The new Ofsted Common Inspection framework 2015

I almost dare not admit that when I get an email from the teaching union I quite often click past it. The themes are often the same "CHANGES", "CUTS", "WORKLOAD".  It's ironic that the reason why I don't pay much attention to these emails that would help me reduce my workload is because I've not got time, due to my workload.

Yesterday I did give a union email a proper read over because it detailed the new Ofsted common inspection framework which, for those of you not in the teach profession or for teachers who have lived under a rock, is the set of rules which the inspecting body Ofsted uses when doing inspections. Ofsted inspections can make or break a school/college and the careers of those within it and are regarded within the teaching arena as being as terrifying as any major surgery and almost as painful.

My college was inspected in September of this year and we were graded as good (without outstanding features) so the new framework is not going to have any immediate impact on me which, I feel is a bit of a shame really as I think it would have meant that we could have delivered an even stronger performance.

The key features of this new framework include:

• The inclusion of early years providers and further education colleges

At least this means that there is some consistency across the whole education sector that there are recognised minimum standards to which everyone complies. Uniformity has got to be a positive.

• Two day inspections

I was in a fortunate position that when we 'got the call' I had got everything for that inspection period Ofsted ready because I knew the call was likely to come. Even so, I still spent hours making tweaks and changes, it meant that every waking hour in the 96 hours notice prior to inspection was taken up with this. Afterwards I was completely exhausted but I would have tinkered and changed for all the time they had allowed me, whether it was 96 minutes, 96 hours or even 96 days, I'd have filled them. An inspection lasting two days is a time period where it is achievable to maintain the sprinting pace you require to do well in this situation. Any longer than this you diminish the quality of the whole inspection. People get tired, their standards slip, they get even more stressed, they get ill. These inspections are to ensure standards and met, not to kill people. 

• Lesson observations will no longer be graded

I have an issue overall with graded observations, it's probably a topic to go into detail at another time. The numbering system is entirely arbitrary, I object to having half of the gradings ("requires improvement" and "inadequate")  being unacceptable. A failing grade is a failing grade, whether you got 39.5% and just missed passing by half a percent or whether you absolutely bombed and got 0%, you failed to meet the standard, they are the same.

I also feel that the fear of the grade means that teachers (me included) don't perform as well as they can because of performance anxiety. I also know that colleagues who don't get a 2 (good) or higher in an Ofsted observation believe that they have ruined their school or colleges chances in that inspection, and I do understand why they feel like this. One teacher in one lesson on one day does not make a school or college good, neither does it make it bad.

• Colleges will be inspected by type of learning rather than subject sector areas

Colleges especially will group subjects together in ways that they fit with their regime. The subject sector area that law falls into is business, administration and law meaning we would be inspected with business which currently makes sense because we are in a department with business,  but from next year we are being move in with RS, history and psychology. What this change means is that areas that are grouped together will be regarded together which makes so much more sense.

• Outstanding providers will not be inspected unless Ofsted feel it is necessary

What this will mean is that the trigger for an inspection will be an event or series of events, rather than "well it's been four years, they must be coming then". The impact should be that schools and colleges can't become complaisant because they know that the moment to results drop or they stop doing the amazing things which made them outstanding in the first place, they will be back. I do wonder about tactics which will be employed to keep them away, surely every system is vulnerable to abuse in one form or another and this is where Ofsted is most at risk I believe.

I'm in a minority of teachers who believe that Ofsted is a useful tool and the best way to maintain high standards across the profession. Overall, I think these changes are overwhelmingly positive, they remove some of the drawbacks such as graded observations and should help Ofsted become even more relevant and useful in the sector.