School interim assessments
These questions answer queries about the interim assessments that were issued to about 1,800 schools in July 2010.
How did Ofsted conduct the interim assessment?
Which schools had an interim assessment?
When did you send out the interim assessment letters?
How many interim assessment letters did you send out?
My school is outstanding and got an interim assessment. When will it be inspected again?
When did you publish the letters to parents and carers on the Ofsted website?
What about special schools and pupil referral units?
Q. What are interim assessments?
A. From September 2009 Ofsted has varied the frequency of schools’ inspections. We now inspect most schools judged good or outstanding at their previous inspection at approximately five-year intervals unless we identify any concerns. To help decide whether we could wait longer than three years before undertaking a full inspection of a good or outstanding school Her Majesty’s Inspectors considered various sources of information about the school’s performance. This is called an interim assessment.
Q. How did Ofsted conduct the interim assessment?
A. The interim assessment took into account the following:
- pupils’ attainment – including the attainment of significant groups of pupils and attainment in core subjects
- pupils’ progress – including the progress made by different groups of pupils
- pupils’ attendance
- any subject or survey inspections carried out by Ofsted since the last section 5 inspection
- any qualifying complaints about the school made by parents or carers
- any other significant issues brought to Ofsted’s attention, for example by the local authority.
Q. Which schools had an interim assessment?
A. Schools that were last inspected in 2006/07 underwent the interim assessment process.
Q. My school was inspected in 2006/07 and judged to be good/outstanding, but we were inspected. Why was that?
A. In 2009/10 we inspected some good and outstanding schools three years after their previous inspection as part of an annual sample to ensure that our inspections cover the full range of school effectiveness. It might be that you were part of this group. In addition, we identified some schools as needing an inspection following our interim assessment.
Q. When did you send out the interim assessment letters?
A. We sent the interim assessment letters to good schools on Friday 9 July 2010. We sent interim assessment letters to outstanding schools on Monday 12 July 2010.
Q. How many interim assessment letters did you send out?
A. We sent out approximately 1,700 interim assessment letters to schools that were judged to be good or outstanding in the academic year 2006/7 whose interim assessment indicated that an inspection was not necessary and which were not included in the annual sample.
Q. My school is outstanding and got an interim assessment. When will it be inspected again?
A. The school’s next inspection will not take place before September 2011, unless there are serious concerns about the school which mean we need to inspect earlier. The timing of subsequent inspections will depend on any changes arising from the Government’s legislative programme.
Q. When did you publish the letters to parents and carers on the Ofsted website?
A. We published them on Wednesday 21 July 2010.
Q. My school was ‘good’ at the last inspection and has received an interim assessment. However we believe we are now ‘outstanding’. Can we request an inspection?
A. If you write to us requesting an inspection, we will forward the name of your school to the staff responsible for planning our provisional programme of school inspections for suggested dates; please send your request to enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk. However, we cannot guarantee that your school will be inspected.
Q. My child’s school has received an interim assessment. However we don’t agree with the judgement and think that there should be an inspection?
A. Ofsted has powers to consider certain complaints, known as ‘qualifying complaints’, about maintained schools where these raise an issue about, for example, the quality of education provided by the school, or the leadership and management of the school. The investigation is used to inform our decision about whether a school requires an inspection.
Ofsted has no power to investigate complaints that do not qualify. However, we will do our best to offer advice about where you can get more help, guidance or support. Information about how to complain to Ofsted can be found on our how to complain page.
Q. What about special schools and pupil referral units?
A. Special schools and pupils referral units that have had two consecutive ‘outstanding’ judgments and no recent change of headteacher have had interim assessments and some have received letters telling them that inspection will be deferred until September 2011 at the earliest. We will be publishing letters to parents and carers on our website at the beginning of the new school year in September 2010.