School: El Limonar International School
Location: San Miguel de Salinas, Alicante
Number of pupils on roll: 500
Principal: Justine Brown
Category: Infant, primary, secondary, Baccalaureate and A-levels 3-18
British schools in other countries are very popular. They are respected for the English curriculum, their teaching and learning styles and for the fact that English is the main language used.
El Limonar had previously been inspected by MSA (Middle States Association) as an American authorised school. This was about to change.
‘We were tired of the paperwork at inspection time,’ explains Sue Morgan, head of secondary and A-level. ‘You couldn’t imagine how much documentation they wanted to see, and it wasn’t evaluative. They just wanted descriptions of what you did, not whether it was effective or not. So it really did seem pointless. We had 16 folders full of paper just describing our practice.’
The only beneficial part of the inspection process was agreeing targets for improvement. ‘I think they only entered a classroom twice during the whole time we were visited by inspectors.’
With this in mind and having taught the English National Curriculum for many years, El Limonar decided to apply for British School status.
This would mean a very different type of inspection from the MSA one previously. ‘There are lots of similarities with Ofsted inspections in England, a similar framework is used and parents and children are consulted. However, inspectors do not rely on the data to the same extent,’ says Sue.
Inspectors don’t have the data available from RAISEonline or others such as Fischer Family Trust, so do not come into the school with predetermined views led by data.
Inspectors do not rely on the data to the same extent as Ofsted.
However, they do expect to see that the school is analysing its own statistics. ‘They wanted to see that we were evaluating our performance,’ explains Sue. ‘It was challenging but also a very useful developmental opportunity.’
The inspection process is conducted by NABSS (National Association of British Schools in Spain) and schools must pass the inspection in order to become an official British School.
Sue describes a very professional inspection process. ‘We knew when the inspectors were coming and had time to prepare. We had a chance to show what we can do rather than them trying to catch us out. If you’re going to cook someone a meal you don’t ask them to come round at any time. You have to make sure you’ve got things in the fridge, that you’re prepared. It’s not going to change whether you’re a good cook or not.’
El Limonar still had to provide evidence of how well they were doing. ‘We had something similar to a self-evaluation form to complete and we had to meet certain criteria,’ says Sue. ‘We were judged by teaching and learning, governance and leadership; we were inspected under the same kind of headings as we would have been in the UK.’
Sue and her team had to show their tracking information, baseline assessment data and that they were covering the national curriculum. ‘Inspectors had to see that we were analytical of our performance. It felt, however, that they were interested observers rather than trying to catch us out and we could have professional conversations,’ says Sue.
We were judged by teaching and learning, governance and leadership; we were inspected under the same kind of headings as we would have been in the UK.
During the course of the inspection the parents were sent a survey and the inspectors spoke to the school council and the A-level pupils too.
‘We did set up some classroom observations and they watched nearly every teacher. They gave them feedback as well which the teachers appreciated and found very useful,’ Sue explains. ‘I feel that if we had tried to hide something they would have picked it up and asked more questions. But we were very open, just as you should feel you can be in an inspection. It’s very useful to have an external viewpoint, it can be reassuring as well as challenging.’
El Limonar had a dummy run prior to the inspection itself. ‘Another British school had a couple of teachers who had trained as inspectors so we asked them to come in as a pre-inspection check,’ says Sue. El Limonar found this to be a useful process and afterwards decided to review their history and geography curriculum to ensure they were covering sufficient British content.
El Limonar had already begun to use some of the Ofsted terminology including the Ofsted observation criteria. They had been conducting joint observations with the school improvement person employed by Cognita, the company that owns El Limonar. ‘It’s his job to make sure the schools in the family are performing well,’ says Sue. ‘We have had dual lesson observations with him and these have been very useful.’
Similarly to inspection in the UK, El Limonar were given feedback on the last day and were sent a report within a week. They informed parents in the newsletter that they had been given the go ahead to become a British school. They weren’t required to send anything out but did as a matter of course.
‘We do have the option of having regular inspections,’ says Sue. ‘I’m not sure how valuable this is though as only 20% of our pupils are English and the rest are different nationalities for whom this kind of inspection system probably means very little. Parents want to know that we are inspected by someone and conform to set standards but wouldn’t hold this type of inspection as being particularly important.’
‘Overall it’s a much better process and you don’t have to feel as apprehensive as UK teachers usually do. We have teachers from the UK who have been quite damaged by the inspection process over there,’ Sue explains. ‘This inspection was more formative and beneficial. We know we’re lucky to have this option.’
