Estyn to halve review warning

THE amount of time schools are given to prepare for inspections will be halved.

Education watchdog Estyn currently gives 20 working days’ notice of an inspection to schools – but planned changes will see teachers’ preparation time scaled back to just 10.

The alteration will happen in stages, with 15 working days’ notice being given from the start of Estyn’s new inspection framework in September 2017.

Following an extensive consultation on the way education providers will be inspected moving forward, chief inspector Meilyr Rowlands said it was the inspectorate’s intention to cut schools’ preparation time further within the coming years.

But he said there were no plans to introduce controversial “no-notice inspections”, introduced across the border in September 2012.

Currently, Estyn is free to decide how long it gives schools to prepare for an inspection, but it is bound by regulations that stipulate schools must provide at least three weeks’ notice for pre-inspection parents’ meetings.

Mr Rowlands said: “I don’t think no-notice inspections were ever on the cards because in Wales there is a statutory requirement for parents’ meetings and also when we consulted there was a very strong feeling that parent questionnaires and, in fact, learner questionnaires should be retained.

“The intention is to reduce to a 10 day notice period .

“We’ll probably do that in stages; we’ll go down to 15 in the first instance – in September 2017 – and then go down to 10 a year or two after that.”