According to Chief Inspector Owen Evans, there is much to be proud of, but learners’ knowledge and skills remain weaker than they were before the pandemic. Schools and other providers face particular challenges in the delivery of literacy, numeracy and Welsh in English-medium schools. Wider issues such as learner absenteeism and the recruitment of teachers and support staff across a number of specialisms pose additional challenges for education leaders.

Owen Evans, Chief Inspector, says,

The strong commitment of educators across Wales is a source of pride, but it is clear that the shadow of the pandemic remains apparent on learners’ wellbeing and the progress they make. Weaker aspects of practice are holding back progress for too many learners and self-evaluation in schools and other providers needs to improve to strengthen the system.

The HMCI’s annual report looks back at findings from inspection and thematic reports over the last academic year. Following on from the publication of Estyn’s sector summaries in October, January’s full report offers detailed context and provides a much deeper insight into what’s working well and what needs to improve across the seventeen education and training sectors in Wales. Schools, non-maintained nursery settings, colleges, work-based learning apprenticeships, adult learning in the community, and initial teacher education are among the sectors featured.

With the aim of providing useful feedback for the education and training workforce, the annual report also provides a summary of each of the national thematic reports produced by Estyn this year, and to further support improvement, signposts to inspection reports and case studies from providers that were inspected and were found to be doing particularly well.

As well as responding to the recently published results of PISA 2022, the report evaluates education and training in the context of a range of key themes, many of which are fundamental to educators as they face the dual challenges of recovering from the COVID-19 pandemic and working to implement improvement focussed reforms.  

This year’s key themes include:

• attitudes to learning and attendance
• the Welsh language in education and training
• the implementation of Curriculum for Wales
• mitigating the impact of poverty on educational attainment
• education and support for refugees and asylum seekers.

Owen Evans, Chief Inspector continued,

Educators across Wales continue to work diligently and respond to the challenges involved in supporting our children, and learners of all ages, to learn and to flourish. My report highlights the successes and outlines some of the challenges that continue to face education and training; I hope it prompts constructive reflection and discussion about how we can collectively improve.

Estyn has launched Ready Already (Barod yn Barod), a campaign addressing some of the misconceptions around inspections in schools and PRUs, aiming to reassure education providers not to overprepare for inspection and to teach as they usually would.

Estyn introduced changes to inspections in school and Pupil Referral Units in 2022, including removing summative gradings such as ‘Excellent’, ‘Good’, ‘Adequate’ or ‘Unsatisfactory’. Our approach has created more opportunities for Learners, leaders, teachers and support staff to contribute constructively to collaborative conversations during the inspection process.

Ready Already, is an informative campaign featuring school leaders and teachers from across Wales who have recent experience of the latest inspection framework and who provide honest feedback about the approach and the expectations of providers leading up to and during inspection.

The campaign also relays facts directly from Estyn inspectors in a bid to offer clarity and dispel many of the current myths around inspection.

Estyn recognises the additional pressures that an inspection can create. All inspectors are former teachers or education leaders themselves, who have undergone various inspections, and they appreciate that the process should be challenging but also constructive, reflecting the true quality of learning at a school or Pupil Referral Unit.

Inspectors share their findings with senior leaders and the nominee throughout the inspection week in addition to providing feedback at the closing inspection meeting.

Kelly Walker, Wellbeing Inclusion Lead at Alexandra Primary School in Wrexham, speaks positively about her experience of inspection.

I didn’t come away feeling like I had had a grilling. I came away thinking I had had a conversation about what I do in school and how we work. They were interested in knowing more about us and our ethos.

You don’t need to have this great big pile of things to present to inspectors. You just need to be able to talk and know your stuff. They’re coming to see what you’re doing well. There might be things they suggest to improve. That’s their job. But as a school that’s what we want as well. We want to know how we can get better.”

Owen Evans, His Majesty’s Chief Inspector, says,

Our objective is to emphasise to learning providers across Wales that they’re already ready for inspection.

There is absolutely no need to over-prepare for inspection. We know that providers face challenging workloads and often add to these pressures by feeling that they have to prepare a raft of additional paperwork ahead of an inspection.

This is not the case, Our inspection teams want to see how providers teach day to day. We want to work collaboratively to highlight education and training priorities, which help shape the best possible outcomes for learners.”

A new report by Estyn published today explores how Essential Skills Wales (ESW) qualifications – including literacy, numeracy and digital skills – are delivered in work-based learning apprenticeships. The report highlights the importance of essential skills and suggests there are opportunities to improve assessment.

Although providers effectively enable learners to achieve their ESW qualifications, the inspectorate found the learning and teaching of essential skills in apprenticeships focused on preparation for external assessment. This may impact the ability of learners to retain these skills and the value they place on them for use in work or wider life.

The study also shows how the ESW assessment could better align with the needs of learners. Apprentices were found to strongly prefer learning literacy, numeracy and digital skills through the context of their work and vocational training. This contrasts with a model of ESW assessment that is largely generic and often unrelated to the work context of the apprentice.

Owen Evans, Chief Inspector, says, 

‘Enabling apprentices to gain important skills they may have missed out on previously is a vital but challenging part of the training jigsaw. Although work-based learning providers are working hard to ensure learners gain these vital skills, they and their learners face a number of challenges, particularly around assessment.’

‘Our report found that nearly all learners, tutors and employers who participated in our study valued developing literacy, numeracy and digital skills – but many expressed reservations about the suitability of the ESW qualification. Policy makers should consider our findings as they review the ESW qualification to ensure apprentices get the best opportunity possible to learn and apply these fundamental skills.’

The report notes there is a challenge to develop the skills needed for their ESW assessments for many learners during the relatively short period of an apprenticeship.

Despite these challenges, the study shows how work-based learning providers are using a range of delivery models to overcome these issues. The report shares six different delivery models and their respective strengths and weaknesses.

Steve Bell, author of the report, says, 

‘This study gives voice to the nearly 1,200 apprentices, employers, tutors and assessors who responded to our online survey – along with 200 more who talked with us face-to-face during our visits to providers. The report brings together insights, alongside interesting case studies of effective practice and several recommendations. We invite providers to reflect on their delivery models, and encourage Welsh Government, Qualifications Wales and other partners to work closer together to ensure ESW qualifications more fully align with learners’ needs.’

Building on last year’s approach to ensuring the Annual Report’s findings are easier to read, digest and are available  to all as early as possible, Estyn has today published sector specific summaries across seventeen sectors including schools, colleges, work-based learning, the Jobs Growth Wales+ (employability programme), and initial teacher education among others outlining what’s working well and what needs strengthening.

The summaries, which have been pulled together from the findings of Estyn inspections during 2022-2023, also include a concise set of reflective questions for each sector, aimed at helping providers to consider the best way of making progress against one of the priorities identified for the sector. 

To further support improvement, the sector summaries point towards inspection reports and case studies from providers that were inspected and were found to be doing particularly well. 

Ahead of his full Annual Report, which will be published in January, Owen Evans, Chief Inspector, says, “Estyn has visited over 400 education and training settings over the past year. Our findings are a good indicator of what’s going well and where we need to improve and have been designed to make understanding our common challenges easier. I hope practitioners use these materials as we all strive to improve our practice. The sector summaries will allow providers to gain an insight into the key themes and challenges identified for each education and training area in Wales over the past twelve months of inspection activity. 

“My full annual report will be published in January and will include further detail about the findings of our inspections together with an analysis of a number of wider themes that will provide further insight into our current education and training priorities here in Wales.”