Readiness for Inspection: Lessons from 2023-24

SSAT has tracked every “need to improve” bullet point made in every Ofsted inspection conducted in schools and colleges since September. The results are fascinating.

They indicate what leaders in different settings might expect from the inspection process as well as demonstrating how inspection teams are making sense of turbulent times.

In this webinar, we will share our insights about the year that has passed and to explore the data with you for potential indications of what to expect in the year to come.

Is your school in the inspection window? Have you wondered what inspection reports tell us beyond “X% of schools are now good or outstanding”? Would it help your preparations to know what’s hot and what’s not in terms of inspection findings this year?

This webinar is recommended for:

• School and college leaders (from any sector) approaching or within the inspection window.
• Governors, trustees, MAT leaders and LA advisors seeking to support schools and colleges.
• Anyone interested in making sense of large datasets and/or the inspection service.

In 2023-24, between 12 September and 12 June, Ofsted inspection teams have written more than 8,500 bullet points explaining what individual schools and colleges “need” to do to “improve”. At SSAT we have been tracking and analysing every single one of these statements to identify patterns and trends.

In this webinar, we will share our insights from this incredibly rich source of data about the state of English schools and colleges (and of our inspection service). The session will explore:

• Headlines: What SSAT’s Inspection Tracker dataset tells us about the improvement needs of schools and colleges, generally and by the different elements of the inspection framework.
• Sector needs: How these main improvement needs vary for primaries, secondaries, through schools, special schools, pupil referral units, sixth forms and independent schools.
• Risk factors: What the main challenges are for schools and colleges at each of the four levels of inspection grading and for schools that are improving or declining in terms of these gradings.
• Emergent trends: How improvement needs have evolved month-by-month and how comments from inspection teams have begun to change since the turn of the year.

With both a new chief inspector and a new government in place (barring ongoing coalition discussions) by the time of this event, the webinar will conclude with a discussion of what else we might be expecting from school and college inspections in 2024-25.

Host information

Dr Keven Bartle, Senior Education Lead, SSAT

Keven has been a teacher for almost three decades and was headteacher at a richly diverse secondary school in London for nine years. Through his career, Keven has been committed to the power of education for social justice and transformation, working in schools where staff make a difference to the lives of children, families and communities.

Alex Galvin, Senior Education Lead, SSAT

Alex joined SSAT in 2008 and is now a senior education lead. She runs SSAT’s Leading Edge network, our network for high performing schools, supporting schools to collaborate, innovate and share best practice. Alex also leads on curriculum for SSAT. Prior to joining SSAT, Alex taught for fifteen years in schools in Oxfordshire and Berkshire.

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