Arrangements for inspecting independent special schools and grant-aided schools

• Arrangements for inspecting schools
• Being ready for inspection
• Briefing for headteachers
• Guidance on issuing pre-inspection questionnaires
• Briefings for parents and Parent Councils

Arrangements for inspecting schools

Through inspection, His Majesty’s Inspectors (HMI) aim to promote improvement and successful innovation that enhances learners' experiences as well as providing assurance to stakeholders. HMI focus on the quality of children and young people's learning and outcomes, and the school’s capacity to improve.

HMI evaluate how well a school is performing in a range of areas. They use quality indicators (QIs) from How good is our school? (4th edition). Where the special school has an early learning and childcare (ELC) setting, HMI evaluate performance in the ELC setting using the quality improvement framework for the early learning and childcare sectors.

HMI complete inspections using QI 2.3 learning, teaching and assessment and QI 3.1 ensuring wellbeing, equality and inclusion.

Partnership working with the Care Inspectorate

Some inspections of ELC settings within special schools are undertaken by both the Care Inspectorate and HMIE. These are called shared inspections. Where a shared inspection takes place, this will be carried out by inspectors from both the Care Inspectorate and HMIE at the same time. Where a shared inspection takes place in the ELC setting, the evaluations of both organisations will be included in the final letter and report to parents.

Being ready for inspection

​Briefing the inspection team on the establishment’s view of its improvement through self-evaluation

Inspection provides the opportunity for special schools to show that they know themselves well and that they are using self-evaluation to focus on improving outcomes for all children and young people. 

Before the inspection, the headteacher is asked to complete a brief self-evaluation summary form in consultation with staff and the proprietor. 

At the start of the inspection, senior leaders are invited to use the completed self-evaluation summary form to brief the inspection team on the impact of the approaches to improvement through self-evaluation. Senior leaders should set aside approximately one hour for an introductory meeting on the first day of the inspection for this purpose. It is important in this discussion, that senior leaders focus on the outcomes for all learners who attend the establishment. This meeting will be the start of an ongoing dialogue with the inspection team about the establishment’s performance and approaches to improvement.

This initial meeting should focus on:

• giving a clear overview of the establishment’s strengths and aspects for improvement
• demonstrating where the school is improving and how staff know
• identifying the sources of evidence which underpin staff knowledge of the school's performance and
• improvement, and making these available
• showing how staff prioritise areas for improvement

Improving through self-evaluation

Senior leaders and staff are most likely to use How good is our school? (4th edition) and/or the quality improvement framework for the early learning and childcare sectors to support self-evaluation. These documents outline the six-point scale used to grade quality indicators (QIs). HMI ask that senior leaders and staff provide their own school evaluations against the six-point scale in the self-evaluation pro-forma and return the prof-forma with the pre-inspection documents prior to the start of the inspection.

Briefing for headteachers

Throughout the inspection, HMI will engage senior leaders and staff in professional dialogue with the aim of supporting improvement.

The advice and support materials below have been designed to help senior leaders to prepare for the inspection and to outline the kinds of activities which will take place during the inspection. It aims to answer some of the questions staff may have regarding the inspection.

Briefing note for headteachers

This briefing note aims to help staff to understand the special school inspection process.

Self-evaluation summary form

An inspection begins with an introductory meeting which builds on the school's own self-evaluation. Discussion with inspection teams focuses on how self-evaluation is leading to improvement. HMI use the evidence the school provides in the self-evaluation summary form as a focus for these discussions.

Child protection and safeguarding self-evaluation form

This form is used to record information about child protection and safeguarding. Headteachers are asked to return this with the pre-inspection documents. The Managing Inspector (MI) and/or delegated team member will discuss the information provided in this form with relevant staff during the inspection.

 

Guidance on issuing pre-inspection questionnaires

Headteacher guide for issuing pre-inspection questionnaires

An important aspect of inspection is for stakeholders to be given the opportunity to provide their views of the school. To gather the views of children, young people, parents, staff and partners, HMI ask the headteacher to direct stakeholders to a pre-inspection questionnaire. A sample of the questionnaires can be found below. 

 

 

Within the email notifying the headteacher of the inspection, there are a number of links to online surveys which hold the pre-inspection questionnaires. The questionnaires are issued to the following groups of people. 

Learners

All learners from P4 and above should be sent the survey link. The learner pre-inspection questionnaire is not required for early learning and childcare classes or children in P1 to P3. School staff should ensure that learners have privacy to complete the questionnaires. Learners should be reassured that once they have completed the survey, no-one in the school will see their answers. All responses will be treated in confidence unless they raise issues about the safety or health and wellbeing of children, young people or staff in the school. In such instances, HMI will talk to the learner and pass their concern to someone who can help. Where required, those learners who require additional support with their learning should be helped to complete the survey, while respecting their privacy.

Parents

All parents should receive the link to the pre-inspection questionnaire. Parents may complete a pre-inspection questionnaire for each of their children attending the school or nursery class being inspected. The pre-inspection questionnaire asks parents to indicate if they are providing one response only or if they are providing one response for each of their children who attend the school.

As part of the inspection, a member of the inspection team will meet with a range of stakeholders. Parents are asked within the pre-inspection questionnaire to indicate if they would like to meet with a member of the inspection team and, if so, to provide their contact details. The inspection administrator will contact a sample of those parents who have indicated they would like to meet with a member of the team and invite them to the meeting.

Staff

All staff should receive the link the to the pre-inspection questionnaire. HMIE have created pre-inspection questionnaires for the following broad groupings. A survey link will be provided for each of the following staffing groups:

• school support staff
• teachers
• pupil support staff
• all staff practitioners in ELC settings

Partners

HMIE define partners within How good is our school? (4th edition) and the Quality improvement framework for the early learning and childcare sectors to include all individuals or organisations that deliver learning and contribute to the life and work of the school/ELC setting. This may include community learning and development services, colleges, universities, employers, third sector, community organisations and libraries. All those who work in partnership with the school and/or ELC setting should be sent the link to the pre-inspection questionnaire.

Distributing the links

Headteachers should use their established methods of communication to inform stakeholders of the inspection. They should direct them to the information that is available from the HMIE website and provide the appropriate link to the pre-inspection questionnaire. When sharing these links, include the date the survey will close.

Headteachers are best placed to know the most effective ways of communicating and engaging with their stakeholders to ensure that as many as possible can provide their views about the school or ELC setting. HMI have found that some schools and ELC settings have, in addition to sending the links digitally, opened their doors to parents so that they can use the school’s devices to complete the pre-inspection questionnaires. For example, some schools invite parents to use the library and ICT suite facilities and others invite parents to complete the pre-inspection questionnaire during a parents’ school event. 

HMI recognise that schools and nursery classes will want to encourage as many of their stakeholders as possible to complete the pre-inspection questionnaire. To aid with this, the inspection administrator can provide headteachers with a regular update on responses rates. Where, for example, the response rates are lower for a particular stakeholder group headteachers can then send another communication which reminds and encourages more responses.

What HMIE does with the information gathered

HMI use an online survey tool, provided by Formic, which holds pre-inspection questionnaires and responses. 

Formic follows some of the principles of the W3C Web Content Accessibility Guidelines. Assistance may be required for those who use screen readers or keyboard-only controls.

If stakeholders wish to increase font size to help them complete the survey, it is best to use the browser controls. For example, Internet Explorer offers options to increase text size via the view menu.

It is important that HMIE protect the information gathered through the pre inspection questionnaires and that stakeholders understand how HMIE will do this.

HMIE will protect questionnaire responses in the following ways:

• Individual responses will not be identified when the information is used for statistical purposes.
• Headteachers will receive a summary of the responses only where at least ten people have responded.
• Individual views remain confidential, unless they raise specific issues, for example in relation to child protection. In these circumstances, comments would be shared with headteachers and appropriate agencies.
• HMIE will then store responses confidentially on secure servers for a period of five years.
• Personal information will not be shared with any other third-party organisation and will only be used for the purpose it was obtained in accordance with the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) and the Data Protection Act 2018. HMIE are also subject to the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002. Further information on privacy is available on our website.
• Summarised Inspection Findings and the analysis of the pre-inspection questionnaire responses are also published on the HMIE website.

Briefings for parents and Parent Councils

​Support and advice for the chairperson of the parent council

Gathering the views of parents is important during the inspection of a school or ELC setting (the term 'parents' should be taken to include foster carers, residential care staff and carers who are relatives or friends). HMI consider these views carefully as part of the evidence during the inspection. They want to know what the chairperson of the Parent Council, thinks about the school and how it is doing. A member of the inspection team will arrange to meet with the chairperson of the Parent Council, as well as other parents, during the inspection. Parents of learners accessing Gaelic Medium Education should be invited to meet with the inspection team when this specialist provision is offered.

Parent Councils do not have a legislative role in early learning and childcare settings. However, Parent Council members will be interested in all learners and all aspects of the work of the school and ELC setting.

This section aims to help parents to understand the inspection of a primary school and, where relevant, a nursery class.

Briefing for parents

This section aims to help parents to understand the inspection of a special school.

What happens in the inspection of your child’s special school?

Your child’s special school is to have an inspection to find out how well your child is being educated and looked after. HMI will take account of the type and nature of the school and its children and young people’s needs. The inspection will be carried out by a team which may comprise of HMI, Associate Assessors, Assistant Inspectors, and a Lay Member working for HMIE. Where there is an ELC setting, there will also be dedicated team members for the ELC inspection. In schools where there is Gaelic Medium Education, there will be specialist inspectors for Gaelic on the team. 

The letter published following the inspection will highlight what the school does well and where it needs to improve.

Before the inspection

You will receive a pre-inspection questionnaire so that HMI can find out what you think about the school. Staff, partners and children and young people from P4-S6 will also be invited to complete a questionnaire.

All individual responses will be treated in confidence unless they raise concerns about the wellbeing of children, young people or staff in the school.

Parents are invited to indicate on the pre-inspection questionnaire if they would be available to meet with members of the inspection team during the inspection. The inspection administrator will contact parents to make the necessary arrangements.

During the inspection

During the visit the inspection team:

• will visit classrooms/playrooms, observe learning and talk to staff and children about their learning
• may spend some time looking at your child’s work and reading their reports
• may work with your child as part of a small group or in a classroom/playroom.

After the inspection

At the end of the inspection or review, HMI will share the findings with the school and agree any follow up activity. The inspection team will publish a letter for parents on the HIME website. Summarised Inspection Findings and the analysis of the pre-inspection questionnaire responses are also published on the HMIE website.

Where HMI have confidence in the work of the school and are confident that the school has the capacity to continue to improve, no more visits are made in connection with the inspection. In some cases, HMI will carry out a further inspection to support staff in making improvements.