Featured articles > Accreditation/Inspection Agencies > British School Inspections and Accreditations

Until October 2008, there was no single standard British inspection system, authorised and organised by the British government, for British schools abroad.

But the new Department of Children, Schools and Families has announced it will be developing just that....."accreditation against standards similar to independent schools operating in Britain,"  with published inspection reports that will be available to parents and show how well individual British schools abroad measure up against British standards. 

These insepctions will ensure "schools advertising a ‘British character’ are upholding the rigour and excellence of [the British] system" and the the inspection bodies accessing them will be monitored by Ofsted. (to see DCSF announcement, click here: BRITISH SCHOOLS ABROAD TO BE INSPECTED TO GUARANTEE STANDARDS)

For those who aren't familiar with it, Ofsted is the inspectorate for "children and learners" in England ("through a comprehensive system of inspection and regulation covering childcare, schools, colleges, children's services, teacher training and youth work". Quotes are from the Ofsted web site).

Outside of England, Ofsted officially inspects ONLY Ministry of Defence schools.  Full stop. Sniff the air when an overseas school claims it has been ‘inspected by Ofsted’; true, its contract inspectors can be hired in a private arrangement between the school and an inspection contractor, but foreign employers may or may not lean on them for certain results and there's no way to know what's been changed in the report after the inspector flies home- or even whether the "inspector" really just did a gap year making coffee at the Ofsted offices.  

Schools abroad might not readily give access to these reports, and may say they are for the school or the country's Ministry of Education and not for the parents; parents should ask the schools directly if this is of interest. Because the reports are not official Ofsted reports, there is no guarantee that the report you are reading is complete, or even the one written by the inspector. 

When the new inspection system is in place, those reports should ba available to parents, with or without the school's permission.

There are other, very good accreditation agencies that eyeball British schools, but mostly British schools are results driven....less emphasis on the process for teaching than on each student's exam results (GCSEs, or IGCSEs, and A levels). 

However, it doesn't hurt to look for further evidence of excellence; just know it's not a deal-killer if you don't find it. We might adjust this opinion as we watch the new inspection system develop....it may indeed become a deal-killer, and will probably at least make you want to ask schools why they haven't been inspected or accredited.

For now, look for accreditation by the Council of Independent Schools (CIS) (and membership in their sister organization, the European Council of Independent Schools), and by the Independent Schools Inspectorate (ISI) (further explained in the Independent Schools Council (ISC) site). (The ISC will be working with the DCSF on the new standards, along with the British Council).

COBIS (Council of the British Independent Schools, previously known as COBISEC), itself a member of the ISC, is another worthy membership organization and as mentioned in the introduction to this section, well enough respected that it is recognised by theUK Department for Education and Skills (DfES) and its members may join the UK teachers retirement and pension scheme. To be members, COBIS requires that schools be inspected or 'willing to be inspected' by ISI.   

They have a sister organization, FOBISSEA (Federation of British Independent Schools of South East Asia) which is less stringent that COBIS and basically self-regulating.  They say they want members to be British curriculum schools that have good practice, but it is their own membership who determine that.

The important thing is not to confuse mere membership (no matter how august the body), or even just licensing by the local government, with genuine accreditation or inspections by disinterested, legitimate bodies. Memberships, associations, and accreditations are often listed together on school websites, with distinctions or details hard to find (or avoided on purpose).

As pointed out by Yojana Sharma, writing for the Times Educational Supplement after the startling closing of the excellent Sophie Antipolis school in Cannes, "Accreditation involves a strict process of inspection and reporting, including on financial matters over several years. CIS [for example] teams are sent into accredited schools at regular intervals to observe teaching practice and to look at the books."

That was an example of a school loved by teachers, parents and students, with great scores and results, but which left students and staff hanging when it closed without warning due to unsuspected poor management. Although a school may do very well for many years, and its students receive a fine education, only the transparent processes of formalized dispassionate scrutiny can assure parents of the stability and bone-deep quality of an apparently good school.  

Occasionally, schools might mention their association with the Cambridge Education Association, CIE (Cambridge International Examinations) ,  Edexel, or UCLES (University of Cambridge Local Examinations Syndicate) in a way that suggests these organizations perhaps have something to do with inspections or some form of overall accreditation. They do not.

Totally reputable, however, with a key role to play, these organizations produce quality exams that are available throughout the world, and take care to ensure that results are not fiddled. While a site inspection of some of a school’s services and facilities is required for it to become an authorized examination center, the organizations in question are not to be confused with bodies that control, oversee, or accredit schools. 

Schools that want to offer exams such as GCSE, IGCSE and A-Level must join one of these exam systems and be authorised as exam centres.  These different exam systems have different syllabi, so a school may opt for a combination.

However, the inspection process is not the point: these agencies are more concerned about the delivery of the exam rather the delivery of the curriculum. If you see any of these agencies mentioned by a school, this means the school is a registered exam centre; the agencies want to see that qualified teachers would proctor the exams, that the ‘exam taking’ conditions are suitable, and most important that there is a satisfactory secure room to store exams when they arrive and until they are sent off for marking (say, bars added to the windows, secure fire-proof storage arranged, keyholders named etc).

Similarly, once a school is an exam centre, the school can register anyone to take the exam there (in other words the school can opt to register a student they don’t teach – a home-schooled pupil for example, or a student who goes to a local national school but wants to do a GCSE in a subject like French or IT).

So, to review: CIE, Edexel, or UCLES are in no way OFSTED or NEASC or CIS type inspections, where programmes and governance are inspected. But because part of the criteria that these three agencies look at is ‘who’ authorises the school, having those organisations somewhere on the school's oversight credentials is yet another clue towards a "good" school for discerning parents.