LSD Inspection Development Project

Workshop on self-assessment using

CIF and new inspection handbook

Sue Preece HMI

NATSPEC Conference

September 14th 2009 QAC, Birmingham

Is your self-assessment report:

a descriptive account of your provision so that an external observer can quickly understand what you do, or

a document which evaluates the quality and effectiveness of every aspect of your provision against the Common Inspection Framework (CIF), and is clearly at the centre of all of quality-improvement activities.

Self-assessment processes should

Cover the common inspection framework

Site robust evidence on which to build clear unambiguous judgements

Include SMART target setting with clear milestones

Be fit for purpose

Etc.. Etc….

Publications to support self-assessment

Ofsted inspects (Ofsted 2009) explains the inspectorate’s requirements for self-assessment or self-evaluation.

Learner-Centred Self Assessment material available on the LSIS website:

www.excellencegateway.org.uk > Ofsted Good Practice Database > Learner-Centred Self Assessment

Limiting contributory grades

Safeguarding

Two judgements on safeguarding will be made: under the leadership and management section and in the staying safe outcome section of all reports.

Equality & diversity

The equality and diversity grade will contribute to and may limit the grade for overall effectiveness

Tasks

Swap SARs with your critical friend. Choose a section from the quality of provision or leadership and management. Consider the evidence presented in the SAR about this particular section and match it to the evaluative statements in your inspection handbook. Complete the worksheet

Use a highlighter pen or pencil to mark all of the judgements, eg. ‘good use of’, ‘effective‘, ‘thorough’, ‘insufficient’, ‘there are no..’, etc..

NB. If the word ‘more’ has been placed in front of a judgement such as ‘effective’, this ceases to be a clear judgement and becomes a statement of relativity. In other words, what was once poor may have improved, but still not be satisfactory.

Tasks - Question & Evaluation

Question

Are the tasks and activities needed to address the issues appropriate and sufficiently detailed?

Evaluation

Targets that are not SMART risk an area for improvement bullet such as ‘poor target setting’.

Tasks - Question & Evaluation

Question

How evaluative is the text?

To be ‘judgement rich’ there should be at least one judgement in almost every sentence:

Judge substantiate

Judge substantiate etc..

Evaluation

Text without judgements is descriptive and you risk an area for improvement bullet such as ‘overly descriptive and insufficiently evaluative self assessment’.

Tasks - Question & Evaluation

Question

Are you confident that the SAR covers the whole of the CIF? Give reasons for your answer:

Evaluation

If your SAR does not cover all aspects of the CIF you risk a range of area for improvement bullets such as

‘insufficiently thorough self-assessment’,

‘insufficient learner engagement’, or whatever the gap may be

Tasks regarding development plans

Question

How does the college intend to monitor the progress of their improvement initiatives throughout the year and determine whether planned actions are leading to improvement?

Evaluation

A well-monitored development plan could lead to a positive judgement about your Capacity to Improve.