What happens after your Ofsted inspection?

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1 Heads Up Special Report: What happens after your Ofsted inspection? Onwards and hopefully upwards But is it always?

2 Well done! You ve been judged as Good by Ofsted I d like to congratulate you for providing such an important level of education to your community. This is no small feat, and I don t underestimate how much work and effort it takes to achieve this; I ve seen many schools working to secure Good at their next inspection and I know it requires a huge amount of dedication by you all. Well done! Congratulations! High fives and big hugs all round! What happens next? Typically, it will be around 3 years until your next inspection. Usually, this three year period will be split into three phases:

3 Phase 1: Bask in your glory Firstly, there s a period of celebration and relief which has definitely been earnt. You ve worked hard to secure a good standard of education for your children, and you should both celebrate and catch your breath for a moment. What s more, the build up to your inspection was pretty demanding: You might have been waiting for Ofsted for up to a year, an experience I call Ofsted fatigue which comes when a team are waiting for the call over an extended period and which can be extremely draining. The inspection could have been pretty gruelling in itself. Whatever your experience, you re allowed to enjoy the moment of glory, the lap of honour, and you should! How long does it last? Around half a term. Don t panic, this is good, but as with all highs, they only last so long and there s only so long you will want to wait before you capitalise and further grow your success. So enjoy this half term and know that you ve earnt some time to both celebrate and re-charge those batteries.

4 Phase 2: Try to improve In the 12 months before your inspection was due, it s likely there were things you didn t do but would have liked to have done. Most of us don t like to make radical changes when the inspector s call is due. We tend to focus only on critical changes, because you need to make sure everything is in place and make (or keep) the ship steady. Now, with the inspection out of the way, you can set about doing things better, or doing the things you didn t have the time, capacity, or opportunity to do before the call. However, it can soon feel like the team have slowed down, that the pace, focus, and urgency that existed pre-ofsted, has gone. It can feel like you re working harder and faster, but that the depth of change doesn t happen, and this can become frustrating. Frustration can lead to a lack of confidence, loss of direction, or temporary stagnation, and this can lead to key staff moving on to new challenges elsewhere. How long does it last? The period of trying to improve lasts about 2 years.

5 Phase 3: Let s get ready for Ofsted The cycle starts again! You can expect your next inspection in about a year, maybe sooner, maybe later. Now it s time to tighten things up and batten down the hatches to make sure you get at least Good again and maybe even some Outstanding grades. How long does it last? About a year (until your inspection).

6 Then what? It starts again! The problem Over 70% of schools judged as Good in their previous inspection either maintained this grade or were downgraded in their 2015/16 inspection 1. What if you could be one of the 30% of schools who didn t get worse, didn t maintain Good but improved? 1 Source: Heads Up analysis of Ofsted Analysis 2015/16

7 I know what you re thinking... They ve changed the framework, so this Good is better than the last Good. You re right. But do you want to give your children a good or great education, when others receive great? I m a new leader in the school. And it s wonderful that you ve achieved Good, but where do you want to go from here? (And remember, you don t need a decade to make your school great). We ve just got out of Requires Improvement, so we can t be heading for Outstanding straight away. Can t you? It s not possible for a school in this kind of area to be Outstanding. I could take you into schools who have achieved Outstanding with just about everything against them, and some have done it in under 2 years. The criteria for Outstanding will change, so there s no point aiming for it. If you aim for excellence, you will always be beyond outstanding. I don t want to be Outstanding anyway. Let s forget Outstanding, don t you want to provide excellent education?

8 Your inspection is like winning the general election Once you ve got your Ofsted Good, you ve got about 3 years before your next inspection. This means you ve got, at best, 2 years to make really deep changes that can move your provision to great. After that, you ll know Ofsted is looming, and you will naturally want to get things buttoned up for when they arrive, especially if you re not feeling secure in being Outstanding. It s the same when a party wins the general election; they ve got a few years to do anything meaningful and then they start worrying again about who will actually vote for them next time.

9 The key to becoming Outstanding Becoming great (and we don t just mean receiving Outstanding from OFSTED) is qualitatively different to becoming good. Getting to good involves achieving a really demanding list of things that must be done, day in, day out (and that s challenging). But becoming great is about creating a high performing culture. Without that, at best, your school will be Good. Is that good enough for you? How do you become truly outstanding? It all comes down to your culture, and that is the qualitative difference that creates excellence. How do you create that culture? By putting in place the 3 key leadership strategies: Strategy 1 Get everyone on board: Create a really compelling, values-based vision If you want your team to strive for greatness, they have to be clear as to what great is and they have to be inspired. Most visions don t do the job they need to do: Paint a picture of the future through your vision. Breathe energy into your team through your values. Without a powerful values-based vision, schools struggle to become Outstanding.

10 Strategy 2 Ensure behaviour and performance are consistently high: Have successful difficult conversations Culture is the result of behaviour over time and so, if your team doesn t show high-performing behaviour, your culture won t be outstanding. This isn t about sacking people or moving them on, this is about supporting them to be excellent through constructive and kind conversations (aka healthy conflict). Without everyone s behaviour being aligned to your culture, your school will struggle to be great. Strategy 3 Create the best people: Grow your team s skills so they are brilliant in their role Excellence is achieved through individual and collective excellence, so ensuring everyone is flourishing in their role and delivering to the highest standards will create exceptional education. Without a team who are excellent in themselves, your school will struggle to show excellence.

11 How can we help? At Heads Up, we specialise in helping schools become great. We d love to talk to you about what stage of the journey you re on and maybe we can help. We work with your leadership team to create a high performing culture, and we ve supported hundreds of schools. Since 2015, all the schools we ve worked with, who have been inspected, have improved on average by at least one grade. Let s talk If you would like to know how we can help you create exceptional education, you can book a complimentary, no-obligation discovery session where we will meet you for an hour, and from this you will have: 1. Clarity about what leadership areas, if any, need developing 2. Where you are on your journey to outstanding 3. A plan, tailored to your school, to create a higher performing team You can book at: Or by ing: kay@ukheadsup.com Or calling: Let s create the school you ve always dreamt of leading, the centre of educational excellence you know it can be for you, your team, your children, and your community. Sonia Gill Director and Founder, Heads Up

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