Management Information Sheet

Norfolk LA has a Duty Desk that can offer advice and support to any school that is being inspected by Ofsted. The Norfolk Duty Desk number is 01603 307797. If you are not a maintained school and would like advice, please ring this number at any time before or during the inspection. For maintained schools, please ring this number as soon as you can after the initial Ofsted call. It would be helpful, although not essential, if you had details about when the Lead would like to speak to the LA and the time of the final feedback.

All schools judged to be good at their last inspection and PRUs, special schools or maintained nurseries judged to be outstanding or good, will now receive a one-day short inspection, (carried out under Section 8), approximately every 3 years. These inspections could be converted into a Section 5 inspection within 48 hours if the Lead feels that more evidence needs to be gathered or if, for example, a good school might be outstanding or no longer good. In this event, maintained schools are asked to contact the Duty Desk again to arrange for a representative from the LA to speak to the lead inspector. Schools which are currently judged as outstanding are exempt but are subject to risk assessment by Ofsted. If the risk assessment raises concerns, the school may be inspected at any time, under Section 8.

Ofsted has written a short leaflet on what to have ready for inspection from September and has published a brief document outlining the timings and risk assessment process for Grade 1 and 2 schools.

In addition, Ofsted has written a brief guide to explain inspection deferrals and has produced a series of short videos with brief presentations from headteachers who have secured a good or outstanding Ofsted judgement. Much of the focus is on their school's improvement and self-evaluation activities. The National Director of Schools, Sean Harford, has written a blog over the summer that highlights the minor changes to the updated Schools Handbook and common inspection framework.

NIEAS will be running briefings for senior leaders early in the autumn term to outline the impact of the new Common Inspection Framework. The briefings will take place on the following dates and will run between 2.00 pm - 5.00 pm.

The cost is £90 per delegate.

Places can be booked via SLA online by logging onto S4S.norfolk.gov.uk.