This document discusses how primary school headteachers can use Management Information Systems (MIS) to help prepare for Ofsted inspections. It notes that Ofsted inspections now have shorter timeframes and higher stakes, so schools need to be able to instantly access accurate pupil data. The document provides examples of schools that effectively use their MIS to track pupil progress, monitor teaching quality, demonstrate school leadership, and manage behavior - all key areas Ofsted examines. It emphasizes that schools with robust data analysis are at an advantage when inspectors request evidence of progress and performance.

1. How tapping into a Management Information System (MIS) can help
primary school headteachers take the upper hand in an inspection
Ready for Inspection
“Robust data is challenging – it
removes us of excuses and forces us
to address the reality we face rather
than the one we would like to face.”
Russell Hobby, general secretary, National Association of HeadTeachers

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White Paper: Ready for Inspection
Executive Summary
Shorter timescales and higher stakes for Ofsted inspections mean
primary school leaders need to be able to prove the success of their
teaching and learning initiatives at a moment’s notice. Those who
can immediately access accurate data on pupil progress have a
significant head start – pre, post and during inspections. So how can
headteachers use their management information systems (MIS) to
ensure they come out on top?
This white paper, which includes contributions from primary schools
who have faced varied challenges from Ofsted, discusses how the
effective use of data can help drive achievement, evidence progress
and present an accurate picture when the inspectors come calling.

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White Paper: Ready for Inspection
“Ofsted will expect to see
evidence of pupils’ progress,
with inspections informed by the
school’s chosen pupil tracking
data.”
DfE’s consultation document, Primary Assessment and
Accountability Under the New NationalCurriculum,
July 2013
Now that Ofsted give less than 24 hours’
notice before an inspection, the pressure is on
for primary school leaders to ensure they can
provide proof of pupil progress at any time. A
year-by-year overview is simply not enough.
An Ofsted inspector might ask to check
achievements across all manner of
demographics – boys versus girls, Free School
Meals (FSM), English as an Additional Language
(EAL), Pupil Premium, Special Educational Needs
(SEN), Sport Grant… the list goes on.
“Ofsted inspections are now much more data
driven than in the past. As leaders, we need
to know our pupil data very well and be able
to provide this instantly for Ofsted when
they visit.”
Gemma Buckley, deputy headteacher, Little Harrowden
Community Primary School.
If your phone rang now, how easy would it be
for you to retrieve all the information you need?
“At our last Ofsted inspection, it was
producing the data from our MIS that second
which really clinched our outstanding rating.”
Linda Davis, headteacher, Wistaston Academy
Furthermore, under the new Ofsted framework,
the stakes for inspection are much higher.
Ofsted inspectors are no longer allowed to rank
a school as ‘satisfactory’. Instead this category
has been replaced with the much more serious
‘requires improvement’. Sir Michael Wilshaw, the
Chief Inspector of Schools believes this will stop
schools from resting on their laurels.
Introduction

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White Paper: Ready for Inspection
“Data plays an increasingly large
role in school improvement. It is
not an end in itself, and absolutely
not a replacement for personal
knowledge and relationships,
but it does trigger interesting
questions.
“More importantly, robust data
is challenging – it removes us of
excuses and forces us to address
the reality we face rather than
the one we would like to face.
The profession therefore needs
to grab hold of data and ensure it
is used properly for learning and
improvement.”
Russell Hobby, general secretary, National Association
of HeadTeachers
Primary schools with the ability to access and
analyse their data quickly and efficiently will
find themselves at a significant advantage. After
all, data analysis now underpins the Ofsted
framework, which states that it is the school’s
job to back up its self-evaluation to Ofsted
inspectors with hard evidence.
“Previously we used to copy and paste data
from our MIS into spreadsheets so we could
analyse it,” says Gemma Buckley, deputy
headteacher of Little Harrowden Community
Primary School. “Not only was this was very
time consuming, it meant that we didn’t use
the data as much as we should and it was out
of date as soon as we took it out of the MIS.
This is not what Ofsted would see as an ideal
situation and meant we did not have all the
analysis we needed to make good decisions.”
Schools that can print off reports right away
and carry out further analysis in real time,
even during the inspection if need be, are at an
advantage. On the other hand, primary schools
that rely on spreadsheets or other paper-based
forms of analysis may find the shorter timescale
of the inspection regime a very daunting
prospect indeed.
“Having a way to comprehensively analyse
data and track pupil progress across
identified groups such as cohort, gender, FSM
and LAC is vitally important. It’s the only way
we can clearly demonstrate who is above,
below or on track.”
Rosie Simmonds, headteacher, Leverington Primary
Academy
However, the benefits aren’t limited to when
the Ofsted inspector comes knocking. Those
who have taken a leaf out of the secondary
school sector, and recognised the benefits
of collating and evaluating pupil progress
on their management information system
(MIS), are better placed to drive whole school
improvement throughout the academic year.
Why is data so important?

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White Paper: Ready for Inspection
Removing barriers
Despite the tangible benefits for Ofsted
inspections, for the uninitiated data analysis
can seem daunting. Many primary schools lack
a dedicated IT or data manager to handle their
MIS.
Actually this presents no barrier – today’s
systems are designed to be used and understood
by all staff from the top down. They can be
accessed at different levels by the leadership
team, subject leaders, teachers, teaching
assistants and SEN. In fact, the more people who
use the system, the more effective it becomes.
“My advice for getting used to your MIS is to
talk to some other schools who are already
using it,” says Christine Terrey, headteacher
of Harbour Primary and Nursery. “As a
headteacher, make sure you understand it
and are confident with it yourself, which will
help support your senior management team.
“But don’t stop with the SLT – give access
to all staff. It is a massive miss for primary
schools to limit access to senior managers,
as Ofsted inspectors will talk to teachers and
subject leaders about their data too.”
“My SENCO has found our system extremely
beneficial and time efficient,” says Rosie
Simmonds, headteacher at Leverington Primary
Academy.
“Individual Education Plans can be securely
attached to a child’s records, and she is able
to track the specific progress of children
receiving intervention programmes. This
means she can measure the positive impact
interventions are having and prove their
efficacy to inspectors at the drop of a hat.”
Many primary schools have limited
administrative resources and some see this as
an obstacle to effective use of data. However
the opposite is true – management information
systems are an efficient way to ensure
information need only be entered once but can
be used many times.
All data – achievement, family history,
correspondence with parents – is collated in
a single place and provides you with a holistic
view of each child at the touch of a button.
“Collating information in an MIS means utter
confidence in data accuracy.”
Rosie Simmonds, headteacher, Leverington Primary
Academy
Putting data to work

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White Paper: Ready for Inspection
Let’s look in detail at how accurate data can
help school leaders evidence five of the most
important factors for a successful Ofsted
inspection.
1. Achievement of pupils at
the school
“Data will always help you spot
quickly where children have got
stuck. You can see right away
when they haven’t moved a sub-
level of the curriculum. So it
prompts the questions – why are
they stuck? Have we intervened in
the right way? Or is there another
reason, such as absence?”
ChristineTerrey, Headteacher,
Harbour Primary and Nursery
It’s essential to be able to show each individual
child’s starting point and their achievement from
that point. This means knowing the child, not
only as belonging to a year or a class group, but
to understand their progress as part of a sub-
group – whether that be ‘gifted and talented’ or
‘statemented’ – and therefore to prove that they
are getting the unique support that they require.
As headteacher of Wistaston Academy, a school
transformed from ‘special measures’ to ‘good
with outstanding features’ in record time,
Linda Davis has first-hand knowledge of how
important this is.
“Our school faces a number of challenges,
including a large number of children under
local authority care and a high level of pupil
mobility. When Ofsted looked at the raw
data it showed that while our KS2 results
were wonderful, they weren’t so good in
KS1,” she says.
“Because I was familiar with our data I could
prove that the situation was more complex
than the raw data showed. I took out all
the EAL children who hadn’t been there
since reception and that helped change the
inspector’s perceptions. He said: ‘Oh that’s
really good – I can see that the children who
have been here from reception are doing
really well.’”
Children’s assessments also need to ‘inform
teaching’ so primary schools must demonstrate
that they have a system in place that
constantly assesses and acts on the assessment
information.
“All of our teachers have mark sheets on
the MIS with a column for interventions,”
says Andrew Newton, network manager at
Oakington Manor Primary School.
“Every teacher has to make sure that column
is filled in properly because it is the proof we
have to show inspectors that the need of the
child is recognised and the intervention has
been given. It also means we can instantly
put our finger on what interventions are
working.”
Key areas of focus for Ofsted

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White Paper: Ready for Inspection
Andrew takes full advantage of the capabilities
of his school’s MIS. He says, “If I want to
pick out the Pupil Premium pupils and see
how they are doing against the non-Pupil
Premium, I can pull out a graph from Year
1 right through to Year 6 and get a pretty
precise graphical view of their progress.
This means our actions are based on solid
information.”
Gemma Buckley, deputy headteacher at Little
Harrowden Community Primary School backs
the view that the MIS gives much deeper
insight. “One issue we have is with boys’
literacy at Key Stage 1. When we worked off
spreadsheets it was a virtually impossible
task to track progress. Now, with our MIS I
can track the entire year across all literacy
areas and at each of the six assessment
points across the year. We can instantly see
at any point where the issues are and put
interventions in place swiftly which helps us
to close the gaps quicker.” And it is this sort of
quick intervention the inspectors are hoping to
see in every school they visit.
2. Quality of teaching
“When it comes to Ofsted
inspections it is important that
the people in leadership positions,
and the whole school, know what
the quality of teaching is and that
they have evidence for this. They
need to be able to demonstrate
the strategies that should be in
place in any areas of development
and how this should inform the
school’s CPD programme.”
Brian Lightman, general secretary, Association of
School andCollege Leaders, SecEd, AGuide to What
Makes anOutstanding Lesson
Put simply, in order to get an ‘outstanding’
judgement overall, schools have to prove that
their quality of teaching merits this. Ofsted
inspectors will look at a teacher’s performance
on the day of the inspection, as well as their
performance with a particular group of children
over an extended period of time.
Salary progression will also be considered. At
Wistaston Academy, Linda Davis uses the MIS to
keep a close eye on the quality of teaching.
“I keep an overview of the different teachers
and a list of the outcomes of the children
they teach,” she explains. “I make a note
of how they manage behaviour and look at
other aspects such as how they help with
younger children.
“This is stored in our MIS and linked with
pupil data, our pay scale and CPD. When I
have discussions with teaching staff, I can
then explain why they are on a certain pay
scale and how close they are to moving up. I
can also tell them exactly what they need to
concentrate on in order to achieve this.”
Schools that are not providing this joined-
up view of teacher development may find
themselves marked down when the inspectors
call.

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White Paper: Ready for Inspection
3. Quality of leadership
“In the best schools, strong
leaders and governors...create a
culture in which good teaching
can flourish – orderly and
welcoming schools that insist on
high standards, where teachers
routinely challenge children to do
better.”
Ofsted Annual Report 2012/13
Sir Michael Wilshaw has identified weak
leadership as being one of the key factors
preventing English schools from improving their
standing in international league tables, so it
follows that Ofsted will continue to examine
this area closely.
“I have a large primary school with 516 pupils
and so I need to know what is going on and I
need to track outcomes,” says Christine Terrey
at Harbour Primary and Nursery.
“We need to prove that our priorities are
correct and we are spending all our resources
on the interventions that will have the
biggest impact. I do not know where I would
be without my MIS as this provides me with
all this information and gives me the ability
to ask the question ‘where else could we be
doing more?’”
“When the Ofsted inspectors visited us
they checked our knowledge individually,”
says Rosie Simmonds at Leverington Primary
Academy. “This is what every SLT should
expect in an inspection. We share our data
analysis with the leadership team and the
inspectors were impressed with that.”
The basis of good leadership is being well
informed. Accurate data informs good decision
making, so an MIS can be a powerful ally when
school leaders need a snapshot of school
performance at any given moment.
It will not tell a school leader what they want to
hear, or brush anything under the carpet. It will,
however, reveal strengths and weaknesses, and
help the headteacher to ask the right questions
of the senior management team and other
teaching staff.
Good comprehension of data is also critical
for governors, who are now under greater
scrutiny than before and judged separately
in inspections. Amongst other expectations,
inspectors have to consider whether governors
understand the strengths and weaknesses of the
school, take sufficient account of pupil data, and
are aware of the impact of teaching on learning
and progress in different subjects and year
groups.
To answer this requirement, Linda Davis
from Wistaston Academy has implemented
a proactive approach towards keeping its
governors informed about the impact of their
teaching on pupils. “Ofsted inspectors look at
the impact teaching and learning is having on
the children, and we need to make sure our
governors understand this too.
“Our Governor Report has always included
a list of activities that the children have
undertaken and around two years ago we
started to interview the children about
these activities. If they went to the Science
Museum, we would ask them to comment.”

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White Paper: Ready for Inspection
Linda continues, “A child might say, ‘I enjoyed
the Science Museum so much that when I
am older I want to be a scientist’. This is now
included in our governors report to evidence
impact. It helps our governors understand
the overall outcome of all the activities
we undertake at school. This is essential in
ensuring they have the level of involvement
in the school that Ofsted want to see.”
“Inspectors asked the governors directly if
they understood the data. We spend time
ensuring that they do and so our curriculum
committee were able to answer with a
resounding yes,” says Rosie Simmonds from
Leverington Primary Academy.
4. Behaviour and safety of
pupils at the school
“Around 700,000 pupils attend
schools where behaviour needs to
improve.”
Sir Michael Wilshaw, the chief inspector of schools
When it comes to tackling behaviour problems
in schools, Ofsted has nailed its colours to the
flag with the announcement that inspectors will
make ‘no notice’ visits to schools identified as
rife with poor behaviour.
Over and above what is seen on the day,
inspectors must analyse the culture of the
school and take into account documented
evidence about how behaviour has been
managed over time. The general consensus
amongst those we interviewed is that recording
behavioural incidents quickly is the best way to
spot trends, put an end to low-level disruption
and check policies are having an impact on
reducing disruption.
“Our staff have all got iPads linked to our MIS
and they enter behaviour and achievement
information into them as it happens, be it
in the classroom or in the playground so we
always know what is going on,” says Christine
Terrey.
It also means they know which deterrents
work and which do not: “We sometimes
use detention for our older children, but it
isn’t always effective. We can use the MIS
to examine where it does make an impact.
Where it doesn’t, we change our strategy.
That’s what Ofsted want to see.”

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White Paper: Ready for Inspection
5. Evaluating attendance
“Inspectors should evaluate how
much the school knows about the
attendance patterns of groups of
learners and the effectiveness of
systems to alert them to changes
in pupils’ attendance.”
Ofsted Subsidiary guidance supporting the inspection
of maintained schools and academies – January 2014
version
One thing all primary schools have in common
is the collection of attendance data. By
analysing trends in the data, important stories
can often emerge.
“Spotting a pattern can prompt you to have
a conversation with parents,” says Christine
Terrey. “For example, you might see that
particular siblings are habitually not in on a
Monday morning. By talking to the mother,
it might come to light that they visit their
father in prison on a Sunday evening many
miles away, so they can’t make it in on a
Monday.
“As a school leader, this opens the door to
think of ways to support the family better. In
terms of Ofsted, it proves that you are aware
and are being proactive.”
Linda Davis impressed Ofsted during their
recent inspection with the school’s policy for
dealing with attendance problems for pupils and
families with English as an Additional Language.
“If we have a problem with attendance, we
will go and see the family involved but we
are always prepared,” she says. “Under each
student’s report on our MIS, we have some
pre-prepared letters in their own language.
So we quickly print off a letter in Polish, for
example, so that if the parents are not in, we
can leave them a note to say that we visited
to talk about their child’s attendance.
“If they are home, we will follow up our visit
with a pre-prepared letter to give them a
record of the points we made in the visit.
The inspector was extremely impressed with
this.”

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White Paper: Ready for Inspection
“The challenge for many school
leaders is to supplement (not
replace!) their instincts and
intuitions with an analytical
approach to improvement. In
terms of accountability, it is not
enough to know, you have to be
able to show. Which groups of
pupils are most vulnerable – and
how do you know? Why have
you chosen those particular
interventions for these pupils? Are
they working?”neral secretary, National
Association of HeadTeachers
With short notice and so much riding on the
successful outcome of an Ofsted inspection, it is
no wonder that the anticipation can be stressful.
An inspector who does not appreciate the
achievements of the pupils, or grasp the quality
of teaching and leadership that led to this
achievement are common fears. This concern is
often magnified at small primary schools, when
fewer staff and children means everyone feels
doubly accountable for a poor outcome.
However, having all the information you need
in one easily accessible place, in a format that
leadership teams, teaching staff and governors
know how to use is critical. Ensuring data is
accurate and can be relied on by everyone is
a sure-fire way of eradicating fears and giving
headteachers confidence and control.
“We would be prepared if Ofsted turned up at
our school tomorrow, because we have only
one data source – our MIS.”
Andrew Newton, network manager, Oakington Manor
Primary School
From an Ofsted perspective, proving that action
has been taken in a timely manner to address
issues such as lack of progress or bad behaviour
can make all the difference in achieving a
successful inspection.
The upshot is that it’s time for primary schools
to consider how much more their MIS can do
to drive up overall standards and to be fully
prepared no matter when the inspector calls.
“The meaningful analysis of data is helping
school leaders drive achievement, improve
their schools and ensure that they have
evidence to hand to validate the good work
they are doing for an Ofsted inspection.”
DfE’s consultation document, Primary Assessment and
Accountability Under the New NationalCurriculum,
July 2013
Conclusion

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