Policy and Practice Guest Lecturer - Dr Russel Grigg 16/1/12

This lecture was based around Estyn and what they do. Obviously, it was imporant to first know what Estyn was. 'Estyn inspects quality and standards in education and training providers in Wales' (www.estyn.gov.uk). This includes; nursery, primary, secondary, independent and special schools (including pupil referral units), community learning and work-based learning environments.
Estyn is funded by the National Assembly for Wales under section 104 of the Government of Wales Act 1998.

I found this lecture interesting as I didn’t fully understand everything that Estyn inspections involved and knew this lecture would be useful for my assignment coming up in which i am going to be involving inspections. For example, I did not realise that Estyn provide advice to the Welsh Assembly Government on quality and standards in education and training in Wales.
Estyn also promote the spread of good practice in education and training.

Estyn is linked with OFSTED who are also an inspection body. When inspecting they look at issues such as How good are outcomes? Including standard and well-being. How good is provision? Including learning experiences, teaching, care, support and guidance. Also, how good are leadership and management? Including, leadership, improving quality and resource management.
As you can see from this there are a lot of aspects included within Estyn and OFSTED which I did not think of. 

Dr Russel Grigg also told us that any school inspection report is available on the Estyn website which I found interesting and think this is a good thing that they are available as it may encourage schools to want to improve more, and also to see how other schools are better which also influences them on how to improve.

References:

http://www.estyn.gov.uk/english/