Calling all headteachers or senior leaders of maintained:

• Primary schools

• Secondary schools

• All-age schools

• Special schools, or

• Pupil referral units (PRU)

Estyn’s National Headteacher Conference was held in Cardiff on 29^th February. The conference enabled headteachers to:

• Hear about our plans for new inspection arrangements from September 2024​

• Help shape our new inspection arrangements

• Hear about effective practice from maintained schools and pupil referral units

• Network with other headteachers and senior leaders from across Wales

Guest speaker Owain Lloyd, Director of Education and the Welsh Language in Wales as well as a panel of senior leaders from schools shared their experiences of the pilot inspections of our new inspection arrangements. Sector-specific sessions on our proposed new arrangements were tailored to different sectors.

At lunchtime, there was networking with headteachers and senior leaders from all over Wales before a choice of workshops where schools and PRUs shared effective practice on the themes of:

• Developing the Welsh language in English medium and bilingual school

• Mitigating the effects of poverty and disadvantage on educational attainment

• Using self-evaluation processes to plan for improvement

• Delivering Curriculum for Wales

If you have any questions, please e-mail us at Estynsnationalheadteacherconference@freshwater.co.uk

Thanks to all who attended - we look forward to seeing you at Estyn’s next headteachers conference in 2025.

Peer Inspector Recruitment 

We use Peer Inspectors (PIs) on inspections in nearly all sectors we inspect. Peer Inspectors work as senior leaders/managers in schools and PRUs and we allocate PIs to up to three inspection teams each year.

Peer Inspectors are full members of the inspection team, and they undertake a wide range of inspection activities, including observing sessions, scrutinising samples of pupils’ work, interviewing staff and drafting sections of the inspection report.

To be a Peer Inspector, you must:

• Be paid on the senior leadership pay spine

• Be in a permanent position

• Have at least two years’ leadership experience

• Have at least five years’ teaching experience

We are always interested in speaking to leaders who are interested in becoming PIs and finding out more about how we can work with you to make these opportunities more accessible.

We are inviting both registered Peer Inspectors and those interested in training to become PIs to complete the short survey below to share your thoughts and experiences: