‘Very informative with very useful handouts and ideas to take back and practical.’
Quality Manager, Leeds City Council

‘This was an extremely useful session, which highlighted useful pointers to prepare for new inspection. The deliverer was extremely knowledgeable and pragmatic and was very personable. Thank you.’
Head of F/S & LS, Chesterfield College

‘Excellent overview of how to prepare, not just for inspection, but how to improve the whole provision.’
Quality Assurance Manager, Training for Travel

‘Very detailed workshop about what to expect when notified of inspection. Excellent facilitator, encouraging wide ranging discussions.’
Business Improvement Director, JHP Group

‘I would highly recommend it: It has opened my eyes to the Ofsted process and reassured/prepared me. It has also given me practical ideas for tackling Ofsted preparation.’
Lecturer, St Mary’s University College

The one day Ofsted Successful Self-Assessment Reports course is a completely new course, developed in August 2021.  It will guide you through the self-assessment process, helping you to compile a self-assessment report and a quality improvement plan.

It will allow enough time for delegates to reflect on their own provision and share insights and ideas with peers and the course leader. It covers many areas, including:

• The key purposes of self-assessment
• Fostering an ambitious culture
• Understanding the Education Inspection Framework in the context of your provision
• Building judgements based on valid evidence
• Identifying strengths and areas for improvement
• Writing judgement-rich text and moderating self-assessment grades
• Linking self-assessment with the quality improvement cycle
• The role of the Board/Governors in moderating self-assessment
• Devising a challenging Quality Improvement Plan and setting accurate targets
• Using self-assessment and quality improvement planning to prepare for inspection
• Top tips for self-assessment

This modular programme represents excellent value for money, giving you the opportunity to build a programme to meet your needs and giving delegates access to small group, team or even one-to-one support. By following the programme, you will save the otherwise wasted time and effort that would go into producing an ineffective self-assessment report.  You will become confident in your knowledge, as to how to fully meet Ofsted requirements and, most importantly, how to drive further improvements, so that you continue to provide a great service for your learners.

The Ofsted Successful Self-Assessment Reports course leaders are all experienced inspectors and have significant recent experience in the sector in a variety of settings. They will draw on this expertise to bring the subject to life and answer the questions that matter to you, making the course both informative and enjoyable.

This means that the courses are practical and packed with useful information. The course leaders will help you to understand and interpret the inspection framework, as it applies to the self-assessment report and the quality improvement plan.

The course leaders and presenters will structure the sessions, so as to allow you to discuss, absorb and reflect on the course content.  They all have a genuine enthusiasm for their subject. As one delegate said:

“I never thought a day spent talking about inspection could be so engrossing.”

Ofsted inspection is challenging but it should not be stressful. This Ofsted Successful Self-Assessment Reports course will help managers to feel prepared and confident about the self-assessment report and the quality improvement plan.

Maximum 10 delegates per course

After attending this Ofsted Successful Self-Assessment Reports Course, delegates will be better able to:

1. Understand the purpose of self-assessment and quality improvement planning, including:

• Features of effective self-assessment and improvement planning.
• Leadership of the quality improvement cycle.
• Inspiring a culture of confidence and ambition.
• Involving staff in the quality improvement cycle.

2. Collect evidence for self-assessment and make accurate judgements, including:

• Sources of evidence.
• Reliability of evidence.
• Evaluating evidence and making judgements.

3. Compile a succinct and accurate self-assessment report, including:

• The structure of a report and what to include.
• Writing evaluative text.
• Complete part of a draft report as part of the learning programme.

4. Develop a realistic quality improvement plan, including:

• • Deciding what you want to achieve and setting realistic objectives and outcomes.
  • Delegating responsibility for improvement planning.
  • Progress monitoring and evaluating impact.

Our original Ofsted Inspections course leader and presenter is an Ofsted Inspector, who was selected to continue to inspect with Ofsted after its September 2015 “cull”.  He has personally taken part in hundreds of Ofsted inspections and is acknowledged as a leading authority within the Ofsted community. He also has experience as the Chair of a College Governing Body and earlier in his career, was the Chief Executive of one of the UK’s largest specialist Training Providers.

All of our current Ofsted Successful Self-Assessment Reports course leaders and presenters are equally talented and as highly experienced, with each having over thirty years of experience in the sector.  They are experienced Ofsted inspectors and have worked extensively in further education in various roles including managing apprenticeship provision and supporting apprenticeship providers.  The course leaders and presenters, either currently carry out work as Ofsted Inspectors, or have recently done so.

They can help you to look at your own provision and inspection preparation both from a provider perspective and from the perspective of an Ofsted inspector.

This means that these Ofsted Successful Self-Assessment Reports courses  are practical and packed with useful information and practical tips, backed up by solid experience to help you to understand and interpret the inspection framework and apply self-assessment to your own setting.

The presenters draw on their own experiences to help you to understand and interpret the inspection framework as it applies to the delivery of Ofsted Successful Self-Assessment Reports and Quality Improvement Plans.  They will structure the sessions to allow you to discuss, absorb and reflect on the course content.

The course leaders are all skilled coaches and facilitators, with a genuine enthusiasm for their subject.  This is apparent to the delegates, as evidenced by one delegate who said:

“I never thought a day spent talking about inspection could be so engrossing.”

They will structure the sessions to allow you to absorb and to reflect on the content.  This will enable you to apply it most effectively within your workplace.

Part 1:

This introduces delegates to self-assessment and looks at features of effective self-assessment (it’s a lot more than writing a report). The session will include plenty of information and tips and will allow time for delegates to begin to draft their own draft self-assessment reports.

The contents include, as well as other topics, the following: 

• Introduction to self-assessment its purpose, relationship to Education Inspection Framework and inspection, abridged benefits of quality assurance, self-assessment calendar
• Self-assessment evidence, what is evidence, valid evidence, weighting, triangulation, using evidence to arrive at judgements
• Worked examples using dummy evidence, relating to the Education Inspection Framework.
• Practical work including worked examples, evaluating live evidence and formulating judgements. By the end of the session delegates should have arrived at key judgements for at least one aspect of their provision
• Follow up work: completing the draft judgements

Part 2:

This builds on the work done during and following part 1 and guides delegates through the writing of a draft self-assessment report, and the development of a strong quality improvement plan.

The contents include, as well as other topics, the following:

• Feedback on draft judgements compiled between part 1 and part 2
• Writing the draft self-assessment report: introduction to evaluative writing; structure of the report and what goes where; tackling complex reports
• Practical work: drafting evaluative text in support of the draft judgements prepared between sessions. By the end of the session delegates will have drafted text to support at least one of their draft judgements
• Moderating the draft self-assessment report
• Quality improvement planning: identify themes; setting objectives; specifying success criteria; keeping it simple
• Practical work compiling a draft quality improvement plan
• By the end of the session delegates will have planned action against at least one of their draft key improvement areas

The modular programme represents excellent value for money, giving you the opportunity to build a programme to meet your needs and giving delegates access to small group, team or even one-to-one support. By following the programme, you will save the otherwise wasted time and effort that would go into producing an ineffective self-assessment report.  You will become confident in your knowledge, as to how to fully meet Ofsted requirements and, most importantly, how to drive further improvements, so that you continue to provide a great service for your learners.

This in depth one-day Ofsted Successful Self-Assessment Reports course is a completely new course.  It will be of value to managers and leaders at all levels within Ofsted providers, who are subject to inspection under the Education Inspection Framework for Further Education and Skills.

This learning programme will be especially valuable to managers and leaders, who are responsible for preparing a self-assessment report under the Education Inspection Framework for Further Education and Skills.  They may be responsible for a single site or curriculum area, or for an entire organisation.

It is essential for those managers responsible for teaching and learning, who will have a direct role in preparing and presenting the self-assessment report work to inspectors. It is also of interest to those responsible for other areas, for example, employer engagement, learner support, human resources, finance and information.  They will often also contribute to the report and need to understand the process.

It is equally as relevant to managers from sub-contractor organisations, as it is to those who hold direct contracts.

This Ofsted Successful Self-Assessment Reports, along with most of our other best practice training workshops, can be delivered as an internal training course at your premises. Even with groups as small as 6 delegates, the course fees per person for internal training workshops can be lower than for open events. The potential savings are even greater, if the  travel costs and travel time of the delegates are included.

Running training workshops internally is very convenient many of our clients and allows the participants to explore how key issues will impact on them and their organisation. Then as a team they can begin to agree upon development action plans and assign priorities. This approach is favoured by many of our clients as it combines a high quality service with excellent value for money and is a highly effective route for staff development.

Please Click Here to explore running this as an In-House Course   

This course is recognised for CPD purposes by most professional institutes and associations including the Law Society, the CIM, the CMI, the ICAEW, the Institute of Learning and the CIPD. Formal Certificates of Professional Development will be issued to delegates who successfully complete this course. These certificates will enable participants to evidence the update of their CPD records. The workshop will consider how to best apply the knowledge gained by the delegates upon their return to the workplace. This element of the programme is designed to maximise the benefits of attending and enable participants to make valued judgements when recording CPD activities.

Please Click Here to explore running this as an In-House Course