Owen Evans, Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector’s speech 17 February 2022

First of all can I thank you for the opportunity to speak at this event and thanks Minister for your speech and your passion for the new curriculum. I’ve been in post for the rather paltry total of 48 days so as I keep telling my colleagues, please don’t expect any pearls of wisdom.

Firstly, I’d like to pay tribute to my predecessor, Meilyr Rowlands, and also to my colleague, Claire Morgan, who’s held the fort over the past few months. It’s an honour to step into a strong and talented organisation that acts professionally across the country. I also know that the “call” from Estyn causes the same concern for some of you as a visit to the dentist, as I discovered over Christmas when a friend of mine, who’s a headteacher (I won’t name him), congratulated me on the job but with the request ‘don’t feel you need to call’.

What I’d like to talk about this afternoon is to perhaps talk about my journey here, a little about our approach this year to return to inspections, but with a sympathetic ear. I’d like to talk about the curriculum, it’s importance and how Estyn is adapting, as we all must and finally about some changes in approach from us at Estyn.

My journey here has been indirect to say the least. From my home town in Aberystwyth through north and south Wales, England and Scotland my career hasn’t been straightforward. I don’t try to hide the fact that I’m not from an inspection background but someone who’s worked across the private, third and public sectors, most recently leading S4C through probably its greatest changes in living memory. I was, of course, involved in education for several years in Welsh Government and more recently chaired Cardiff’s Education Development Board. I have a track record of leading change and, yes, over time I will be looking at every aspect of our work and how we can improve on our impact. I will need the support of my colleagues though and equally I will need your support as we discuss new ideas and new ways of working, retaining the best elements of our work but also trialling new ways of working. In that respect I’m looking forward to meeting you over the coming months and years as I learn and begin to float ideas about how we adapt to serve the future of education here in Wales.

Before I start though I’d like to thank all of you and your staff for the fantastic work that you have done during the past couple of years to support learners’ wellbeing and progress. The leadership shown in just keeping the show on the road has been considerable and the innovation, particularly around digital communications and blended learning have been a revelation.  Your response continues to be remarkable, and I think in the finest traditions of the profession.  

It’s been a time for significant changes for Estyn too. We paused our normal activities in favour of supporting the sectors and curriculum development. That was, I think, the right decision and one that has allowed us to build a different relationship with many of you. Indeed, I think over the past couple of years the experience of spending more time on lighter touch, support orientated engagement has stood us in good stead and has improved our relations with practitioners and this is something that I’d like to build on for the future.

We’ve seen leadership abilities grow as we’ve coped with unforeseen challenges and the need to re-evaluate normal practices. The pandemic has forced you to think differently about everything that you do, question long-established ways of working and take decisive action.   

The pandemic has also led to rapid development of both pure and blended online learning, something that I think we all need to keep hold of as we return to what will be a ‘new normal’.

One of my first decisions at Estyn, day two as I remember, was to agree to the postponement of our pilot inspections until after half term. I do get the fact that there are many competing demands for your attention. Not least changes to the curriculum, coping with the changes in the qualifications regime, improving the quality of teaching but yes frequently just trying to keep the show on the road as the pandemic went through its various stages and you found yourself short of teachers on a Sunday evening.

We faced our own challenges. We re-focused our work on a lighter touch but retained our focus on supporting schools in more depth when required. It’s notable that during the pandemic, work was underway to ensure that several schools have come out of follow up categories and I would like to congratulate the leaders and staff from these schools.  We also adapted to the fact that we haven’t had core data sets and that there were, naturally, gaps in pupils’ books but we were still able to carry out our work and form robust evaluations.  We focused on the school’s processes and provision and any evidence of impact that we could see.  All schools and PRUs in category have had a pastoral HMI who has been in communication with the school throughout the pandemic.  This has helped us to understand better the context and challenges of each school and adapt our work accordingly.  

Our inspection and engagement work during 2021−2022 has focussed on supporting renewal and reform and we will continue to do so but I strongly believe that we do need to get back to the business of assurance and inspection. Whilst we will be sympathetic, we must also now plan to establish what will become a new normal, ready for unexpected events, but experienced in how to deal with them.  

To demonstrate this approach, In our new framework, which will soon be piloted with a small number of providers in the spring term, we will focus on ensuring that how we inspect supports a positive mindset. We will discuss at the start of every inspection how you feel the pandemic has affected you. We will be listening.  

The framework will have subtle new emphases, the main changes being a stronger focus on: 

• agile and responsive leadership  
• the culture for safeguarding, not just the policies and arrangements 
• A strengthened link between professional learning and quality of teaching​  

To support this, our approach to inspection must be:  

• Fair and impartial but also
• Supportive – we will work to guide providers to implement improvements that benefit learners.
• Importantly we will encourage innovation and recognise good intentions. We will support educational reform. We will also, and I think critically, praise innovation, even if you fail. Estyn has its part in making Wales a safe space to try new ways and to explore new approaches. We are not here to stifle your innovation.     
• We will be reflective and open-minded. We will listen to a wide range of stakeholders and reflect on their responses.
• We will be Transparent – we will be well informed and communicate clearly, directly and succinctly. More on that later. We will use efficient and effective inspection methodologies but critically we will use them to respond to the provider’s unique situation. We will plan inspection activity and report on strengths and weaknesses in ways that reflect the particular circumstances of each individual provider. We hope that this will promote trust and mutual respect.  

We hope that our work with schools and PRUs causing concern during the last few terms has provided reassurance about our approach and understanding of the ongoing challenges facing your schools. 

By the way can I take this opportunity to thank those of you who have been in touch to nominate your school as a pilot inspection and also those of you who have attended the first of our peer inspector update training events. Your role as peer inspectors continues to be a key part of our inspection approach and an area where I’d like to see us increase our training provision.

Our pilot inspections will be an important opportunity for us to refine our inspection methodology.  We will learn together. We hope that the removal of summative gradings will make inspection less high stakes and will ensure a stronger focus on the evaluations and feedback presented by the team. The key for us is that our work is accessible, constructive and that can facilitate positive change.  

For those looking for the detail of the next steps:

• our Inspections in spring term will commence from 28 February 2022 (Stage 1 pilots – around 20 schools and PRUs
• We will be removing summative gradings but we will provide a stronger narrative with a deeper focus on strengths and areas for improvement
• There will be an increased focus on progress on the curriculum for Wales and adapting to the changes brought forward by the ALN Act
• And finally there will be an Increased focus on safeguarding culture 

We will continue the pilot inspections into the summer but with one critical difference in that we will be selecting those schools based on a range of criteria, including the time elapsed since their last core inspection (Stage 2 pilots). It’s worth emphasising that this term will see the first schools that we have selected rather than via volunteers.

We anticipate the Full roll-out from September 2023 – Summer 2024 (end of 8-year cycle) 

It won’t be a surprise that a major theme of our on-going work will be our support for the Curriculum for Wales.

I was working in the Welsh Government back in the days when the new curriculum was a glint in the eye of the then Minister. I had the privilege to work with Graham and others as he wrote the blueprint. I remember his field work talking to educators across Wales as he assembled his thoughts on what was wrong and how a new curriculum could re-energise education in Wales. A chance conversation with a colleague this week reminded me about his reflections on a work force tied down with guidance on every facet of the curriculum, tied down by the inability to design their own ways of working and to use their own experience and skill and possibly most importantly, afraid to take chances.

Roll on a few years and here I am. Estyn has a key role in ensuring that the new curriculum is a success. Estyn, like all of the education sector, has needed to adapt and adapt we will. We understand that a one size fits all approach to the new curriculum won’t work. We will recognise that every school will have applied the principles of the new curriculum depending on their own local situation and vision. We understand that some are ahead and some behind on their journey. We also recognise that the curriculum won’t be a success unless schools learn from schools and also get the support they need to implement the changes required. It’s a time when we all need to show a bit of leadership in ensuring this works.

I have mentioned several times that we are sympathetic to what the sector as a whole has been through over the past couple of years. Now is the time though to be planning and working for the future. As I mentioned we too have to adapt.

As I’ve mentioned we’re adapting and perhaps I can elaborate a little on how we will be approaching our evaluation of curriculum development.

• We will be evaluating the extent to which learning experiences stimulate and challenge the full range of pupils 
• We will approach innovation and flexibility of approach in a positive way 
• We will consider how well curriculum builds systematically and coherently 
• We will consider the extent the curriculum provides pupils with a suitable breadth and depth of experiences across a range of learning experiences and subjects 
• And we will consider how leaders have established a clear, strategic rationale for the curriculum in terms of its benefits for pupils in preparing them to learn throughout their lives and play a full part in society 

Moving on, and finally, perhaps a few words about some of my priorities as the new Chief Inspector.

As someone who’s recently been part of Cardiff authority’s educational journey, where I chaired the city’s Education Development Board, I recognise the pressures that an inspection creates. But I’ve also seen that if we ask the right questions, understand your situation, and then offer an insight into the experience that’s been built in Estyn, the whole process should be challenging but also constructive, and ultimately a positive one that enables any educational organisation to improve. That’s my ambition for all our work. As part of ensuring that, I believe that there are improvements that we can make in terms of targeting and packaging our work, particularly around our thematic work.  

I truly believe that we produce high quality work. The reports on Peer-to-Peer Sexual Harassment and also on language immersion are powerful examples of what we can achieve. And if you haven’t read them, I’d encourage you to take a peek. But I understand fully the pressure that you all face from day to day and the lack of time that’s available across education. So, Estyn must provide a correct summary of our findings to ensure that you’re presented with the important messages.  

I asked a few colleagues last week how many of them had read our annual report cover to cover and there was quite a bit of shuffling. It won’t surprise you hopefully then that there’s work underway already to make this year’s more accessible and hopefully useful. I hope, also, that you’ll start to see a shift towards providing more accessible reviews and reports, with concise summaries and tailored versions for our various stakeholders, you the profession, but also for learners and indeed parents and governors and even policy makers.

Impact is my main goal and through such measures I hope that Estyn can build on its work to provide the assurance and support you require as we all seek to improve day to day for the benefit of learners across Wales.

Diolch yn fawr.