Themes across the two questionnaires

Although the questions asked were different, the issues covered by the Children and young people and Stakeholder questionnaires were similar and it is interesting to consider the extent to which the views of children and young people reflected those of the stakeholder respondents.

Stakeholder type	Number	% of stakeholder group respondents
Parent or carer and young people	322	29%
Teacher or other staff	386	34%
Senior leader or manager	322	29%
Local/education authority officer	38	3%
Other	54	5%
Total	1122	100%

One area – and perhaps the strongest area – of clear consensus was around the critical importance of children and young people being involved in the inspection process. This ranged across the preparation, main inspection and post-inspection stages and also extended to the types of approach(es) that should be used. There were references to interactions being engaging, age-appropriate, and natural or informal, with the importance of meeting any specific needs that children or young people have also seen as critical.

All of these aspects were connected to the importance of engagement approaches being inclusive, with a broad range of children or young people having an opportunity to share their views and experiences.

Children and young people tended to prioritise issues connected with what it feels like to be in school and how their school keeps them safe and protected. In terms of issues of most importance, other stakeholders had very similar priorities – ‘relationships and behaviour’ and ‘safeguarding and promoting welfare’ were two of the three issues that were seen as important by almost all of those who responded to the Stakeholder questionnaire.

Overall, there was little in the way of clear consensus around whether using grades helps provide a clear overview of how well a school is doing. Children and young people had quite mixed views on whether it is a good idea for school inspectors to use one-word grades to describe how well their school is doing, and the picture was similar amongst those responding to the Stakeholder questionnaire.

Where a degree of consensus returned was around reporting inspection findings and what should happen next. Children and young people were most likely to think that a video would be the best way for inspectors to tell them how their school is doing. They also thought that, if there were lots of areas that needed to get better, it would be a good idea for inspectors to come back to their school to see if things had improved.

Those responding to the Stakeholder survey were also looking for clarity, and for a focus on strengths as well as areas for development and they were also most likely to think that all schools should receive some form of follow-up after an inspection.