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Updated guidance can be found on the Dfe website - Here
Notice - Schools will receive notice of an inspection between 10.30am and 2pm on the school day before the inspection is due to take place.
Before an inspection - Ofsted will provide schools a letter to inform parents and carers about the inspection and options for providing their views. Ofsted will also ask schools to notify other relevant bodies, including those providing alternative provision for pupils, of the inspection.
The Department for Education have produced a leaflet for schools listing information and documents that inspectors will need to see before and during the inspection. You can read this - Here
Inspectors will look at Ofsted Parent View to see the views of parents. Inspectors will also take into account the results of any past parent surveys, or other surveys, carried out by the school.
*If you are a BounceTogether school, you can run the Ofsted pupil, staff, and parent surveys on our platform, generating comprehensive reports at the touch of a button to share during the inspection.
During an inspection - The inspection will normally last 2 days. Inspections of good primary schools and good or outstanding maintained nursery schools with less than 150 pupils will normally last for 1 day.
Inspectors will spend most of their time observing lessons and gathering evidence.
Inspectors will talk to a range of pupils and staff about important aspects of the school’s work. Inspectors will also take account of external views of the school’s performance. This may include any evaluation of the school’s performance by the local authority. Inspectors will make their final judgements when they have collected and considered all the evidence.
This new Ofsted framework places emphasises on the need for high quality provision through a broad and rich curriculum, which supports the future success of all individuals and focuses on those from disadvantaged backgrounds.
Under the “personal development” judgement area, schools are required to evidence that they are preparing children for further education and life beyond the classroom.
The PSHE curriculum clearly plays a key role, and it is likely that inspectors will want to discuss PHSE education and its contributions. This judgement area highlights resilience, confidence and independence as specific attributes that schools should look to develop.
Schools may have between 2 and 5 “deep dives” in foundation subjects, usually reading, maths, and one other, which can be PSHE!
Deep dives are key elements of the Ofsted inspection framework. They take a detailed look into particular areas of the national curriculum aiming to determine effectiveness and quality.
Inspectors will gather evidence around the Intent, Implementation and Impact of the curriculum. They focus on 6 key areas:
• Evaluation of senior leaders’ intent for the curriculum
• Evaluation of the PSHE Lead’s long-term thinking and planning
• Observation of lessons.
• Scrutiny of books and work
• Discussions with teachers
• Discussions with a pupils
We have worked with a number of schools who have recently experienced an inspection to build a list of questions. Considering your responses to these can help you prepare for similar questions that may be asked during an inspection or “deep dive”.
What curriculum programme do you use - Why was this chosen?
How is the PSHE curriculum adapted to reflect the school’s context and community?
How has the PSHE curriculum been developed in recent years and what hare / have been the benefits of this?
What is profile of PSHE’s profile within the school?
What would you say are the strengths /areas for development?
Download our Ofsted guide for the full list
We have worked with our schools to put together a list of documents and resources that can help evidence the work you are doing in school.
Long term PSHE plans and curriculum overviews
Local data that has informed curriculum design and intent - This could include pupil, staff, and parent surveys and child health data from Public Health England. (You can download an example staff response report - Here)
School prospectus and website to demonstrate the profile of PSHE (Schools using BounceTogether can use the following text on their website to showcase how they are using our platform to drive improvements in mental health and wellbeing - Here)
School Improvement Plan
Intervention Action Plan (You can download a template - Here)
PSHE subject plan or audit
Download our Ofsted guide for the full list
We have put together a short video with Soofia Amin and Adrian Bethune from Kensington Primary and Broughton Junior School. During this they discuss their experience of a recent Ofsted inspection. Our Head of Education, Gemma also explores examples of good practice from some of our other schools who have recently been inspected.
