Inspections

The Diocesan Board of Education (DBE) and its Education Team is NOT responsible for inspecting Church schools – it does, however, support Church schools in preparing for Inspections – by both OfSTED and SIAMS (Statutory Inspection of Anglican and Methodist Schools).

The Diocesan Director of Education (DDE), Deputy Director of Education (Deputy DDE) or School Effectiveness Officer will (by invitation) attend OfSTED feedback meetings on the final day of an OfSTED inspection.

Schools are advised to maintain an up-to-date Self-Evalution Audit Tool (formerly a Self-Evaluation Form - please see below) as part of their routine monitoring and evaluation processes. The close participation of the Governing Body in this process is strongly encouraged in addition to a wide range of other Stakeholders.

The SIAMS runs to a separate schedule to OfSTED inspections. Schools are inspected no less than 3 to 5 years after their last inspection. A new SIAMS Framework was published in April 2018 and came into operation in September 2018.

More information on arranging your SIAMS can be found here.

Further information from the Church of England on SIAMS School inspections is available here.

Following OfSTED and SIAMS inspections the School Effectiveness Officer and the Schools’ Adviser are available to support individual schools on a “needs-be” basis and at no cost to the school.

SIAMS self-evaluation, forms and advice-+
- Governors' Questions | PDF
- SIAMS Self-Evaluation Audit tool | PDF
- SIAMS Reflection: Vision Provision Impact form | PDF
- SIAMS Excellence Case form | PDF
- Additional Advice for Collective worship and your SEF | PDF
For help completing any of the forms above please contact the School Effectiveness Officer

Ideally, your self-evaluation audit tool is a working document - updated at regular intervals and populated after consultation with a number of stakeholders. The School Effectiveness Officer holds a series of exemplar forms which are available for examination.

Please remember that the audit tool and other forms are the Inspector's gateway to the effectiveness of your School as a Church School. The wider the range of evidence it holds the better able they will be to formulate accurate hypotheses to test-out during the day-long inspection.