Earlier this month, for the first time in several years, school heads with both the Independent Association of Prep Schools (IAPS) and the HMC (Headmasters’ and Headmistresses’ Conference) came together at the annual conference in Edinburgh.
One session that most heads had circled in their agendas was with Independent Schools Inspectorate (ISI) chief Vanessa Ward, who was going to provide an inspection update and field questions, too.
This was of interest because the proposed new framework, which aims to inspect and judge independent schools through the lens of wellbeing and is now distinctly out of step with Ofsted, has set the hares running.
School inspections based around wellbeing
Disappointingly, Ward never appeared and instead Rhiannon Williams, senior director (safeguarding and legal) at the ISI, was put in front of a largely unsettled and sometimes hostile gathering of heads to answer the questions - not least about the impossibility of framing anything quite so abstract and contested as wellbeing.
In fact, this was one of the more benign challenges from the floor, in response to which Williams said she couldn’t comment as the framework was still in the consultative phase but she tried to reassure everyone that the fundamentals of the inspection are not really changing.
Wellbeing, she explained, is enshrined in the Children’s Act, and has always been part of the inspection process.
This is true and therefore struck many of us as odd because if the underlying regulations have not changed, why then is there the need to put focus on such a nebulous idea? And where does that leave teaching and learning? Doesn’t this all look a bit political and faddish?
What’s more, some schools have inspectors on their teams, and this confers an advantage because they are privy to information not available to the ordinary mortal. Question banks, it seems, are no longer standardised, leaving inspectors to be judge and jury according to the context.
What, asked one head, is the threshold on the number of complaints made by children or parents that might provoke a deep dive? Again, no clear answer, although one head claimed that the 10 per cent rule seems to apply.
We all know vexatious children and parents, said another. Are school heads to be marched to the gallows on the say-so of a spoiled child or an entitled parent?
If things didn’t go well, you’ve now only got two days to get your ducks in a row with the current Independent Schools Inspectorate Complaints Policy stating for the Stage 1 Complaint (Informal) process: ”If you feel the Reporting Inspector was unable to resolve your concerns on inspection, you can tell us by emailing [...] within two term-time working days of the end of the onsite inspection.”
Testing times
With the session over the audience headed for coffee, during which time heads revealed all manner of unpleasant business with the ISI, including uncomfortable moments in verbal feedback when they were made to feel at odds with HQ.
Other heads, currently serving as inspectors, are dragging their heels and not taking up invitations to inspect because they feel uneasy about being aligned with such a muddled and unsupportive inspectorate.
It’s clear that these issues, alongside plans for a wellbeing-centric inspection regime, have left many heads feeling stressed.
The writer is a headteacher at an independent school
