We had an Ofsted inspection on Wednesday 18th July. We were telephoned at lunchtime the day before and, although we pointed out that this was not only the last week of term but our junior sports day and this had been on our website calendar for months, they insisted on coming anyway.
Because our last inspection was good and our results have been good we received a "section 5" inspection. As we are a large school this was a one day visit from two inspectors, to check whether the school is still good. With these kind of inspections the inspectors cannot look at everything but devise "lines of enquiry" based on what they already know about the school. They talk to staff, children and governors, listen to your views, observe the work of the school and look in detail at children's assessment and their work over time. They also check safeguarding.
If they decide safeguarding is an issue the inspection is converted to a two day "section 8" and inspectors come back the next day. Otherwise inspectors can decide whether the school is:
or
With a section 5 inspection we do not get a report or a new grading, just a letter containing a brief overview of the school and their lines of enquiry. Because they have inspected us in the last week of term we will not get this now until September. The inspectors told us we need to keep the result confidential until then.