Six Months Later: What we are learning about the new inspection framework
This week marks the half-year anniversary of the introduction into inspection practice of Ofsted’s new inspection framework. SSAT’s Inspection Tracker is the most thorough attempt to get under the bonnet of the inspection process. This short post identifies what appear to be consistent patterns and established trends within the data, and notices microtrends that potentially show how the new framework is evolving in response to actual inspections.
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The reach of a Lead Practitioner – moving beyond school-wide impact to multi-academy trust and international influence
Being a Lead Practitioner is about more than strong classroom practice; it’s about using that expertise to improve teaching and learning at scale. Verity Merryweather reflects on her journey as a newly accredited LP.
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Blowing Hot and Cold: The New Ofsted Framework and the Challenge of Leading on Behaviour
Analysis of inspection reports since 2023 indicates Ofsted’s growing ambivalence toward behaviour. While attendance dominates the joint judgement area, low behavior coverage masks serious risks for schools issued specific "next steps."
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Global connectivity: Introducing Mandarin Chinese in your school
In England, schools are engaging with the Department for Education’s Consultation on Progress 8 and Attainment 8, as well as dealing with significant financial constraints. What do our children need? This blog post makes a case for Mandarin Chinese (Mandarin), giving a run through of the support available and catching up with a teacher from a language college, who taught Mandarin there for 23 years.
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Spotlight on FEA Innovation: building whole-school cultures of body respect
The Body Happy Schools programme shows how a whole-school focus on body respect positively impacts on inclusion, pupil wellbeing, and school culture.
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Developing and supporting PLACE
The Tees Valley Education Trust explain how they have been putting place-based collaboration into action, connecting schools, families, and communities to address disadvantage.
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Attendance and the new Ofsted Framework: Some emergent insights
The new Ofsted framework promised to focus on inclusion. Achieving, belonging and thriving sit at the heart of the new inspection processes. As the most critical facet of inclusion, attendance should be reflected in the reality of school’s experiences of inspection, not just the rhetoric.
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Essential For Some, Beneficial For All
Research shows it is essential for students with Speech Language and Communication Needs (SLCN) to be explicitly taught tier 2 and tier 3 vocabulary, yet this is a strategy that all students benefit from: if we want our students to confidently speak like scientists, linguists, mathematicians, artists, musicians, historians, we must provide them with the vocabulary to do so.
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Bishopshalt School and St Louis Grammar School – ‘Transforming’ in all 12 strands of SSAT’s Framework for Exceptional Education
Congratulations to the teams at Bishopshalt School in London and St Louis Grammar School in Ballymena, who have become the latest two Leading Edge schools to successfully achieve ‘transforming’ status in all 12 strands of the SSAT Framework for Exceptional Education. St Louis are the first school in Northern Ireland to achieve accreditation in all 12 strands.
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