Dr Russel Grigg - Estyn

Due to Andy not feeling well we have been given the opportunity to have various guest speakers give us lectures in many different aspects of education. In todays lecture we had a guest speaker Dr Russel Grigg who is the head of the south Wales centre of teacher education. 

Estyn (2005) “Our mission is to achieve excellence for all learners in Wales… through providing an independent, high quality inspection and advice service.”

What is Estyn?

Here are some key points and a brief introduction on what Estyn does ;

* Estyn inspects quality & standards in education and training providers in Wales. It is responsible for inspecting different educational settings such as nurseries, primary and secondary schools, special needs school, independent schools, further education, pupil referral units, work based learning, adult community learning, career companies and offender learning.

Estyn provides advice to the Welsh Assembly Government on quality and standards in education and training in Wales. It also promotes the spread of good practice in education and training.

They are funded by, the National Assembly for Wales under Section 104 of the Government of Wales Act 1998.

Estyn has 3 fold purposes:

* It provides accountability to the users of services and other stakeholders through our public reporting in providers
* It helps promote improvement in education & training
* Inform the development of national policy by the Welsh Government

There are two different types of inspections. Estyn is responsible for writing reports on schools, prisons and colleges and state of the nation reports. These documents are important for people such as parents, government and the public.
The second type of inspection is called the Thematic reports which are vital to the rest of Wales and the learning settings. 

In order to help with these reports, Estyn can send out questionnaires to parents for example to help make the final judgment of the school. Parents are able to give an honest review about their thoughts and opinions with the school and if they would like to see any improvements. These are taken into consideration when writing the final report. 

Estyn must make an overall judgment of the school including the good working teachers and the not so good working teachers. Inspections must be taken with caution in order to ensure it is a fair judgment overall.

IMPORTANCE OF USING DATA TO RECORD INFORMATION:

*Recording data can help gather huge data of information for the Welsh Government and helps set trends and targets. It also makes research informed practice and enables others to record data easily. Recording data also makes it simple for others to read and work with, this is essential as it could save a lot of time.

Changes can also be adapted easily and are able to be identified in a simple and clear way.

References:

 Estyn (2005), Retrieved 17^th January 2012 from http://www.estyn.gov.uk/