From the end of this month, schools will be asked to open their doors to an Ofsted inspection team.

These new visits are taking place to look at how pupils are being supported back to full-time education following the partial closure of schools in March because of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Here is a comprehensive guide to what schools should expect if Ofsted calls.

Exclusive: Stop Ofsted for a year or more say teachers

Visits: Inspectors will not be judging how well schools meet Covid-19 guidelines

Concerns: Ofsted visits can be turned into an inspection 

Why are these visits taking place?

Ofsted has said these interim visits to schools are being carried out to reassure and inform parents, government and the public about how schools are managing the return to full education for all pupils following the Covid-19 lockdown earlier this year.

In their latest guidance, the watchdog says: “Interim visits will help parents and the public to understand how individual schools are returning to the school’s normal curriculum.”

The inspectorate has also said that it will use its findings to report back to the education secretary on the picture across the country.

How will they differ from routine inspections?

Ofsted has said it is not coming to pass judgement on a school. Its inspectors will not be using the normal school inspection framework and there will not be a graded judgement or an inspection report afterwards. Ofsted will, however, publish a letter after the visit detailing the discussions inspectors had with school leaders.

Ofsted has also said that schools do not need to prepare any documentation specifically for the visit nor do schools need to prepare a self-evaluation.

However, if Ofsted has significant concerns about safeguarding or a breakdown in school leadership, it can convert the visit into a “no formal designation” inspection of a school. If this happens, Ofsted would produce a more detailed letter about its findings afterwards.

How will the new visits work?

Ofsted’s new interim visits will take a day. Schools will be given a day’s notice that the watchdog is coming in the following morning.

During a call to notify the school, the lead inspector will discuss the context of the school, including “its current circumstances in light of Covid-19. They will also discuss the protective measures in place at the school and its policy for visitors.

On the day of the visit, inspectors will not normally arrive before 10am or leave after 4pm.

School leaders can request a deferral of these visits but Ofsted has said that it will not normally consider these requests if they come after 4.30pm on the day the school was notified.

What will Ofsted want to talk about?

Inspectors will look at the barriers that a school has faced, or are facing, in managing the return to full education for all pupils.

The inspectorate has said it will also look at how leaders are ensuring that pupils resume learning the school’s curriculum, including contingency planning for the use of remote education as well as the use of catch-up funding.

And the visits will explore how pupils are settling back into expected routines and behaviour, including regular attendance.

It will also look at whether any identified and specific issues related to special educational needs, disabilities, health, care, and wellbeing issues for particular groups of pupils are being addressed.

Who will they want to talk to?

The inspectorate has said that conversations with senior leaders will be the main source of information it collects.

Inspectors will not visit lessons or look at pupils’ work. They could, however, speak to staff and pupils if the headteacher agrees that it would be safe and appropriate to do so.

Ofsted has also said that inspectors will not routinely meet with governors, trustees, multi-academy trust leaders or local authorities as part of these visits. However, if any of these wish to speak to inspectors,  they “will try to accommodate a brief conversation”.

What does Ofsted not need to see?

The watchdog has said that it will not require any pre-written planning, self-evaluation or other documentation.

It will also not require teachers to prepare any lesson plans or examples of assessment nor to put up any displays for the visit.

The visits will also not involve a general review of a school’s policies. And the visits are not compliance checks on how well schools are meeting government guidelines for reopening.

And, perhaps most significantly for schools, Ofsted has said it will not be evaluating what leaders did during the spring and summer term of 2020 during the school’s initial response to the Covid-19 crisis.

How will Ofsted choose which schools to visit?

Ofsted has said that it will be visiting around 1,200 schools across all Ofsted inspection grades, but that all schools currently rated as “inadequate” would be on the list.

It has said the visits will include maintained schools, academies and free schools, special schools and centres of alternative provision.

And it will be visiting schools in cities and coastal, town or rural communities.

The post-visit letter: what, when and why?

Ofsted will produce a published letter detailing the conversations it has had with senior leaders. This will be published on the inspectorate’s reports website but will not include any graded judgement.

The inspectorate has said it will send a draft letter to the school within 18 days. Schools will then get five days to comment on the draft.

Schools will get a copy of the final letter within 30 days of the visit and will have five working days in which to complain.

All of this means that the letter should be published within 38 days of the visit taking place - unless a complaint is being investigated.

The letter is designed to “provide parents with information about what leaders are doing to help pupils back into full-time education.”

Do education trade unions support these new visits?

In a word: no. Three union leaders have voiced strong criticism of the plans this week. The general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders Geoff Barton has said that Ofsted’s decision to publish a letter at the end of the process will make these visits feel “like inspection by another name.”

These concerns were echoed by Mary Bousted, the joint general secretary of the NEU teaching union, who said the visits “will be a distraction for schools rather than a support”. “Publishing the Ofsted letter will make it look and feel like an inspection visit even if it’s not one,” she added.

And Nick Brook, the deputy general secretary of the NAHT school leaders’ union, has said that as only 5 per cent of schools will receive a visit, there is a major question about how much reassurance they will actually provide to parents. 

When will normal Ofsted inspections resume?

The guidance from the inspectorate has said that it will carry out these new visits from 28 September until the end of the autumn term this December.

The inspectorate plans to return to full inspection in January 2021. But this date is being kept under review.

A survey of teachers carried out by Tes suggests the vast majority of the profession does not want inspections to start again until next September at the earliest.