Diocesan SEF (Word document)
Filling in the Diocesan SEF (PowerPoint document)

Guidelines for Headteachers and Schools

Filling in the SEF form is the joint responsibility of the head teacher and the foundation governors, although the best examples are the result of wide consultation. Although an inspector will wish to use the SEF during a section 48 inspection, the document itself is not intended to be completed solely for this purpose; it should form part of the school’s improvement and development process.

As every school is unique, SEFs can look quite different.  You may find the Filling in the Diocesan SEF helpful; it is in PowerPoint format so that it can be used by groups of people working together.

Since September 2005 a new framework for church school inspection is in place, SIAS (Statutory Inspection of Anglican Schools).   Like the OFSTED inspection which it partners, SIAS moved to inspecting schools on the basis of a school’s own self-evaluation.   The DfES has produced a booklet on the benefits and methods of self-evaluation which may be downloaded from their website: “A new relationship with schools: improving performance through school self-evaluation”.

The SIAS SEF has now been produced in two different formats and schools may decide which format best suits their needs.   The first is the National Society’s “Toolkit”, available online from www.natsoc.org.uk and the second is this Diocesan version of the materials.   Both SEFs cover exactly the same areas of church school life.

The SEF is based on three (or four) key questions on ethos, collective worship, leadership and management and (for Voluntary Aided schools only) RE:

• How well does the school, through its distinctive Christian character, meet the needs of all its learners?
• What is the impact of collective worship on the school community?
• How effective are the leadership and management of the school as a church school?
• (VA)  How effective is the Religious Education?

The emphasis throughout is upon church school distinctiveness and effectiveness. 

In the Diocesan version of the SEF you will find that each of the four key questions has been broken down into several subsidiary questions, which each have a page of their own.  The page header will tell you which key question you are answering.  The inspection report will be written under the headings of the four key questions.

Whether you use this SEF or the Toolkit, do remember that self-evaluation is an ongoing process and should become a normal part of your school’s annual cycle of management and review.  This form does not need to be filled out all at once, nor should it be tackled headlong just because an inspection is considered imminent; in many ways the process is actually more valuable than the finished result.

Completing the SEF is something in which many members of the school community other than the headteacher and staff should/could be involved e.g. foundation governors, pupils and parents/carers, members of the local community, the vicar and members of the local parish, Bishops School Visitor, diocesan advisers.   You may find the National Society Toolkit particularly useful for this process, as it is broken down into a large number of small questions, so that e.g. a governor could easily be given one page of the Toolkit when they visit the school and be asked to collect evidence from their visits to the classrooms and by listening to learners and staff.

The SIAS SEF also feeds into the on-line OFSTED SEF, in particular OFSTED questions 2b, 4d, 5a, 5b, 6a.

The materials do not include direct references to the five outcomes of “Every Child Matters”, but schools will probably wish to refer to these at appropriate points in the SEF.