Ready for Inspection

How tapping into a Management Information System (MIS) can help primary school headteachers take the upper hand in an inspection

Ready for Inspection

“Robust data is challenging – it removes us of excuses and forces us to address the reality we face rather than the one we would like to face.” Russell Hobby, general secretary, National Association of Head Teachers

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White Paper: Ready for Inspection

Executive SummaryShorter timescales and higher stakes for Ofsted inspections mean primary school leaders need to be able to prove the success of their teaching and learning initiatives at a moment’s notice. Those who can immediately access accurate data on pupil progress have a significant head start – pre, post and during inspections. So how can headteachers use their management information systems (MIS) to ensure they come out on top?

This white paper, which includes contributions from primary schools who have faced varied challenges from Ofsted, discusses how the effective use of data can help drive achievement, evidence progress and present an accurate picture when the inspectors come calling.

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“Ofsted will expect to see evidence of pupils’ progress, with inspections informed by the school’s chosen pupil tracking data.”

DfE’s consultation document, Primary Assessment and Accountability Under the New National Curriculum, July 2013

Now that Ofsted give less than 24 hours’ notice before an inspection, the pressure is on for primary school leaders to ensure they can provide proof of pupil progress at any time. A year-by-year overview is simply not enough.

An Ofsted inspector might ask to check achievements across all manner of demographics – boys versus girls, Free School Meals (FSM), English as an Additional Language (EAL), Pupil Premium, Special Educational Needs (SEN), Sport Grant… the list goes on.

“Ofsted inspections are now much more data driven than in the past. As leaders, we need to know our pupil data very well and be able to provide this instantly for Ofsted when they visit.”

Gemma Buckley, deputy headteacher, Little Harrowden Community Primary School.

If your phone rang now, how easy would it be for you to retrieve all the information you need?

“At our last Ofsted inspection, it was producing the data from our MIS that second which really clinched our outstanding rating.”

Linda Davis, headteacher, Wistaston Academy

Furthermore, under the new Ofsted framework, the stakes for inspection are much higher. Ofsted inspectors are no longer allowed to rank a school as ‘satisfactory’. Instead this category has been replaced with the much more serious ‘requires improvement’. Sir Michael Wilshaw, the Chief Inspector of Schools believes this will stop schools from resting on their laurels.

Introduction

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“Data plays an increasingly large role in school improvement. It is not an end in itself, and absolutely not a replacement for personal knowledge and relationships, but it does trigger interesting questions.

“More importantly, robust data is challenging – it removes us of excuses and forces us to address the reality we face rather than the one we would like to face. The profession therefore needs to grab hold of data and ensure it is used properly for learning and improvement.”

Russell Hobby, general secretary, National Association of Head Teachers

Primary schools with the ability to access and analyse their data quickly and efficiently will find themselves at a significant advantage. After all, data analysis now underpins the Ofsted framework, which states that it is the school’s job to back up its self-evaluation to Ofsted inspectors with hard evidence.

“Previously we used to copy and paste data from our MIS into spreadsheets so we could analyse it,” says Gemma Buckley, deputy headteacher of Little Harrowden Community Primary School. “Not only was this was very time consuming, it meant that we didn’t use the data as much as we should and it was out of date as soon as we took it out of the MIS. This is not what Ofsted would see as an ideal situation and meant we did not have all the analysis we needed to make good decisions.”

Schools that can print off reports right away and carry out further analysis in real time, even during the inspection if need be, are at an advantage. On the other hand, primary schools that rely on spreadsheets or other paper-based forms of analysis may find the shorter timescale of the inspection regime a very daunting prospect indeed.

“Having a way to comprehensively analyse data and track pupil progress across identified groups such as cohort, gender, FSM and LAC is vitally important. It’s the only way we can clearly demonstrate who is above, below or on track.”

Rosie Simmonds, headteacher, Leverington Primary Academy

However, the benefits aren’t limited to when the Ofsted inspector comes knocking. Those who have taken a leaf out of the secondary school sector, and recognised the benefits of collating and evaluating pupil progress on their management information system (MIS), are better placed to drive whole school improvement throughout the academic year.

Why is data so important?

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Removing barriers

Despite the tangible benefits for Ofsted inspections, for the uninitiated data analysis can seem daunting. Many primary schools lack a dedicated IT or data manager to handle their MIS.

Actually this presents no barrier – today’s systems are designed to be used and understood by all staff from the top down. They can be accessed at different levels by the leadership team, subject leaders, teachers, teaching assistants and SEN. In fact, the more people who use the system, the more effective it becomes.

“My advice for getting used to your MIS is to talk to some other schools who are already using it,” says Christine Terrey, headteacher of Harbour Primary and Nursery. “As a headteacher, make sure you understand it and are confident with it yourself, which will help support your senior management team.

“But don’t stop with the SLT – give access to all staff. It is a massive miss for primary schools to limit access to senior managers, as Ofsted inspectors will talk to teachers and subject leaders about their data too.”

“My SENCO has found our system extremely beneficial and time efficient,” says Rosie Simmonds, headteacher at Leverington Primary Academy.

“Individual Education Plans can be securely attached to a child’s records, and she is able to track the specific progress of children receiving intervention programmes. This means she can measure the positive impact interventions are having and prove their efficacy to inspectors at the drop of a hat.”

Many primary schools have limited administrative resources and some see this as an obstacle to effective use of data. However the opposite is true – management information systems are an efficient way to ensure information need only be entered once but can be used many times.

All data – achievement, family history, correspondence with parents – is collated in a single place and provides you with a holistic view of each child at the touch of a button.

“Collating information in an MIS means utter confidence in data accuracy.”

Rosie Simmonds, headteacher, Leverington Primary Academy

Putting data to work

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Let’s look in detail at how accurate data can help school leaders evidence five of the most important factors for a successful Ofsted inspection.

1. Achievement of pupils at the school

“Data will always help you spot quickly where children have got stuck. You can see right away when they haven’t moved a sub-level of the curriculum. So it prompts the questions – why are they stuck? Have we intervened in the right way? Or is there another reason, such as absence?”

Christine Terrey, Headteacher, Harbour Primary and Nursery

It’s essential to be able to show each individual child’s starting point and their achievement from that point. This means knowing the child, not only as belonging to a year or a class group, but to understand their progress as part of a sub-group – whether that be ‘gifted and talented’ or ‘statemented’ – and therefore to prove that they are getting the unique support that they require.

As headteacher of Wistaston Academy, a school transformed from ‘special measures’ to ‘good with outstanding features’ in record time, Linda Davis has first-hand knowledge of how important this is.

“Our school faces a number of challenges, including a large number of children under local authority care and a high level of pupil mobility. When Ofsted looked at the raw data it showed that while our KS2 results were wonderful, they weren’t so good in KS1,” she says.

“Because I was familiar with our data I could prove that the situation was more complex than the raw data showed. I took out all the EAL children who hadn’t been there since reception and that helped change the inspector’s perceptions. He said: ‘Oh that’s really good – I can see that the children who have been here from reception are doing really well.’”

Children’s assessments also need to ‘inform teaching’ so primary schools must demonstrate that they have a system in place that constantly assesses and acts on the assessment information.

“All of our teachers have mark sheets on the MIS with a column for interventions,” says Andrew Newton, network manager at Oakington Manor Primary School.

“Every teacher has to make sure that column is filled in properly because it is the proof we have to show inspectors that the need of the child is recognised and the intervention has been given. It also means we can instantly put our finger on what interventions are working.”

Key areas of focus for Ofsted

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Andrew takes full advantage of the capabilities of his school’s MIS. He says, “If I want to pick out the Pupil Premium pupils and see how they are doing against the non-Pupil Premium, I can pull out a graph from Year 1 right through to Year 6 and get a pretty precise graphical view of their progress. This means our actions are based on solid information.”

Gemma Buckley, deputy headteacher at Little Harrowden Community Primary School backs the view that the MIS gives much deeper insight. “One issue we have is with boys’ literacy at Key Stage 1. When we worked off spreadsheets it was a virtually impossible task to track progress. Now, with our MIS I can track the entire year across all literacy areas and at each of the six assessment points across the year. We can instantly see at any point where the issues are and put interventions in place swiftly which helps us to close the gaps quicker.” And it is this sort of quick intervention the inspectors are hoping to see in every school they visit.

2. Quality of teaching

“When it comes to Ofsted inspections it is important that the people in leadership positions, and the whole school, know what the quality of teaching is and that they have evidence for this. They need to be able to demonstrate the strategies that should be in place in any areas of development and how this should inform the school’s CPD programme.”

Brian Lightman, general secretary, Association of School and College Leaders, SecEd, A Guide to What Makes an Outstanding Lesson

Put simply, in order to get an ‘outstanding’ judgement overall, schools have to prove that their quality of teaching merits this. Ofsted inspectors will look at a teacher’s performance on the day of the inspection, as well as their performance with a particular group of children over an extended period of time.

Salary progression will also be considered. At Wistaston Academy, Linda Davis uses the MIS to keep a close eye on the quality of teaching.

“I keep an overview of the different teachers and a list of the outcomes of the children they teach,” she explains. “I make a note of how they manage behaviour and look at other aspects such as how they help with younger children.

“This is stored in our MIS and linked with pupil data, our pay scale and CPD. When I have discussions with teaching staff, I can then explain why they are on a certain pay scale and how close they are to moving up. I can also tell them exactly what they need to concentrate on in order to achieve this.”

Schools that are not providing this joined-up view of teacher development may find themselves marked down when the inspectors call.

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3. Quality of leadership

“In the best schools, strong leaders and governors...create a culture in which good teaching can flourish – orderly and welcoming schools that insist on high standards, where teachers routinely challenge children to do better.”

Ofsted Annual Report 2012/13

Sir Michael Wilshaw has identified weak leadership as being one of the key factors preventing English schools from improving their standing in international league tables, so it follows that Ofsted will continue to examine this area closely.

“I have a large primary school with 516 pupils and so I need to know what is going on and I need to track outcomes,” says Christine Terrey at Harbour Primary and Nursery.

“We need to prove that our priorities are correct and we are spending all our resources on the interventions that will have the biggest impact. I do not know where I would be without my MIS as this provides me with all this information and gives me the ability to ask the question ‘where else could we be doing more?’”

“When the Ofsted inspectors visited us they checked our knowledge individually,” says Rosie Simmonds at Leverington Primary Academy. “This is what every SLT should expect in an inspection. We share our data analysis with the leadership team and the inspectors were impressed with that.”

The basis of good leadership is being well informed. Accurate data informs good decision making, so an MIS can be a powerful ally when school leaders need a snapshot of school performance at any given moment.

It will not tell a school leader what they want to hear, or brush anything under the carpet. It will, however, reveal strengths and weaknesses, and help the headteacher to ask the right questions of the senior management team and other teaching staff.

Good comprehension of data is also critical for governors, who are now under greater scrutiny than before and judged separately in inspections. Amongst other expectations, inspectors have to consider whether governors understand the strengths and weaknesses of the school, take sufficient account of pupil data, and are aware of the impact of teaching on learning and progress in different subjects and year groups.

To answer this requirement, Linda Davis from Wistaston Academy has implemented a proactive approach towards keeping its governors informed about the impact of their teaching on pupils. “Ofsted inspectors look at the impact teaching and learning is having on the children, and we need to make sure our governors understand this too.

“Our Governor Report has always included a list of activities that the children have undertaken and around two years ago we started to interview the children about these activities. If they went to the Science Museum, we would ask them to comment.”

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Linda continues, “A child might say, ‘I enjoyed the Science Museum so much that when I am older I want to be a scientist’. This is now included in our governors report to evidence impact. It helps our governors understand the overall outcome of all the activities we undertake at school. This is essential in ensuring they have the level of involvement in the school that Ofsted want to see.”

“Inspectors asked the governors directly if they understood the data. We spend time ensuring that they do and so our curriculum committee were able to answer with a resounding yes,” says Rosie Simmonds from Leverington Primary Academy.

4. Behaviour and safety of pupils at the school

“Around 700,000 pupils attend schools where behaviour needs to improve.”

Sir Michael Wilshaw, the chief inspector of schools

When it comes to tackling behaviour problems in schools, Ofsted has nailed its colours to the flag with the announcement that inspectors will make ‘no notice’ visits to schools identified as rife with poor behaviour.

Over and above what is seen on the day, inspectors must analyse the culture of the school and take into account documented evidence about how behaviour has been managed over time. The general consensus amongst those we interviewed is that recording behavioural incidents quickly is the best way to spot trends, put an end to low-level disruption and check policies are having an impact on reducing disruption.

“Our staff have all got iPads linked to our MIS and they enter behaviour and achievement information into them as it happens, be it in the classroom or in the playground so we always know what is going on,” says Christine Terrey.

It also means they know which deterrents work and which do not: “We sometimes use detention for our older children, but it isn’t always effective. We can use the MIS to examine where it does make an impact. Where it doesn’t, we change our strategy. That’s what Ofsted want to see.”

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5. Evaluating attendance

“Inspectors should evaluate how much the school knows about the attendance patterns of groups of learners and the effectiveness of systems to alert them to changes in pupils’ attendance.”

Ofsted Subsidiary guidance supporting the inspection of maintained schools and academies – January 2014 version

One thing all primary schools have in common is the collection of attendance data. By analysing trends in the data, important stories can often emerge.

“Spotting a pattern can prompt you to have a conversation with parents,” says Christine Terrey. “For example, you might see that particular siblings are habitually not in on a Monday morning. By talking to the mother, it might come to light that they visit their father in prison on a Sunday evening many miles away, so they can’t make it in on a Monday.

“As a school leader, this opens the door to think of ways to support the family better. In terms of Ofsted, it proves that you are aware and are being proactive.”

Linda Davis impressed Ofsted during their recent inspection with the school’s policy for dealing with attendance problems for pupils and families with English as an Additional Language.

“If we have a problem with attendance, we will go and see the family involved but we are always prepared,” she says. “Under each student’s report on our MIS, we have some pre-prepared letters in their own language. So we quickly print off a letter in Polish, for example, so that if the parents are not in, we can leave them a note to say that we visited to talk about their child’s attendance.

“If they are home, we will follow up our visit with a pre-prepared letter to give them a record of the points we made in the visit. The inspector was extremely impressed with this.”

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“The challenge for many school leaders is to supplement (not replace!) their instincts and intuitions with an analytical approach to improvement. In terms of accountability, it is not enough to know, you have to be able to show. Which groups of pupils are most vulnerable – and how do you know? Why have you chosen those particular interventions for these pupils? Are they working?”neral secretary, National Association of Head Teachers

With short notice and so much riding on the successful outcome of an Ofsted inspection, it is no wonder that the anticipation can be stressful.

An inspector who does not appreciate the achievements of the pupils, or grasp the quality of teaching and leadership that led to this achievement are common fears. This concern is often magnified at small primary schools, when fewer staff and children means everyone feels doubly accountable for a poor outcome.

However, having all the information you need in one easily accessible place, in a format that leadership teams, teaching staff and governors know how to use is critical. Ensuring data is accurate and can be relied on by everyone is a sure-fire way of eradicating fears and giving headteachers confidence and control.

“We would be prepared if Ofsted turned up at our school tomorrow, because we have only one data source – our MIS.”

Andrew Newton, network manager, Oakington Manor Primary School

From an Ofsted perspective, proving that action has been taken in a timely manner to address issues such as lack of progress or bad behaviour can make all the difference in achieving a successful inspection.

The upshot is that it’s time for primary schools to consider how much more their MIS can do to drive up overall standards and to be fully prepared no matter when the inspector calls.

“The meaningful analysis of data is helping school leaders drive achievement, improve their schools and ensure that they have evidence to hand to validate the good work they are doing for an Ofsted inspection.”

DfE’s consultation document, Primary Assessment and Accountability Under the New National Curriculum, July 2013

Conclusion

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