1. Inspectors will consider the views of pupils, parents and staff. They will seek to triangulate the information they receive by considering connected inspection evidence.
  2. ISI invites pupils, parents and staff to complete confidential pre-inspection surveys online. At the time of notification, schools are asked to circulate the unique code by email wherever possible. This allows pupils, parents and staff to access the surveys for the specific inspection. The window for survey responses to be completed closes at 8:00 p.m. on the first day of the inspection.
  3. Hearing the views of pupils is an important aspect of inspection methodology and is triangulated with other inspection evidence. Inspectors will consider the views of pupils as expressed in the pupil survey responses, as well as through discussions with pupils. Inspectors will speak with pupils in lessons, around the school building and in arranged pupil discussion groups. In co-educational schools with secondary aged pupils, some of the discussions must be held in single sex groups. School leaders and staff will not be invited to join inspectors’ discussions with pupils. Where pupils have special educational needs and/or disabilities needs schools should ensure that prior to discussions with the pupils concerned, inspectors are aware of the nature of their needs and that appropriate steps have been taken to ensure that the pupil is prepared for the discussion. This includes asking the pupil how they would prefer to communicate, where they feel comfortable talking to inspectors and whether they would like their usual teaching assistant/teacher to be present during the discussion. Inspectors will be interested to hear from school leaders how pupil voice is heard and acted upon by the school. Inspectors will share the headline data from the pupil survey responses with the headteacher as well as any relevant themes emerging from the free text responses. However, inspectors will ensure that any information shared with the headteacher does not compromise the confidentiality of responses.