Ofsted 'summary evaluations' of trusts: explainer

Last reviewed on 8 March 2022
School types: All · School phases: All
Ref: 44179

Summary evaluations are Ofsted's approach to gathering findings about a trust. Find out what happens at each stage of the process, what Ofsted will expect of you and your leadership team and what it's likely to consider.

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Contents

  1. Summary evaluations: in a nutshell
  2. Who'll receive one?
  3. Stage 1: batched inspections
  4. Stage 2: the summary evaluation
  5. Outcomes of the summary evaluation

Summary evaluations: in a nutshell

Summary evaluations are how Ofsted evaluates the quality of education provided by a trust and leaders’ contributions to this. There are 2 stages to the process:

  • Stage 1: batched inspections, where Ofsted carries out normal inspections in a number of a trust's academies, usually over a period of up to 2 terms
  • Stage 2: summary evaluation, where over a week inspectors meet trust leaders and discuss the findings of the individual inspections from stage 1 and overall educational quality across the trust. Inspectors will also meet trustees

Summary evaluations aren't entirely new, they're similar to what Ofsted used to call 'focused reviews' - see examples here and here. 

Give the trust helpful recommendations on aspects of provision that could be improved Recognise where the trust is having a positive impact on the quality of

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