What's changed? - key messages from Herts CC HMI briefings:

Inspectors will make four key judgements in the areas of:

1. The achievement of pupils

2. The quality of teaching

3. The quality of leadership and management

4. The standards of behaviour and safety

They will also take into account how effectively a school promotes spiritual, moral, social and

cultural development and the extent to which the education provided by the school meets the

needs of the range of pupils at the school.

There will no longer be any graded 'sub-judgements' or 'contributory' judgements. In particular

there will no longer be separate graded judgements for the Early Years Foundation Stage or

sixth form.

There will be value added (VA) measures rather than contextual value added (CVA) and these will

be used as a measure of progress in previous years.

There will be a greater focus on:

- narrowing the gaps in performance for groups of pupils

- quality of teaching and its impact on learning and progress

- reading and literacy

- behaviour and safety

- literacy and numeracy across the curriculum in secondary schools.

Inspectors will expect schools to provide an accurate evaluation of its own performance.

Ofsted want to retain and build on the strengths of the existing framework by:

- focusing on pupils' outcomes, including the outcomes for different groups of pupils and how

well the school promotes these outcomes

- promoting improvement: inspectors will continue to make specific and detailed

recommendations based on their diagnosis of the school's strengths and weaknesses

- fostering the engagement of headteachers, school staff and governors in the process of the

inspection so that they understand the judgement made

- ensuring that the inspection time is focused even more on observing teaching and learning

with feedback to teachers

- gathering, analysing and taking into account the views of parents, pupils and staff

- setting out clear grade descriptions and guidance for each judgement