Diocesan Inspection
Guidance for Schools
September 2015
Contents
Contents
Introduction
Section One: Guidance
Part One: Framework and schedule
Framework
Inspection schedule
Schools exempt under S5
Inspection deferral
Inspection rescheduling
Part Two: Pre-inspection
Inspection notice
Self-evaluation
The DSEF Toolkit and the DSEF
Preparing the school for Diocesan Inspection
Part Three: During inspection
Lesson observations and feedback
Joint lesson observations
Guidance on Inspecting Curriculum Provision
Responding to inspectors’ requests
Feedback at the end of inspection
Evaluating Progress in Primary Schools
Part Four: Post-inspection
Receiving the report
Post Inspection Survey
Appeals
Acting on the report
Schools receiving “Requires Improvement” or “Inadequate” grade
Section Two: Appendices
Appendix 1: Pre-inspection timeline
Appendix 2: Post-inspection timeline (without appeal)
Appendix 3: Post-inspection timeline (with appeal)
Appendix 4: Annotated ADDR Samples
Primary
Secondary
Appendix 5: Diocesan Self Evaluation Form
Appendix 6: Documentation required for inspection
Appendix 7: The post-inspection survey
Appendix 8: Timetablefor Inspection
Primary
Secondary
Appendix 9: The Code of Canon Law
Appendix 10:EducationAct 2005
Appendix 11:Extract from the Curriculum Directory
Introduction
Every Catholic school of whatever kind is subject to a Diocesan Inspection. This inspection is required and regulated by canon law.[1]Voluntary Aided (VA) Catholic schools are also subject to a statutory inspection of denominational education and collective worship under section 48 (S48) of the Education Act 2005. Catholic Academies are subject to a denominational inspection which is regulated by the Academy Funding Agreement for each academy. For all Catholic VA schools and Academies, the Diocesan Inspection outcome and report will serve as either the S48 outcome and report in the case of a VA school, or as the inspection outcome and report required by the Academy Funding Agreement. In short, all Catholic schools of whatever kind will be subject to both S5 and Diocesan inspections.
H&N Diocesan Inspection Guidance for Schools. September 2015
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Section One: Guidance
Part One: Framework and schedule
The Diocesan Inspection of a schoolprovides an independent external evaluation of its effectiveness as a provider of Catholic education and a diagnosis of what it should do to improve, based upon a range of evidence, including that from first-hand observation by inspectors. As a result, a Diocesan Inspection provides parents/carers and the diocese with information about the quality of its Catholic Life, Collective Worship and Religious Education. Diocesan Inspection, therefore, complements Section 5 (S5) inspections, but should be seen as dealing with matters fundamental to the Catholic school which are not inspected in the S5 inspection.
Framework
During a Diocesan Inspection, three headline judgements will summarise the quality of:
- Catholic Life (CL)
- Collective Worship (CW)
- Religious Education (RE)
For each of these areas of school life, three judgements will be made. Each headline judgement will be informed by the quality of the following in each distinctive area of school life:
- Pupil Outcomes (1)
- Provision (2)
- Leadership and Management (3)
The school will also be given an overall judgement of the quality of Catholic education in that school. This grade will be a summary of the three headline judgements.
In summary, the shape of the Diocesan Inspection framework is:
- The overall effectiveness of the school in providing Catholic education
- The quality of the Catholic Life of the School
CL1.The extent to which pupils contribute to and benefit from the Catholic Life of the school.
CL2.The quality of provision for the Catholic Life of the school
CL3.How well leaders and managers promote, monitor and evaluate the provision for the Catholic Life of the school.
- The quality of Collective Worship
CW1.How well pupils respond to and participate in the school’s Collective Worship
CW2.The quality of Collective Worship provided by the school
CW3.How well leaders and managers promote, monitor and evaluate the provision for Collective Worship
- The quality of Religious Education
RE1.How well pupils achieve and enjoy their learning in Religious Education
RE2.The quality of teaching and assessment in Religious Education
RE3.How well leaders and managers monitor and evaluate the provision for Religious Education
Each judgement will be graded according to the following scale:
1 – Outstanding
2 – Good
3 – Requires Improvement
4 – Inadequate
Inspection schedule
Diocesan inspections are scheduled independently from S5 inspections and usually occur according to the following intervals:
- For a school which was judged good or outstanding in its last Diocesan Inspection, an inspection will usually occur in the fifth school year following the school year in which they were last inspected.
- For a school which was judged to be less than good in its last Diocesan Inspection, an inspection will usually occur in the third school year following the school year in which they were last inspected. In all cases inspection will happen no later than the fifth year in which the school was last inspected.
Whilst these are the usual intervals for inspection, the bishop has the canonical right to call a Diocesan Inspection of any Catholic school at any time.
Schools exempt under S5
Schools exempt from S5 inspection are not exempt from Diocesan Inspection and will be inspected according to the principles laid out above.
Inspection deferral
Schools will not usually be able to defer an inspection that the diocese has scheduled. However, there are a limited number of circumstances in which a decision can be taken that an inspection should not go ahead on the planned dates. The diocesan policy is that deferral or cancellation should only be granted if:
- An Ofsted inspection is announced to occur on one or both of the days already scheduled for a Diocesan Inspection. In such a case, a school may decide not to defer the inspection but should they request deferral it would be granted.
- The school has experienced a recent major incident, such as a fatal accident to a pupil or member of staff.
- The school is closed to all pupils – for example, owing to a staff training day or adverse weather conditions – for at least half of the period for which the inspection has been scheduled.
- At least three quarters of the pupils will not be at school – for example, owing to a school trip– for at least half of the period for which the inspection has been scheduled.
Applications to defer a planned inspection on the grounds that the headteacher is out of school for reasons other than those stated above will not be accepted as pupils at the school are still receiving education.
Inspection rescheduling
In the event that an inspector who is scheduled to carry out a Diocesan Inspection discovers that the school for which they are responsible is due to undergo an Ofsted inspection, then the Ofsted inspection will take precedence. In this case the planned Diocesan Inspection would be cancelled and rescheduled.
Part Two: Pre-inspection
Inspection notice
A school will be informed that it is to receive a Diocesan Inspection five working days prior to the beginning of the inspection.
Self-evaluation
Regular self-evaluation of the quality of Catholic education should be an integrated feature of whole school self-evaluation processes and should be ongoing. Self-evaluation should not be seen as something which is done in order to prepare for inspection. It will include the use of such things as the DSEF Toolkit and the updating of school SIPs and associated action plans. This is an ordinary expectation of school management and is not required specifically to prepare for inspection.
However, the diocese does require the submission of a Diocesan Self Evaluation Form (DSEF) prior to inspection (seeAppendix 5: Diocesan Self Evaluation Form). This will be requested during the initial pre-inspection contact with the school and should be sent to the inspector in accordance with the timings laid out in Appendix 1: Pre-inspection timeline. Therefore, whilst this document is only requested prior to inspection, schools should prepare it annually so that it is ready to send to an inspector upon request.
The DSEF Toolkit and the DSEF
In order to assist schools in the process of self-evaluating a tool kit has been produced by the diocese. This is available to download from the diocesan website. It is designed as an electronic document which will lead schools through a detailed self-evaluation process.
The DSEF Toolkit has been designed to assist schools but there is no obligation to use it. The Toolkit is entirely intended for school use and should not be sent to an inspector prior to inspection. It must not be submitted in place of the DSEF.
Preparing the school for Diocesan Inspection
After the school has been contacted by the inspector, a head teacher must ensure:
- That the correct documentation has been sent to the inspector without delay. A list of the documentation to be requested is given in Appendix 6: Documentation required for inspection.
- That the documentation requested to be made available during inspection is available. See Appendix 6: Documentation required for inspection
- That the timetable of meetings is populated
- That the school timetable is arranged to allow for an inspector to observe teaching in RE and the celebration of collective worship
Part Three: During inspection
Lesson observations and feedback
In line with Ofsted policy, lesson grades will not be given. Judgements on the quality of teaching and learning will be informed by synthesizing a wide range of evidence, including: observations, pupil outcomes in RE, work scrutiny, pupil interviews.
Again, in line with Ofsted, feedback to staff will be given upon request but only for those observations which have been longer than 20 minutes and then only in terms of the strengths and weaknesses of what was observed. Feedback is not a dialogue and is not an opportunity to influence the opinion of the inspector but merely an opportunity for teachers to receive some indication of the inspector’s observations of teaching and learning.
Joint lesson observations
Headteachers maybe invited to join the inspector for joint lesson observations. If joint observations are a feature of the inspection, then the focus of the observation becomes the headteacher’s judgment as well as the quality of teaching and learning in the lesson itself.If joint observations are to be undertaken, the lead inspector and headteacher should agree which lessons to select.
After a joint observation, the inspector and headteacher or member of senior staff should discuss their views about the quality of teaching and learning observed in the lesson. If the headteacher or member of senior staff offers a written record, the inspector can look at this. Any differences in the analysis of the lesson and the judgements made will be explored.
Prior to offering any feedback, the inspector and headteacher or member of senior staff should discuss their observations and findings and agree how the feedback to the teacher should be managed. The head teacher should provide the feedback and inspectors will observe the member of staff offering feedback to the observed teacher in order to inform the inspection judgement on leadership and management.
Guidance on Inspecting Curriculum Provision
Inspectors will check that the school complies with the requirements of the Bishops’ Conference that there should be 10% of the taught week allocated to Religious Education except in the sixth form where there should be 5% of the taught week allocated tocore Religious Education for all registered students, including those who are studying an A Level in Religious Studies.
Inspectors will determine whether or not Religious Education is given core subject status; that is, whether it has parity in terms of curriculum time, capitation and staffing. If not, this will be reflected in the report. Any disparity in status and provision will impact negatively on a judgement about leadership of RE as outlined in the schedule.
Responding to inspectors’ requests
During the course of an inspection an inspector should be feeding back regularly to the head teacher and may well ask for additional evidence to be made available. This is an opportunity for a school to demonstrate that its self-evaluation is accurate and it is in the best interests of a school to make all relevant evidence available for the inspector. Evidence cannot be considered after inspection which was not presented during the inspection
Feedback at the end of inspection
At the end of the inspection feedback will be given on the main conclusions of the inspection to the headteacher, curriculum leader for RE and chair of governors. It is also appropriate for other senior leaders and governors to attend this feedback upon request.
Any judgments shared are provisional and subject to monitoring and quality assurance by the Diocese. All judgments are therefore indicative rather than final. These initial judgements are confidential and must not be reported or shared until after publication of the report.
Evaluating Progress in Primary Schools
In the absence of a reliable benchmark against which to judge progress, inspectors of primary schools are advised to make a close scrutiny of lessons and books in order to arrive at a judgement about the quality of progress within lessons and over time.
Progress in lessons
Progress within lessons will be judged by inspectors in the usual way, taking account of the following indicators:
- Behaviour for learning
- Engagement of children
- Appropriate questioning
- Use of assessment for learning
- Differentiation
- Appropriate level of challenge
- Independent learning
These generic criteria will form the basis of the Diocesan inspector’s judgement of progress within RE lessons.
Progress over time
In order to make a robust judgement of progress over time, during inspection:
- Inspectors will carry out work scrutiny of books in early years, year 1, year 3 and year 5. The focus will be differentiation, quantity of work, standard of marking, standards of work.
- Inspectors will carry out focused scrutiny of a book from each of years 2, year 4, and year 6. The focus will be progress over time. With regards to this focused scrutiny, it is recommended that:
- the school annotates the year 2, 4 and 6 books with post-it notes highlighting the progress made by the pupil across an academic year;
- the year 2, 4 and 6 teachers each have a 10 minute progress meeting with the inspector to talk through the evidence;
- for new teachers, and perhaps in all cases, it would be helpful if the RE coordinator was also able to attend this progress meeting;
- in the case of mixed age classes, the books from pupils who are in years 2,4 and 6 will be the focus of this closer scrutiny;
- in schools which have more than one form of entry, a year 2, 4 and 6 sample will be taken from each class in these year groups, not just from each year group.
- It is expected that for an inspection which occurs in the autumn term that books from the previous academic year will be kept by the school to provide the inspector with evidence of progress over time.
The inspectors will use lesson observations, attainment data, and child discussion to make a judgement of progress of different groups eg SEN, Pupil Premium.
Part Four: Post-inspection
Receiving the report
A version of the report called the Pre-Publication Draft(PPD) will be sent to the school within fifteen working days following the end of the Diocesan Inspection.
At this point the school checks for factual inaccuracies. If any are found the diocese is to be informed without delay.
At this point also a school may consider challenging the judgements by lodging an appeal. Please see below for the appeal process.
If no appeal is lodged and all factual inaccuracies are corrected then the final report will be published within twenty working days of the end of the inspection and sent to the school for distribution.
Post Inspection Survey
A post-inspection surveywill be sent with the final report. See Appendix 7: The post-inspection survey. This should be completed and returned to the diocese within ten working days of the end of the inspection.
Appeals
If a school wishes to challenge the inspection judgements, then they must inform the diocese of this within two working days of receiving the PPD. The school should then submit an Inspection Appeal Form (available upon request from the diocese) within five working days of receiving the PPD. The diocese will respond to the appeal within ten days of its submission.
The school may only challenge judgements, not how those judgements are expressed. The diocesan decision following an appeal is final and the publication of the full report will follow.
Acting on the report
Once a report has been received, the school must publish the report on its website and share its findings with parents. This can be done by referring parents to the website but hard copies should be made available on request.
The governors will then need to ensure that the findings of the report are acted upon in a timely manner.
Schools receiving “Requires Improvement” or “Inadequate” grade
Schools which are judged to be less than good will be supported by the diocesan education advisers to respond to the report and to bring about the necessary improvements through the implementation of a jointly agreed action plan.
Section Two: Appendices
Appendix 1: Pre-inspection timeline
Working day / Headteacher / DDfE / Inspector / ModeratorPre:1 / Contacts inspector and moderator to inform them of the name of the school to be inspected / Plans a time to make initial contact with the school which will occur no sooner than diocesan notification of the school and no later than two days following this. Initial contact with moderator to agree availability post-inspection / Initial contact with inspector to agree availability post-inspection
Pre:2
Pre:3
Pre:4
Pre:5
Pre:6 / The headteacher informs the chair of governors, school staff and parents of the arrangements for the school’s Diocesan Inspection /
- Headteacher notified of the inspection, and details of the Inspector(s)
- Pre-inspection paper work and contracts sent out to inspectors and schools
- Contact inspector and moderator to share contact details of each with the other