We have all seen the significant shift in the importance of your school website to OFSTED as a key source of information. OFSTED have (to a point) kept schools informed of the requirements but there are regular developments which need highlighting again and again.

Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector, Sir Michael Wilshaw has stated that he has “decided not to move to routinely inspecting schools without notice”. However, he did write to the Secretary of State last week (25th November 2014) to explain his reasons for a number of no-notice inspections and it is clear that a significant number of these were due to the school website not meeting the expected requirements.

“Out of 35 schools that were subject to ‘no notice’ inspections recently, 11 of those were “primarily because they were failing in their legal duty to publish their curriculum plans on their website.” (Sir Michael’s Letter to the Secretary of State, 25th November 2014)

We are really very keen to ensure that all schools who use our website system ensure that their governors are fulfilling their obligations and so we are rolling out the following services to support you and help you have an OFSTED ready school website with immediate effect:

1. OFSTED READY WEBSITE AUDIT – When we create you a website we will encourage you to make sure you have covered your OFSTED bases and help you with this, but there is clearly a need for a more detailed service. We will review your website and highlight anything that you need to change to make you website ready for OFSTED. We will provide a checklist for you to work against. You can request this service at any time and is worth doing at least once a year. Contact Us for more information.
   Cost – £350+vat
2. TRAINING – Is your website OFSTED ready? – we will run these sessions throughout the year and you will be kept up to date with everything you need to know to make sure you’re prepped online for an inspection. We would recommend at least one member of staff attending this session at least twice a year as things change so frequently and your content gets out of date faster than any of us like.
   Cost – £125+vat per person, per session

OFSTED website checks are becoming more and more a part of the inspection process and will do all we can to help you meet this requirement. We cannot guarantee this will always be 100% accurate naturally, but we are well placed to keep ahead of the game and are here to support you.