ABSTRACT
Inspection is a form of educational audit, a snapshot of the school at a particular time. If it is no more than that, intended to weigh rather than fatten, then it would be perfectly possible to read a school's performance indicators – its assessment and examination figures, truancy rates, exclusions and pupil destinations – rather as a gas meter reader might do, and tick the appropriate box. However, inspection under the Act is intended to lead to improvement. Inspection teams must apply all the framework criteria and use all the evidence in order to provide secure, first-hand and valid judgements, collectively agreed by the whole team. Arrangements for the local management of schools in the 1988 Act took detailed financial control away from local education authorities, amid considerable debate. The constituent parts of a secondary school – subject departments, mechanisms for pupil support and management – can each exploit parts of the schedule for their own purposes.
