Estyn inspects the quality and standards in education and training in Wales. They inspect a whole range of schools including nursery, primary, secondary, independent and special schools. They also inspect higher education facilities and adult community learning. They are also in charge of inspecting standards for those who are in work based learning schemes. Etsyn set the standards in teacher education and also over see all teacher training courses.
There are three main purposes to estyn they are: 1) Accountability through reporting on providers.
2) Promote improvement in education, 3) Inform the development of national policy by the Welsh goverment.
He then went on to explain what an estyn inspection was actually like. One of the key factors that is looked at is the people within these providers and their relationships together and to record how good these relationships are. He then showed us an actual estyn report and said two keywords that are in every report are achievement and attainment. He said they are two key words used in every report because achievement shows how well the provider is doing and attainment means how they can sustain this achievement longterm.
There are 4 judgements in each report they are:
1. Excellent
2. Good
3. Adequate
4. Unsatisfactory
Every provider will strive for excellent overall but the majority of providers in Wales are stuck in the adequate group which is not great and shows that there is room for improvement within education standards within Wales.
