which the school and the relevant authority is facilitating the transition to sponsored academy status. Once an inadequate maintained school or PRU has become a sponsored academy, or an inadequate academy has been to a new sponsor with a new funding agreement, these will be inspected as new schools, with their first inspection being a section 5 inspection, usually, in the third year of operation. If there is a delay in any school judged inadequate becoming a sponsored academy or being rebrokered to be sponsored by a new trust, Ofsted may initiate monitoring of the school to check on what progress has been made in tackling the areas for improvement. Maintained nursery schools and non-maintained special schools judged inadequate are not subject to academy orders and will be monitored by Ofsted as set out in this section of the handbook. Notification Prior to the first monitoring inspection of a school with serious weaknesses or that requires special measures, HMI will normally inform the school up to two days in advance of the inspection. This is to allow the relevant strategic partners (local authority, proprietor or board of trustees) to be present for discussion about support for the school and the likely pattern of monitoring. It will also enable as many members of the governing board, local governing body or trustees as possible and, where appropriate, the CEO/their delegate or equivalent of the multi-academy trust, to attend inspection feedback. For the second and any subsequent monitoring inspection, HMI will normally inform the school the day before the visit. If the headteacher is unavailable, the HMI should ask to to the most senior member of staff available. Once the inspection has been confirmed, HMI will inform the inspection support administrator at Ofsted, who will send formal notification to the school by email. Requests for a deferral will be handled in accordance with Ofsted’s policy about the deferral of inspections. If a school requests a deferral, HMI must contact the regional duty desk immediately. The deferral policy makes clear that the absence of the headteacher is not normally a reason for deferring an inspection. Guidance for inspecting schools that have serious weaknesses Introduction Schools are judged to have serious weaknesses where Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector (HMCI) is of the opinion that:
which the school and the relevant authority is facilitating the transition to sponsored academy status. Once an inadequate maintained school or PRU has become a sponsored academy, or an inadequate academy has been to a new sponsor with a new funding agreement, these will be inspected as new schools, with their first inspection being a section 5 inspection, usually, in the third year of operation. If there is a delay in any school judged inadequate becoming a sponsored academy or being rebrokered to be sponsored by a new trust, Ofsted may initiate monitoring of the school to check on what progress has been made in tackling the areas for improvement. Maintained nursery schools and non-maintained special schools judged inadequate are not subject to academy orders and will be monitored by Ofsted as set out in this section of the handbook. Notification Prior to the first monitoring inspection of a school with serious weaknesses or that requires special measures, HMI will normally inform the school up to two days in advance of the inspection. This is to allow the relevant strategic partners (local authority, proprietor or board of trustees) to be present for discussion about support for the school and the likely pattern of monitoring. It will also enable as many members of the governing board, local governing body or trustees as possible and, where appropriate, the CEO/their delegate or equivalent of the multi-academy trust, to attend inspection feedback. For the second and any subsequent monitoring inspection, HMI will normally inform the school the day before the visit. If the headteacher is unavailable, the HMI should ask to to the most senior member of staff available. Once the inspection has been confirmed, HMI will inform the inspection support administrator at Ofsted, who will send formal notification to the school by email. Requests for a deferral will be handled in accordance with Ofsted’s policy about the deferral of inspections. If a school requests a deferral, HMI must contact the regional duty desk immediately. The deferral policy makes clear that the absence of the headteacher is not normally a reason for deferring an inspection. Guidance for inspecting schools that have serious weaknesses Introduction Schools are judged to have serious weaknesses where Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector (HMCI) is of the opinion that:
school-inspection-handbook-section-8-short-inspections-september-2018.docx