A guide to the inspection process

Guidelines for Section 50 Inspectors

How we inspect

Section 50 inspectors will not give an overall grade or grades for each inspection area. The text of the report will reflect a thorough evaluation of the school’s Collective Worship, Christian ethos, Religion, Values and Ethics relevant to the school’s context, and impact of leadership on the Christian ethos of the school. Fundamentally inspectors are looking at how effective the school is as a Church in Wales school.

Reports will follow the same basic template. However, there will be variation on what inspectors report on within each inspection area depending on the context of the school and what of significance is found in each school.

Inspectors may report ‘by exception’ where there are notable strengths or weaknesses.

Inspectors will scrutinise documentation, including, for example, self-evaluation, school development plan, policies, and learners' work in Religion, Values and Ethics, as part of the evidence-gathering process.

Where inspectors identify any interesting or innovative practice that is worthy of sharing, they may describe this in the Spotlight box on the report and will invite the school to complete a case study. These will be published on the Church in Wales website.

AFL/Progression in Religion, Values and Ethics (RVE)

When evaluating the quality of feedback from teachers and other practitioners, inspectors should consider how well verbal and written feedback helps learners to know how well they are doing, what they need to do to improve, and how they can improve their work.

Inspectors should base their evaluation of pupils’ learning on evidence from lesson observations, learning walks, discussions with pupils and scrutiny of their written, practical, creative and digital work.

Religion, Values and Ethics (RVE) Curriculum

Inspectors should evaluate the school’s RVE curriculum in a flexible and positive way. There is no set curriculum model for RVE, however schools should be following the Church in Wales Supporting Guidance for RVE. Inspectors should also consider the RVE curriculum in the overall context of the school as a church school and the wider implementation of the Curriculum for Wales.

When evaluating a school’s curriculum, inspectors should consider how well the school is aligning the development and delivery of their curriculum to the Christian ethos and theologically rooted vision of the school. Inspectors should consider how the choices leaders and staff are making align with this vision to support pupils to make progress in their knowledge, skills and understanding of RVE.

Teaching and Assessment

When evaluating teaching and assessment, inspectors should note that there is no preferred methodology that teachers should follow, and that teachers may use a range of different approaches over time. The key consideration is whether classroom practice is successful in engaging all learners and developing their skills, knowledge, understanding and experiences in RVE to an appropriately high level as they move through the school.

RVE within the Curriculum for Wales can offer a distinctive contribution to the realisation of the four purposes for all learners. As such, the Church in Wales guidance supports schools and settings in developing provision for RVE that prepares learners in Wales for life and work in a fast-changing and diverse world, as responsible and informed citizens. The guidance can be found here.

RVE is situated within the Humanities Area and incorporates a range of disciplinary approaches that can be used by learners to engage critically with a broad range of religious and non-religious concepts. For example, disciplinary approaches relevant to RVE may include religious studies, philosophy, theology, sociology, psychology, and anthropology. There are also strong relationships between RVE and the other disciplines within Humanities as well as with other Areas. The teaching of RVE must be objective, critical and pluralistic.

Concepts are important in RVE because they are central ideas that help learners to make sense of and interpret human experience, the natural world and their own place within it. Learners should have opportunities to explore RVE concepts through a variety of sub lenses which make up the RVE disciplinary lens. These concepts and sub lenses are set out in the Church in Wales RVE guidance here.

Curriculum design and development must incorporate, where appropriate, opportunities for learning and consideration of cross-cutting themes in the Curriculum for Wales. These cross-cutting themes are:

careers and work-related experiences
human rights
diversity
local, national and international contexts
relationships and sexuality education.

It is also important that the cross-curricular skills of literacy, numeracy and digital competence, as well as the skills integral to the four purposes (creativity and innovation, critical thinking and problem solving, personal effectiveness, planning and organising) are considered in curriculum design.

When evaluating teaching and assessment, inspectors should use the full range of evidence available to them. This is likely to include evidence from learners’ work (including that completed online /digitally), teachers’ planning, assessment records, information on learners’ progress and discussions with learners and staff, as well as lesson observations and learning walks.

Guide to the Inspection Process

Ten school days before the inspection

Ten school days before the date of the inspection, the school will be contacted by telephone by the Section 50 Inspection and Foundation Governor Support Coordinator to inform them of the date of their inspection and the name of the inspector (and peer inspector/s if attending).

If the Central Education Office is unable to make contact with the school by telephone, they will send an email with details of the inspection, requesting confirmation of receipt.

The Section 50 Inspection and Foundation Governor Support Coordinator will email the appropriate Diocesan Director of Education and named local authority contact to inform them of the school to be inspected, the date of the inspection and the name of the inspector (and peer inspector/s, if attending).

The Section 50 Inspection and Foundation Governor Support Coordinator will email the school with links to a parent/carer letter and parent/carer survey for the school to circulate to all parents/carers as soon as possible and at least five school days before the inspection takes place. Links to learner surveys will also be emailed for use with learners in school up to five school days before the inspection.

Later the same day, the inspector will contact the school to speak with the headteacher or, in their absence, to the most senior member of staff available to arrange a discussion on the following:

The school’s Christian vision and its theological roots.
Information about how school is organised
Information about leadership and governance structure.
Key partners and collaborations, including church(es)
Number on roll (NOR)
Planned admissions number (PAN) and number of church places (VA)
Number of learners currently withdrawn from collective worship (if any) and the number of families this represents
Information about RVE:
- How RVE is organised
- Who teaches RVE
- Syllabus followed (if secondary)
- Additional resources
Information about collective worship (if not outlined in policy or on website):
- How it is organised
- Who manages it
Contextual factors:
- ALN - is this above/below/in line with national averages
- Pupil deprivation - is this above/below/in line with national averages
- Ethnicity- how ethnically diverse is the school pupil population
- Percentage of learners who speak English as an Additional Language
- Pupil mobility
- Service children
- Attendance -percentage year to date/previous 12 months?
- Persistent absence - percentage year to date/previous 12 months?
- Exclusions- year to date/previous 12 months?
- Staff turnover, stability and recent significant appointments?
- Significant events in the life of the school, including trauma, bereavement etc.

The inspector will ask the school to forward its school development plan (SDP) and any self-evaluation documentation. The school may wish to complete the self-evaluation document 'How Effective are we as a Church school' which can be found in the Forms and Templates section of the website. However, this is not compulsory - schools may share existing self-evaluation documentation with the inspector.

The inspector and the school will agree the start and end time of the inspection. The inspection may start anytime between 8am and 12pm. If it starts between 8am and 9am, it should finish between 4-5pm on the same day. If it starts any later than 9am, the inspector will need to visit the school on a second day to see the beginning of the school day and to feed back to the school’s leadership team and governing body.

The inspector will ask the headteacher to begin to draw together some elements of the inspection day using the inspection timetable proforma. The inspection day will consist of a number of meetings that will largely provide opportunities for discussions about the lines of enquiry (LoE). It is likely therefore that the draft timetable will need to change before being finalised nearer the inspection following the inspector’s initial scrutiny of evidence.

A copy of the Section 50 timetable guidance that the inspector will share with the school can be found in the Forms and Templates section of the Church in Wales website.

During the week before the inspection

Once the inspector has received the school’s evidence, they will note inspection lines of enquiry (LoE) which can be found in the Forms and Templates section of the Church in Wales website.

The inspector will email the potential lines of enquiry to the school 48 hours before the start of the inspection. This is so that the school has insight into the type of evidence that the inspectors require. They will use the evidence provided by the school, as well as the school website and other publicly available information.

The day before the inspection, the inspector will telephone the headteacher to clarify understanding of the LoE and to finalise the timetable.

The day of the inspection

The school and inspector will have agreed a start and end time for the inspection. The school should ensure that the inspector has a private place to work.

At the end of the inspection, the inspector will provide the school with provisional findings together with any provisional areas for development, which are subject to quality assurance. Please note: provisional findings and provisional areas for development may change during the quality assurance process.

Representatives from the Diocesan Education Team will be spoken to as part of the evidence gathering process and they should be invited by the school to attend the final feedback meeting, either in person or via a video link.

The outcome of the inspection remains confidential to the school team and those present at the final feedback until the final report has been received.

The inspector will outline the timescale and protocol for the school’s receipt of the draft report for factual accuracy checks.

Should the school wish to raise a concern, that it has not been possible to resolve on the day of the inspection or which they have not felt comfortable raising during the final feedback, they should follow the Section 50 Complaints Policy, which is available from the Central Education Office.

After the inspection

The inspector will send the draft report to The Church in Wales Section 50 Co-ordinator within 15 working days of the inspection. The Section 50 Co-ordinator will then proofread the draft report before forwarding it to the school. If it is anticipated that there will be a delay to this timeline, the inspector will contact the headteacher to alert them to this.

If, during the Headteacher's quality assurance process, it is deemed that the findings are insecure, the inspector will make the appropriate changes and will inform the school immediately.

Once the quality assurance process is complete, the inspector will send the draft report to the headteacher for a final factual accuracy check. The school should respond within 24 hours of receipt. At this stage, only factually inaccurate amendments will be made, unless the inspection is subject to a complaint.

If the inspection is subject to a complaint when the draft report is received, or if the school decides at that point that they intend to raise a complaint, they should follow the appropriate policy and not accept the draft report.

The report will be proofread and formatted for a final time by the Section 50 Co-ordinator.

Once the report has been finalised, it must be published on the school’s website.

Leaders must draw up an action plan or include in the School Development Plan the steps that will be taken to address the recommendations identified by the inspector. They will be supported by their Diocesan Director of Education who will monitor the school’s progress in meeting the recommendations.

Where effective and innovative practice has been identified, a school may be asked to write a case study as a means of sharing this practice more widely.