Guidance

Schools and early education update: July 2022

Updated 21 December 2022

Applies to England

Message from the National Director, Education

Welcome to the summer term edition of the schools and early education update.

As we approach the end of the academic year, I first want to thank inspectors, on behalf of Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector, for all the hard work that you have done for Ofsted in what has been another challenging year. Because of your hard work, we were able to resume full routine inspections under the education inspection framework (EIF) and continue those inspections during Omicron, which was so important. While we must continue to listen to concerns as we move forward, I have heard so much praise from the sector about the quality of your inspections, inspectors’ professionalism and the power of the EIF.

COVID-19 continues to have a lasting impact on providers in the schools and early education sectors. We know that this is likely to continue to affect how providers make decisions for some time. We also know that providers are now moving on from an emergency response to COVID-19 to the longer-term changes that they need to make because of the pandemic. We are doing the same.

We believe that now is the right time to move away from the temporary measures that we included in our handbooks during the disruption, and instead consider that impact in the core of how we approach inspection. I set this out in more detail in my latest blog.

We will soon begin a large programme of work to evaluate the EIF, which will be led by our research and evaluation team.

In this edition, we include information on:

• the changes that we are making to the schools and early years inspection handbooks for September
• Ofsted webinars for school leaders and staff
• Changes to the early years foundation stage (EYFS) profile
• Ofsted early years inspections and the EYFS
• Ofsted inspections: planning documents and curriculum maps
• Ofsted’s strategy 2022–27

I hope that you have a relaxing summer break when it comes.

Best wishes

Chris Russell
National Director, Education

Changes to inspection handbooks

Summary of updates to the school handbooks

We have made substantial changes to the layout of our school inspection handbooks for September 2022, which were published on 11 July. While these have left the handbooks looking very different, the content and approach to inspection are largely the same. The changes will improve the accessibility of the documents for inspectors and those in the education sector.

These key changes (in addition to the changes to transitional arrangements, which are set out in a separate blog) are as follows:

• section 5 inspections will now be known as ‘graded’ inspections; section 8 inspections of good and outstanding schools will be known as ‘ungraded’ inspections; and both section 8 no formal designation inspections and section 8 unannounced behaviour inspections will be known as ‘urgent’ inspections
• our approaches to inspecting ‘ungraded’, ‘urgent’ and ‘graded’ inspections now sit together in the revised ‘School inspection handbook’
• we have introduced a separate ‘monitoring handbook’, which sets out our approach to monitoring schools that have been judged requires improvement or inadequate
• the school inspection handbook is now in 4 parts: how schools will be inspected; explanation of our key judgements; grade descriptors for graded inspections; and urgent inspections. The section on ‘applying the EIF in different contexts’, which was previously in part 3 of the handbook, has been incorporated into the new part 2
• we will continue to take into account the ongoing, long-term effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, but have now embedded the stand-alone COVID-19 paragraphs into the relevant sections of the handbook

Summary of updates to the early years inspection handbook

We have made changes to the early years inspection handbook, which was published on 11 July, alongside the schools and other education remit handbooks.

We have published a full summary of the changes. However, the main changes to draw your attention to are as follows:

1. We have created a new section: ‘Part 3: Applying the education inspection framework in different contexts’. This includes guidance on how to apply the EIF in specific contexts and provisions, such as childminders and out-of-school settings. This part should be read in conjunction with parts 1 and 2.

This change has been made in response to sector feedback that EIF inspection processes and procedures for childminders could be clearer. It has been developed with support from the sector.

2. We have removed the section ‘Inspection and the COVID-19 pandemic’ from the handbook. As all government restrictions were lifted some time ago, and we continue to emerge from the COVID-19 pandemic, a dedicated COVID-19 section in the handbook is no longer appropriate.

We recognise that the pandemic may have an ongoing impact on providers and have retained paragraphs detailing how inspectors will take COVID-19 into account on inspection.

3. We have made usual amendments to the handbook to provide additional clarification and updated hyperlinks to other Ofsted and government guidance.

There are no changes to inspection policy or methodology.

The updates to the early years inspection handbook are effective from 1 September 2022. The current handbook will remain in use until 31 August 2022.

Ofsted webinars for school leaders and staff

In the spring and summer terms, we hosted a series of free webinars for schools on key topics and areas that we know can sometimes cause confusion. We have published the recordings of two of the webinars on YouTube, and have published those slides on our SlideShare. We will be publishing the recording and slides for the third webinar in the coming weeks.

The first webinar was on EIF inspections in primary schools; the second was on inspections and the COVID-19 pandemic; and the third was on inspections and teacher workload. We encourage all inspectors to watch these sessions and to promote them within their networks.

Due to the success of these webinars, we are planning a further series for the autumn term, which will address topics such as governance and the EIF in special schools. Please look out for these – we hope to advertise the dates and times shortly.

Changes to the early years foundation stage profile

On Tuesday 26 April, the Department for Education (DfE) wrote to schools to update them on the EYFS profile ahead of the pre-assessment period in schools.

What is the EYFS profile?

The EYFS profile is completed for every child in the final term of their Reception Year. Teachers are expected to use their professional judgement to assess each child, based on their knowledge and understanding of what the child knows, understands and can do.

This informs Year 1 teachers about each child’s stage of development and learning needs and helps them to plan the Year 1 curriculum to meet the needs of all children. The EYFS profile is also used to inform parents about their child’s development.

What is changing?

Following the reforms to the EYFS, the following has been decided:

• the EYFS profile will no longer be included in the DfE’s Analyse School Performance (ASP)
• the EYFS profile data will no longer be included in Ofsted’s inspection data summary report (IDSR)
• the EYFS profile data will no longer be externally moderated by local authorities (LAs)

Changes to the EYFS profile have not affected the reception baseline assessment (RBA), which is a distinct assessment that serves a different purpose. Individual schools and academies, governors and LAs will still have access to their EYFS profile data so that they can continue to use this information to support children’s transition to Year 1 and plan appropriate interventions.

However, the data should not be used by LAs, school leaders and multi-academy trusts to compare individual schools as a means of holding teachers or schools to account. Teachers are not expected to record evidence for each of the early learning goals or to provide proof of the child’s level of development for the purposes of completing the EYFS profile, or for the purposes of an Ofsted inspection.

Implications for inspectors

We continue to inspect in line with the principles and requirements of the EYFS – there is no change to inspection policy. As stated in our inspection handbooks, inspectors do not expect to see documentation other than that set out in the EYFS framework. Inspectors should use the evidence gathered from discussions and observations to judge the overall quality of the curriculum provided for children.

We have also removed the sentence ‘Inspectors will look at the children’s achievements at the end of Reception over time, by the proportions reaching a good level of development’ from the September 2022 edition of the school inspection handbook (published on 11 July). We have made it clear that inspectors will look at the children’s learning and development over time, ascertaining how well the curriculum is meeting children’s needs. This will be evident in the extent to which children know and remember more of the intended curriculum. Inspectors will make careful inferences about children’s current progress by drawing together evidence from a range of sources.

Ofsted EIF inspections and the EYFS

In July 2021, we launched a new page on gov.uk: ‘Ofsted EIF inspections and the EYFS’, both for registered early years providers and for those delivering the EYFS in schools. We’re often asked lots of questions and encounter many myths about our EIF inspections of early years in schools. We hope in time that this page will become the ‘one-stop-shop’ for all queries related to early years EIF inspections, allowing us to dispel unhelpful rumours about inspection quickly and efficiently.

The new page answers common questions about inspection, on subjects ranging from assessment to curriculum maps, early reading and deep dives. Following an update in December 2021, we will refresh this content on 11 July 2022 to cover additional questions on the EYFS profile, ratios and more, so do take a look.

We update this page every couple of months, or sooner, should there be a need. We also welcome feedback on any other common misunderstandings that it would be helpful to address. The page can also be accessed directly from the school inspection handbook landing page.

Implications for inspectors

While this is primarily a page for schools and registered early years providers, we encourage all inspectors to familiarise themselves with its contents to ensure that we give consistent messages, and to let school leaders and staff know it’s there. We also welcome feedback from inspectors on any other common misunderstandings they have come across that it would be helpful to address.

Ofsted inspections: planning documents and curriculum maps

Recently, we have received a number of questions from early years teachers asking whether Ofsted will expect to see curriculum maps or other planning documents for every area of learning in the early years.

In our Ofsted EIF inspections and the EYFS page, we make it clear that what children learn in the early years is incredibly important for their future success; it is the foundation of children’s learning. But it is for schools to decide how to talk about the early years curriculum with inspectors. Some schools may choose to map this out, but others may present what they do in a different way. Ofsted does not have a preferred view on how schools should design their curriculum in early years.

Inspectors will want to understand how schools design the curriculum in early years to give children the foundational knowledge and understanding they will need for key stage 1 and for the rest of their schooling.

Our inspection handbooks for registered early years providers and for schools make it clear that curriculum planning does not need to be in any specific format. It is up to providers to determine the format of their planning, and it is up to leaders to justify these plans based on what they want children to encounter, explore and learn in school.

The curriculum in a primary school starts when children first join in the early years, be that the Nursery or Reception class. Inspectors will want to understand how the curriculum in early years is the foundation for key stage 1, as well as how knowledge builds in a sequence from Nursery to Year 6.

Inspectors will want to understand how learning in key stage 1 and beyond builds on the curriculum in the early years.

Implications for inspectors

Inspectors should be mindful that schools may choose to present how their EYFS curriculum is designed, and how they talk about their plans, in different ways. Inspectors should be careful not to ask for, or advocate presentation of, information in any specific format. They should ensure that, throughout the inspection, leaders are given the opportunity to justify their plans based on what they want children to encounter, explore and learn in school. Inspectors should use their professional judgement, considered against the grade descriptors, to reach fair and reliable judgements that reflect the quality of the early years provision.

Ofsted strategy 2022–27

In April, we published our strategy for 2022–27. The strategy sets out how we will continue our work to improve the lives of children and young people by raising standards in education and children’s social care. It sets out our priorities for the next 5 years, which include a stronger focus on our work in the early years and ensuring that children get the best start in life.