Ofsted has set out a new five year strategy (external link) based around the principle of being “a force for improvement through intelligent, responsible and focused inspection and regulation”.
The key points for schools are that Ofsted will work to:
- understand the consequences of inspection, its impact on workload, mitigate against perverse incentives and “not allow leaders to misrepresent Ofsted policy as a way to justify bad practice”;
- ensure that inspection feedback is constructive and create more opportunities for schools to provide feedback and challenge;
- survey and inspect more ‘outstanding’ schools in order to spread good practice (this may mean increasing the interval between inspection of good schools);
- develop new approaches and expertise to inspect new structures such as multi-academy trusts.