Private school inspections 'improve'

The ISI inspects some of the top schools, like Eton

The quality of inspections in private schools is improving, according to the schools watchdog, Ofsted.

Inspections every six years are a condition of membership for the Independent Schools Council (ISC), which regulates 1,271 schools - 80% of private schools in the UK.

Fresh structures and more consistent procedures have been established under ISI's new management

Ofsted report

Ofsted inspectors have been monitoring the progress of the new Independent Schools Inspectorate (ISI), which was formed in April 2000 after the merger of two separate inspection regimes for private schools.

Ofsted said all of the inspections they monitored in 2000/01 were judged as at least satisfactory and slightly more than half were declared to be good.

And of the inspection reports analysed, half were good and nearly all were satisfactory.

These reports are used by the Department for Education when it assesses a schools' suitability to continue to operate.

"The Independent Schools Inspectorate has made good progress since the last report," the Ofsted report said.

"Fresh structures and more consistent procedures have been established under ISI's new management."

Improvements

But the inspectors of independent schools were told to improve in certain areas.

Training for inspectors on reporting verbally on subjects could be better and the clarity and consistency of their reports also needed attention.

Tony Hubbard: Links with Ofsted are important

Director of the ISI, Tony Hubbard, said: "This is a major achievement by the inspectors and those that support them."

"It demonstrates that the independent sector can monitor its own schools rigorously and that serving teachers and management can inspect effectively. They have contributed a great deal to the improvement of ISC schools," he said.

In response to the criticisms he said: "We still have work to do.

"Our work with our colleagues in Ofsted is very important to our improvement and development," said Mr Hubbard.

"This is a good example of successful partnership."

The Department for Education requires all schools - state and private - to be inspected.

Those which do not belong to the ISC - and so are not inspected by the ISI - continue to be inspected by Ofsted.