Student-led inspections?
8th June, 2007This post has been submitted by a guest contributor to Flux – we are delighted to welcome Samia Meah, of the Edge Learner Forum, who would like to hear your thoughts about their proposed student-led school inspection – an alternative OFSTED.
Find out more about The Edge Learner Forum in the latest issue of VISION.
Edge Instead – Help From Within: A radical new youth-led inspection
The idea of a ‘Teenage OFSTED‘ surfaced while fellow learner forum member Huda Al Bander and I were brainstorming for our article in VISION. It came from our thought of using young people to solve problems which are about education and an example of this is school and its OFSTED inspections. The idea is simple, to bring young inspectors into a school to interview pupils for their opinions and to find the truth. These young people have been in schools undergoing inspections so they would know exactly what is going on.
The Edge Learner Forum has created a proposal of this idea after running a workshop together and we came up with Edge Instead – Help From Within. We aim to provide a service ‘for the school, by the school’. The student inspection team will be made up of Edge Learner Forum inspectors and we will train school pupils to work with us too. This creates an inspection team which will never leave the school, when the Edge inspectors leave the students will remain which means the help will remain. We would do this by blending in with the school atmosphere and creating a situation where students can talk openly without worrying about what other teachers may say. We will be a positive presence in the school by being non-judgemental and offering constructive feedback. This will create a non-stress environment for the school.
Edge Instead’s objective is to work from within the school by working with pupils and staff using:
- Randomly selected on-the-spot interviews with students
- A ‘diary room’ area where students can talk to us confidentially
- Interviews with staff on their own and in groups
- Workshops involving pupils and staff mixed to track the school’s progress and identify areas for development.
An Edge Instead inspection would benefit schools because:
- We can identify areas of improvement and work with the school to achieve them
- This can be a great way to improve the school before actual OFSTED inspections
- We will give an honest view of the schools progress from the student’s perspective and increase participation by students.
- Any report we put together will be entirely confidential so the schools reputation is not at risk.
- We can provide practical suggestions for change between students and staff.
- We believe we can have a positive impact on the student’s motivation and improve the relationships between student and teacher.
We’d really like to hear what you think about the proposed student inspection, and particularly about the two questions below:
- What can we do to motivate staff to get involved and engage with us?
- What concerns do you think school leaders may have and how can we persuade them to see us as a positive group to invite into their school?
Futurelab is always looking for ideas. Find out how you can 
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Tim Reader
June 12th, 2007 at 4:48 pm
It’s always good to link with like-minded people. I work in Bolton at a large 11-18 high school and have, for several years, brought together Bolton’s young people to look at how they can be engaged in real leadership roles within their schools and wider communities.
Bolton has its own participation standards and I have adopted them to meet school self evaluation on Voice and Participation ready for Ofsted visits.
With Ofsted in mind, we have also considered how to use the capacity of our young people – we have SIPs (School Improvement Partners) but want to develop PIPs (Pupil Improvement Partners). We have also looked at how young people can be used in a role of validating schools in their healthy schools accreditation. The Healthy Schools Team is currently exploring this.
If you check on the Innovation Unit website you will see how Bolton is involved in a field trial looking at next practice on personalisation. We are keen to learn from anyone who is already moving towards real leadership roles for young people. How do we link to your developments on student-led inspections?
June 12th, 2007 at 4:54 pm
So…. how do we motivate staff? I believe the tipping point is now being reached when adults know they cannot do all this alone. There are more young people out there in schools who want to be developed in school improvement.
Another tool being explored is the UNICEF UK model of “Join It All Up” with the work on Rights Respecting Schools (recently developed in Hampshire) This places United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child at the heart of a school’s ethos.
The Specialist Schools and Academies Trust in the North West have just brought 250 young people together to explore how RRS might enhance young people’s “voice” agenda. It’s not just in voice (that can be ignored) but it is in rights – everyone’s rights.
Perhaps a school with an existing ethos of real particiaption for all its members would see student led inspections as the natural next step…. obviously we need to prepare for this though.
June 12th, 2007 at 11:34 pm
In my experience, if student leadership is built up slowly by students having genuine ownership of smaller projects and the budgets that go with them, they then can qualify with in-house leadership qualifications that enable them to take on larger challenges and greater qualification over time. This approach means that not only do you have students in important positions that are capable of delivering quality but also you have an understanding and respect for their position from others. Our leadership teams developed in-house OFSTED style inspections after four years of development. They found the challenge of this was greater than all the projects they had managed previously including curriculum design, managing facilities, running businesses, peer teaching and bidding for capital projects. I firmly believe that shared ownership of decision making in schools is vital but would urge that students be trained appropriately beforehand so they can have a greater chance of shared ownership of the procedure. The real issue with student leadership is in the micromanagement of the power relationships between students and teachers, I would argue that you need to make it extremely clear what areas are up for shared ownership and which are not before embarking on student inspections – what happens for example if students feel a teacher’s practice is consistently unacceptable?
I think we have much to learn from the Danish system in which students have their active involvement in the governing body protected by legislation and regularly have control over parts of the school budget.
June 18th, 2007 at 1:01 pm
What a great idea!
It has parallels with thinking in social housing in having tenant-led inspection of social landlords.
June 21st, 2007 at 1:44 pm
@Ingrid – best advice is to contact Rose Dowling at Edge Learner forums:
http://www.edge.co.uk/docs/listens/forum/
(her email address at the bottom of the page)
Thanks for dropping by.
Tim
June 2nd, 2008 at 2:58 pm
[...] Pupils in South Camden Community School have conducted their own alternative, student-led Ofsted inspection that goes by the name ‘Instead’. The initiative was founded by Edge Learner Forum, an enterprising group of 13 to 21-year-olds, uniting pupils from schools across London – along with 7 other areas around the country – to discuss issues concerning their own education. Samia Meah writes here about the idea and how it came about: The idea of a ‘Teenage OFSTED‘ surfaced while fellow learner forum member Huda Al Bander and I were brainstorming for our article in VISION. It came from our thought of using young people to solve problems which are about education and an example of this is school and its OFSTED inspections. The idea is simple, to bring young inspectors into a school to interview pupils for their opinions and to find the truth. [...]