- ISI supports all schools and stakeholders in understanding the nature and reach of the Standards, and how the assurance and inspection process works. As part of this framework, and to support ongoing engagement with and understanding of the assurance process, ISI will continue to develop ways to disseminate its expert knowledge.
- ISI, through this inspection framework, aims to extend understanding of the assurance framework in a way that helps schools, their governors and leaders, to embed effective quality assurance.
- Inspection forms a part of the wider assurance framework and should not be seen as the only form of quality assurance. Internal school-based quality assurance, captured in a dynamic self-evaluation and review format, can support schools in their pursuit of excellence and provide assurance to governors and relevant external agencies.
- ISI has developed with schools a clear and supportive self-evaluation format that will help
schools to articulate their accountability. The inspection framework will support this as it
contains all aspects of the Standards.
- Schools may choose to use the structure of the inspection framework for their ongoing self-evaluation of provision. Inspectors will consider a school’s self-evaluation in any form that schools use for their own quality assurance processes. Inspection should always be a robust and rigorous independent external evaluation of the school’s provision. ISI believes that this can work alongside schools’ own internal processes and that there is benefit when internal and external systems speak to each other.
- ISI supports even greater engagement with schools in developing their own internal ongoing assurance processes which are aligned to the external quality assurance process that inspection provides. ISI believes this will enhance strong provision and have a positive outcome for pupils across all aspects of school life.