Inspection is designed to provide an evaluation of an organisation across the broad spectrum of its activities. The main emphasis of the inspection and of the report will be on the education/training provision and outcomes, as seen in the quality of the learners’ recent standards and achievements and of the learning and teaching. There is also an emphasis on the leadership and management of the whole organisation and how this contributes to improvement.
As part of their evaluations, the Education and Training Inspectorate (ETI) make use of a range of contributing evidence, including the ethos and relationships within the learning environment, the quality of the planning for learning, the structure and sequence of the lessons/sessions, the appropriateness of the teaching strategies employed, the quality and progression of the learning demonstrated by the learners, the standards and outcomes achieved by the learners, the use of assessment by the teacher/lecturer/tutor to provide or enable feedback to the learner, and the effectiveness of the resources, including ICT, deployed by the teacher/lecturer/tutor to support learning.
Gathering evidence to inform evaluation on inspection involves:
- Observing lessons/session
- Engaging with the learners
- Professional engagement, interaction and exchange with the staff during the inspection process
- Analysis and use of data
- Meetings with staff and governors
- Scrutiny of key documentation
- Scrutiny of the learners’ work
- Inspecting safeguarding/child protection
- Indicating health and safety risks if noted