Your views matter!
The Education and Training Inspectorate value and seek out the views of a wide range of stakeholders during an inspection. These views inform the inspection evidence base and are reported within the inspection report.
Discussions with children and young people take place regarding their pastoral well-being and aspects of their learning experiences and curriculum. In addition, on full inspections, in primary schools year 7 children and all post-primary pupils have the opportunity to complete a confidential, online questionnaire to express their views on their experiences of school life.
Parental confidential, online questionnaires are issued for all full, baseline monitoring and some follow-up inspections. This provides a valuable opportunity to ascertain the views of the parents regarding the life and work of the school. A parent may also request a meeting with the Reporting Inspector during an inspection.
Staff confidential, online questionnaires are issued for all full, baseline monitoring and some follow-up inspections. This provides an opportunity to obtain the views of teachers and support staff on the work and life of the school. Importantly, this allows staff to express their views on how the needs of the children and young people are being met, and how the staff are supported by leadership including the board of governors. In addition, discussions with inspectors focus on the school’s actions to promote improvement and the impact of the work.
During follow-up inspections, the inspection team meet with key members of staff and a representative of the employing authority to discuss the work of the school in relation to addressing the areas for improvement. The inspection team also meet with the Education Authority to discuss support provided and actions taken by the school in relation to improvement work.
Meetings with governors provide opportunities to discuss the work of the school and review governance to ensure that the best interests of the children and young people and staff are being met A key focus of these discussions is on self-evaluation and how the due diligence of governance is applied.