The new Ofsted Academy has published its first inspector training materials as the watchdog attempts to increase transparency – but only for school inspectors so far.
FE Week’s sister publication Schools Week revealed in January that the inspectorate would establish the platform to bring together its “specialist inspection and regulation learning under one roof”.
Ofsted was criticised in 2022 for refusing to publish “aide memoires” – training guides that summarise inspection criteria – given to inspectors after some were leaked online.
Today, Ofsted uploaded the Academy’s first content – six inspector training videos.
It is part of a range of measures implemented following the ruling last year that an Ofsted inspection contributed to the death of headteacher Ruth Perry.
The watchdog had already made its mental health awareness training for inspectors available on its YouTube channel earlier this year.
But the materials released today are specifically for training school inspectors.
An Ofsted spokesperson claimed separate materials for FE and skills inspectors and other remits will be released at a later date.
“More recordings of training given to inspectors working in the other areas that Ofsted inspects and regulates will be published in the near future,” the spokesperson said.
Six videos published
Some of the videos uploaded today are from Ofsted’s spring 2024 inspector conference. They include an introduction from national education director Lee Owston.
Other videos set out how inspectors can set off “on the right foot”, how to get “beneath the surface” and understand context and impact and how to inspect attendance “well”.
There are also general training videos from the early autumn term that set out how to inspect “in the best interest of children” and about the inspection data summary report (IDSR).
Chief inspector Sir Martyn Oliver, said: “At the start of my term as His Majesty’s Chief Inspector, I committed to publishing training materials for inspectors through the Ofsted Academy.
“I’m pleased to be publishing this first collection of school inspector training today. I hope that by sharing it in context, and making our training visible, we can really open up Ofsted to those we inspect and regulate.”
The training materials are published on a free-to-access external platform.
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