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I’m writing to respond to the Education inspection framework 2019: inspecting the substance of education consultation. I have included responses to certain questions that interest me, below. MAINSTREAM SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES Proposal 1: To what extent do you agree or disagree with the proposal to introduce a ‘quality of education’ judgement? Strongly agree I firmly support this proposal because, by placing greater emphasis on the curriculum, it will ensure that schools will only be judged ‘good’ if they provide their pupils with a well-rounded, broad, and balanced curriculum. Ofsted should nevertheless take extra steps to make sure that schools know a broad curriculum must always include statutory subjects like RE and RSE, and that they will be inspected on provision in these subjects.
Further, so that pupils receive their entitlement to Religious Education in line with the Human Rights Act, the mainstream and academy schools handbook should make it clear that the subject must be fully inclusive of non-religious worldviews like humanism, and that, at key stage 4, this requirement will not automatically be satisfied by study of the Religious Studies GCSE syllabus. Case law dictates that the RE syllabus must be objective, critical, and pluralistic, but many schools are failing to teach in detail about non-religious worldviews. Just as Ofsted wouldn’t award a school a good grade if it doesn’t teach about various other protected characteristics, Ofsted should also refuse to do so if it doesn’t teach in detail about humanism. Proposal 2: To what extent do you agree or disagree with the proposed separation of inspection judgements about learners’ personal development and learners’ behaviour and attitudes? Strongly agree I welcome the proposal to consider the personal development – which involves spiritual, moral, social, and cultural development – separately from behaviour and attitudes. This will allow inspectors to assess each aspect in more depth, and report their findings in a clearer way. That said, there are inconsistencies in the way religious and non-religious worldviews are treated in the inspection handbook. All references to religion must be expanded so that it is clear that religious and non-religious perspectives are to be treated equally. In addition, the criteria for assessing spiritual, moral, social, and cultural development are not comprehensive enough to ensure that schools are able to fulfil their duties in this area. For this reason, Ofsted should publish extra guidance to assist schools to meet the inspection requirements. 
Proposal 4: To what extent do you agree or disagree with the proposed focus of section 8 inspections of good schools and non-exempt outstanding schools and the proposal to increase the length of these inspections from the current one day to two days?
 Neither agree nor disagree I strongly support the proposal to extend the length of short inspections for schools that have previously received a ‘good’ rating. I also think it is right that inspectors always assess safeguarding, as well as whether the school is providing a broad and balanced curriculum (including RE that is fully inclusive of humanism). Nevertheless, I am worried that these inspections will not consider all aspects of personal development. If children are to be properly prepared for life in modern British society a school’s ability to provide pupils with the knowledge, skills, and attitudes they need to be good citizens in a diverse democracy must be assessed at every inspection. INDEPENDENT SCHOOLS Proposal 7: To what extent do you agree or disagree with the proposal that inspectors should normally use the non-specialist curriculum as their primary source of evidence in assessing the extent to which the school meets the quality of education criteria? Agree I support this proposal. No matter what type of curriculum a school offers, no part of it should be off limits to inspectors and it is important that children in independent schools receive a broad and balanced education alongside any other type of teaching they are given. This must include faith-based teaching. However, if inspectors treat the non-specialist (basic) curriculum as their primary source of evidence they must also be alert to the possibility that a specialist curriculum, especially one with a faith-based character, might contradict or detract from the overall quality of education on offer. For example, if the faith-based curriculum involves teaching creationism and pupils are taught that what they learn (e.g. to pass exams) in science is untrue. For this reason, I suggest that inspectors must also inspect any faith-based curriculum and investigate how the different curriculums interact. Proposal 8: To what extent do you agree or disagree that where non-association independent schools have been found to improve or decline at an additional inspection, Ofsted should provide up-to-date judgements about the school’s current performance? Strongly agree I strongly support this proposal. Where school standards have declined it is vitally important that inspection judgements reflect the current state of the school, particularly for prospective parents and pupils who may not be able to make an informed choice about where to apply without this information. It is also imperative that any future monitoring visits focus on the reasons that the school did poorly at the last inspection and that these issues are explicitly addressed in written reports. It should not be possible to fail one inspection and then pass the next without any reference to how the school has addressed the failings in the second report.

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