POLICY & PRACTICE: Briefing - What inspectors look for when theycall

A new strategic plan for Ofsted ... anything exciting? Possibly I suppose, if you happen to be one of Her Majesty's Inspectors. For us lesser mortals it's maybe not the most fascinating of reads. But everybody has to have a strategic plan and this is the inspectorate's for the period from 2004 to 2007. If you want to see what Ofsted believes the point of inspection to be, what principles it uses to inform its work and what its plans are to get round to everyone, then this is the place to look.

And will it show much change from previous years? It is still going to be about "fair, rigorous and impartial" inspection that is rooted in robust evidence and reported directly and openly to the public. The strategy identifies three key work strands to be developed over this period. First, Ofsted wants to evaluate in greater depth the effects of major government initiatives for raising attainment. Second, it wants to improve the way it makes its findings and reports available and so increase the impact they have. Finally, it's going to be closely monitoring the impact of its own new framework for school inspections.