Tell your story. Don’t assume. Focus on the “why”
By Lee Herdman, Principal of Kenyngton Manor Primary School
For me, living through an Ofsted inspection is like being temporarily encased in a bubble. From the moment the call comes to the first good night’s sleep after the inspection, you step into the ‘Ofsted Zone’. You are focused entirely on how you will be representing your school and its community.
Our recent inspection was my first under the new framework. And while there is a high degree of continuity between the old and the new, there are several subtle differences.
To start with, the new framework allows more room for reflection. The old “keep in touch” meetings have been replaced by reflection sessions. There are more opportunities to constructively challenge the inspectors’ emerging conclusions to ensure they can collect evidence of what is ‘typical’.
I was also struck by a genuine commitment to the importance of inclusion and the foundational knowledge needed to ensure children were fully able to access the curriculum. Early Years really mattered and inspectors did their best to examine the breadth of learning and the depth of values across the school.
But make no mistake: inspectors are determined to hold schools to exacting standards. The “expected standard” classification demands more of schools than the “good” rating did under the predecessor framework. “Strong standard” is harder to achieve than “outstanding” used to be. “Exceptional” schools will, quite literally, be few and far between.
By my reckoning, I am one of the first head teachers to experience a new-framework inspection. As we progressed through the two days, I found that three guiding principles were helping to ground and steer me and my team. I thought it would be helpful to share them.
- Signpost evidence of impact. Don’t just assume the facts will speak for themselves. We took every opportunity to direct inspectors towards evidence of impact. It’s easy to assume that something is obvious. We may know the story behind every high‑quality piece of work on display or the strategy behind every calm corridor, but we can’t assume this will be obvious to a visitor. In a packed timetable, anything can be missed. Draw the inspector’s attention to your achievements.
- Ensure all leaders can cover all bases. The new framework expects a lot of the leadership team. Any member can be asked about any aspect of school life, regardless of their specialism. Make sure Early Years are not treated as a silo and that leaders conduct regular learning walks across the school.
- Focus on the “why” more than the “how”. We constantly returned to the “why” behind our decisions. Inspectors weren’t particularly interested in recommending preferred methods. They cared about the rationale and impact. They wanted to know why support staff did what they did, what lay behind unusual patterns in behaviour or progress made, and how specific strategies supported children. We learned not to wait to be asked for our reasoning but to weave it into conversations.
Ofsted describes its new framework as “balanced, developmental and proportionate.” I suspect that those of us in school might be tempted to call it “exacting and exhausting”. Nevertheless, I was struck by a strong sense that inspectors were pressing the right buttons: equity, curriculum in action, foundational knowledge and relationships strong enough to carry honest conversation.
Every inspection will be different, and the framework is bound to evolve. But based on our experience, there is good reason to be cautiously optimistic. If school leaders prepare their teams to signpost impact, speak confidently about all aspects of school life, and articulate the “why” behind their decisions, they will be better placed not just to navigate the new framework, but to use it as a lever for genuine improvement.