replacing deep dives in ungraded inspections with ‘areas of focus’ - this is intended to offer greater flexibility during inspection.
  Inspectors will still follow Ofsted’s three-stage process (top-level view; collecting, connecting and considering the evidence; and ‘bringing it all together’). However, inspectors will have greater flexibility about how evidence is gathered as part of an area of focus. This means that inspectors could just use one or two of the approaches to gathering evidence. The indication is that inspectors are likely to make greater use of joint visits to lessons with school leaders and of talking to pupils.
  In graded inspections, Ofsted will continue to conduct deep dives. Deep dives usually include the following activities: talking to leaders about the curriculum; joint visits with leaders to lessons; work scrutiny; talking to pupils and observing pupils; and discussions with teachers.

• In ungraded inspections, inspecting groups of subjects rather than single subjects - in practice, this is likely to mean that inspectors speak to subject leaders as a group rather than individually.=

• In ungraded inspections, inspectors will examine three or four ‘areas of focus’. Ofsted says that at least two of the areas of focus should relate to quality of education for a group of subjects. The other area(s) of focus should be things that leaders are focusing on addressing which are covered in other parts of the EIF. This means that an area of focus could be something that falls under behaviour and attitudes, personal development or leadership and management.
  Groups of subjects could be subject groupings e.g. arts or humanities, subjects that are relevant to a school’s context, e.g. subjects that have similar results or challenges in relation to pupil outcomes, or something else. The areas of focus are likely to be identified in consultation with school leaders.
  In primary schools, one of the ‘areas of focus’ will normally be early English, including early reading, and maths.

• In ungraded inspections, inspectors will place greater emphasis on inspectors maintaining a professional dialogue with school leaders throughout the inspection - there will be regular keep-in-touch meetings throughout the inspection; school leaders are likely to be invited to co-construct the inspection timetable; and inspectors are likely to undertake more lesson visits with leaders.

• Notifying a school on a Monday (or Tuesday if Monday is a bank holiday) in the week that the school will be inspected later that week.

• In some instances, where safeguarding is the only issue, Ofsted will operate a ‘suspend and return’ of inspection - this is intended to give the school time to address the issues before the inspection is completed and its use will depend on the nature of the safeguarding issues.

• Reports of ungraded inspections will focus on whether the school has taken effective action to maintain standards since the last inspection, instead of judging whether the school remains good or outstanding.

• In ungraded inspections, Ofsted has amended the requirement for inspectors to focus on spotlight areas of behaviour, leadership and management, which included a specific focus on workload and wellbeing, and personal development.
  Inspectors are still required to consider whether the school is a safe and positive environment for pupils and whether they get the support that they need; whether school staff are doing all they can to achieve the highest possible attendance; and the extent to which pupils are prepared for life beyond school.
  Inspectors are also required to consider staff’s wellbeing, including their workload when evaluating leadership and management. They are also expected to be alert to evidence that the school may be gaming or off-rolling.

• It is unclear what changes will apply from the academic year 2024/25 as Ofsted is reviewing the education inspection framework and its approach to inspection across education settings inspected under the framework.

NASUWT comments

While the changes to inspection seek to address several important concerns that we have highlighted around the inspection of state-funded schools, we have identified a number of potential risks. These include:

• Potential confusion between the approaches used in graded and ungraded inspections - deep dives in ungraded inspections of state-funded schools versus areas of focus in ungraded inspections.

• Risks that the ‘areas of focus’ approach will place greater demands on schools and be higher stakes - this could arise because of the approach taken by inspectors or because of assumptions made by schools and employers.

  • There is a risk that the greater use of joint visits to lessons in inspections will lead to schools introducing more punitive and burdensome management practices, including subjecting classroom teachers to even greater scrutiny.

  • There is a risk that schools will use Ofsted’s shift to holding joint meetings with groups of leaders to increase the pressure on and demands of subject leaders.

• Concern that removing the ‘spotlight’ requirement for inspectors to focus on staff workload and wellbeing in ungraded inspections will mean that inspectors pay little attention to these matters.

NASUWT has wider concerns about inspection and continues to raise these concerns with Ofsted. We will be feeding our concerns into the planned review of inspection as part of our campaign for an appropriate inspection and accountability system.

Teachers’ and leaders’ experiences of inspection provide important evidence that supports our responses to planned changes to inspection. We would encourage you to contact us about your experiences of inspection, including the changes to ungraded inspections.

Teachers and leaders who have specific concerns about an inspection or the way in which the requirements of inspection are interpreted by their school should seek advice and guidance from NASUWT.

Support can be obtained by emailing the Member Support Team