Update…Update…Update…Not All OFSTED buttons are created equal…

Originally posted on the 17th February 2015, this Blog created somewhat of a stir and resulted in some very interesting and enlightening discussions with School Leaders and Schools Inspectors. These discussions have led us to review the original blog and add a final section on when and how providing a specific OFSTED button/page/section would be appropriate.

Providing Information for OFSTED Inspectors

Should there be a specific page on your School website?

We recently published an article on OFSTED Compliant websites in which we explain why it is essential that a School knows if its website is compliant or not. Click here to read the specific Blog

We have since noticed that there is a growing trend for Schools to provide a button or link to a specific page within their website on which they have collated all of the Statutory Information that OFSTED require them publish. These buttons or links are often titled ‘Information for Inspectors’.

Whilst we want every school to satisfy the OFSTED requirements for statutory website content and whilst we want every OFSTED Inspector to be able to locate this information within a School website very easily, we would ask that you resist the temptation to provide one of these buttons or links.

Why not make it easy for the OFSTED Inspectors to find this content?

For most Schools the audience for their website consists of staff, pupils and their extended families, Governors, prospective pupils and their families and the wider School Community.

The very reason that OFSTED require you to publish statutory content on your School website is so as to ensure that this wider School Community can find all of the relevant information on your school, easily and presented in a straightforward and logical manner.

Why would you consider making it easier for an OFSTED Inspector to locate relevant information about your School than you would do for your wider School Community?

If your website has been designed and set out in a logical manner, the OFSTED Inspector will be able to locate the statutory content with ease. More importantly, in doing so, they will navigate throughout your website, viewing other content on School Life that you have worked so hard to publish and in this way see for themselves the efforts you have made to engage and inform your School Community via your website.

So instead of the Inspectors just ticking boxes, let them see what makes your School tick.

However…..

When an OFSTED Inspector makes contact with your School to advise you that they will be attending at a specific date and time to undertake an inspection, there is a way in which you can provide a discrete, secure area on your website that will allow the OFSTED Inspector(s) to view and inspect specific, confidential School performance data that will be relevant to their planned inspection.

There is, we are told, an accepted protocol for advising a School of an imminent inspection and for then subsequently confirming the names, contact details and qualifications of the inspectors who will be in attendance. On completion of this process it can then be quite straightforward for the School to provide the Inspector(s) with access to a secure page or pages on your School website that contains the confidential pupil performance data for your School.

In providing this information to the Inspectors prior to the visit, you and your team have an opportunity to provide them with access to data and information that may mitigate or explain an issue your School may appear to have with say the Performance tables which, if viewed without sight of the relevant supporting data may lead to the Inspector(s) forming an unfair opinion of your School Prior to crossing the threshold.

In all likelihood, the information available within this secure area will (hopefully) only be accessed infrequently by OFSTED Inspectors and the ‘signpost’ to this information should not be in everyone’s face every time they look at your site. Instead, a small OFSTED Inspectors menu item at the very top or at the very bottom of your website will suffice.

This would, in our opinion be a very good way of providing relevant supporting information to an OFSTED Inspector.

If you would like to benchmark your School Website against the OFSTED requirements, please follow this link and register for our free OFSTED Ready Website Report.