Ofsted as a SENCO: Part 2 – on the day

Penny Whelan explains what to expect on the day of an inspection in the role of a SENCO, in the second of this two-part series

Timetable of events

Briefing

8:00 AM: The inspectors came into school, met with the SLT and set out the agenda for the day. They were fully prepared to be led by us in terms of timings for observing sessions etc, which was great. I was told that one of the three inspectors would be spending the morning with me discussing SEND, whilst the others observed some other sessions and carried out ‘deep dives’ into early reading, maths, music and history.

8:15 AM: The inspectors met the staff and introduced themselves and what they would be doing. The aim was to make the staff feel more at ease, and I believe this is exactly what they did.

Morning observations

8:30 AM – Lunch time: I spent the rest of the morning with one of the inspectors discussing SEND provision in the school and what we do. We discussed these topics:

• How we identify SEND pupils within the school
• How we record SEND pupils on our register and the criteria we use for putting them into different categories
• Communication with parents of SEND pupils
• EHCP pupils within the school and the breakdown of particular needs in different year groups
• Intervention groups within the school and how these were chosen, organised, monitored and reviewed
• Our ‘Assess, Plan, Do, Review’ cycle within school and how we organised our Learning Plans/Individual Education Plans (IEPs)

I also had the opportunity to tell the inspector anything else I felt they should know or that was relevant to help them understand our school approach (so maybe have a list of things prepared that you want to mention!).

10.30 AM: The inspector identified several pupils from the SEND register they wanted to see. They chose a couple of EHCP children, a couple from our SEND support category and a couple from our Monitor category. They asked me what support they should each have and what we should see happening for them, before we visited the lessons those pupils were in.

They spoke to the pupils’ teachers and focussed on talking to the TAs supporting them. They asked what their needs were, how work was adapted for them, how they broke things down and the approaches they were using.

11:00 AM: We went to visit an intervention group that was running with a small group of pupils who were doing an English lesson in a separate small group/set from the rest of the year group.

We observed the beginning of the lesson before moving on to another classroom, but I felt that we hadn’t been able to see the best parts of the learning, so I asked if we could come back again at the end. The inspector was more than happy to do this; they could then see what I wanted them to see and I was pleased I felt confident enough to ask for this to happen.

This was mainly my part done! But the inspector did have some additional questions around our interventions and expressed these in the team meeting at the end of the first day. I was told that a different inspector would be spending a short amount of time with me the next day just to discuss those questions, which I was grateful for. I wasn’t entirely certain I’d been very eloquent at explaining what we do and why, so I was determined that I would be ready the next day.

Day 2

I asked our English Lead (who is also a former SENCO and a very experienced and confident SEND teacher) to be with me as support for the meeting on the second day, and we came armed with all the evidence and answers we felt we needed to share. The inspector was totally in agreement with what we said and the rationale behind what we do, and could see the positive impact it was having – so we went away happy!

I will just say that this second meeting was a good opportunity to:

1. Revisit any uncertainties from the first day, with time to prepare and feel confident and ready in what I wanted to say.
2. Have someone else with me as a confidence booster and backup! If you need/want someone with you, just ask.

It’s important to note that whilst the deep dives and other areas of the curriculum were being looked into, the other inspectors were also looking for how well different subjects were scaffolded and adapted to the needs of SEND pupils. They asked subject leaders how they made provision for SEND pupils and how well the curriculum was adapted for them in terms of resources and expectations, as well as what progress SEND pupils made and how they monitored this. This formed a large part of the judgement for SEND within the school and checks to ensure that there is a whole-school approach to supporting pupils with additional needs.

Other topics covered

The inspectors also spent time talking to staff about wellbeing, mental health, workload and support from SLT and colleagues. They chatted with parents at pick-up and drop-off times and spoke to small groups of pupils about different things. They spent time in the dinner hall and on the playground at lunch time, looking at behaviour and how the children interacted with each other and the staff.

Safeguarding and the Single Central Record were also (naturally) big parts of the inspection and were thoroughly looked into.

Inspection summary

At the end of the inspection, the inspectors fed back to the SLT and then to the SLT and governors jointly, and we then fed back to the whole staff. We were given the chance to take copious amounts of notes which allowed us to give a lot of detail to everyone, which we knew wouldn’t be written into the final report.

We were given every possible opportunity to showcase and explain what we do, why we do it and the impact, as well as the chance to challenge anything we felt we needed to from the inspectors. As someone who has been through several Ofsted inspections in the past, our experience was actually very positive and we felt we were well listened to and given the opportunity to represent ourselves well. I know this is, very sadly, not everyone’s experience, and I’ll reiterate that this article is purely intended to be informative of my experience in the hope that it helps others to feel more comfortable and prepared for what is still currently the process for schools in the UK.