Writing guide A guide to Estyn’s report writing style estyn.gov.wales @EstynHMI The purpose of Estyn is to inspect quality and standards in education and training in Wales. Estyn is responsible for inspecting: nursery schools and settings that are maintained by, or receive funding from, local authorities primary schools secondary schools all-age schools special schools pupil referral units independent schools further education independent specialist colleges adult community learning local authority education services for children and young people teacher education and training Welsh for adults work-based learning learning in the justice sector Estyn also: provides advice on quality and standards in education and training in Wales to the National Assembly for Wales and others makes public good practice based on inspection evidence Every possible care has been taken to ensure that the information in this document is accurate at the time of going to press. Any enquiries or comments regarding this document/publication should be addressed to: Publication Section Estyn Anchor Court Keen Road Cardiff CF24 5JW or by email to [email protected] This and other Estyn publications are available on our website: www.estyn.gov.wales © Crown Copyright 2019: This report may be re-used free of charge in any format or medium provided that it is re-used accurately and not used in a misleading context. The material must be acknowledged as Crown copyright and the title of the document/publication specified. Contents Page Introduction by Meilyr Rowlands, Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector 1 Introduction: the need for a writing guide and its role 2 General principles 3 Guidance on style and format 6 Further guidance on Plain English 23 Writing reports: responsibilities of writers and editors 24 Appendix 1: Guidance on troublesome words and phrases 25 Appendix 2: Guidance on the use of ALN, SEN and references to 48 pupils who require extra support Estyn writing guide Introduction by Meilyr Rowlands, Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector Our objective is to produce documents which are clear, accurate and in plain English and/or Welsh. It is essential that as wide an audience as possible can read and understand our publications. A clear style of report writing will help to achieve this. This guidance aims to help writers and editors to achieve a plain and clear style of writing. It will also help to make sure that all of Estyn’s publications follow a similar style and format. This guidance focuses mainly on those aspects of style, vocabulary and grammar which prove troublesome for writers and editors. Writers and editors will need to use their judgement where there is no specific guidance available in this document. In such cases, they should keep in mind the overall objective - to produce clear, plain documents for an interested reader who is not a specialist in education or training. In order to achieve consistency, writers and editors of Estyn publications should follow this guidance as much as they can. We are keen to update this guidance in ways that will help writers and editors and we are very happy to receive suggestions about how to improve it. If you have any suggestions or queries about this guide, then please contact Estyn using this email address: [email protected] Meilyr Rowlands HM Chief Inspector of Education and Training in Wales 1 Estyn writing guide Introduction: the need for a writing guide and its role Why we need a writing guide? • Estyn publications need to be clear and unambiguous so that a wide-ranging audience can understand what we are saying • We write to inform the public about standards and quality in education and training, and we should not assume that our readers are all teachers or educationalists • Our publications are public documents and they should provide a model of writing that is polished and clear What is the role of this writing guide? • This writing guide aims to help writers and editors to achieve consistency of approach across all of Estyn’s written work. It sets out an agreed Estyn house style • Writers and editors should follow the guidance even where they may have a different personal view about a preferred style from that set out in this guide • The aim is to make the guide easily accessible to everyone with an interest in Estyn’s writing 2 Estyn writing guide General principles New inspection arrangements from September 2017 Within the new inspection arrangements from September 2017, there is a greater degree of flexibility in what inspectors decide to report on within each section of the Common Inspection Framework. There is also greater flexibility in the way inspectors may decide to sequence their findings within each Inspection Area and in the number of words that they may use. The aim of this greater flexibility is to make reports more fit for purpose and more focused on the specific school or provider inspected. The flexibilities outlined below also provide more ways for reports to support professional learning as there is more scope for reporting inspectors to flesh out and to exemplify strengths which may be of interest to other schools in their own development and improvement journeys. The inspection guidance handbooks also set out the opportunity for inspectors to report ‘by exception’ in relation to various aspects of the school/provider’s work. This means that inspectors can decide not to report on an aspect if they have considered it and the aspect meets requirements and there are no particular strengths or weaknesses. Where there are significant strengths or weaknesses, the reporting inspector has the flexibility to flesh these out further. An important way that reports can reflect the specific circumstances of the school/provider is through exemplification. When reporting on a strength or a weakness, the use of one or two examples can help to place the inspection within the specific school/provider. This also prevents the report from becoming too generic, ie a report that could be on any school/provider. Each section of the report should be clear and in the appropriate place within the report, but the reporting inspector has the flexibility to sequence the sections within each Inspection Area in the way that best fits the school/provider and the messages that the reporting inspector wishes to convey. For example, there are three aspects within Inspection Area 3 (Teaching and learning experiences) on the quality of teaching, the breadth, balance and appropriateness of the curriculum and the provision for skills. The reporting inspector may decide to start the report on Inspection Area 3 with the team’s findings on the curriculum, then provision for skills and teaching or may start with teaching then the curriculum and skills. The sequence is up to the reporting inspector, based on the best way to communicate the team’s overall message on Inspection Area 3 – Teaching and learning experiences. The writing in reports needs to be evaluative, and the balance of strengths and weaknesses in inspection areas should reflect the judgement descriptors. However, reporting inspectors have a degree of flexibility in the use of description. If the report comments on excellence or significant strengths, then there is scope for the reporting inspector to describe or unpack some of the features of the provision to help the reader to get a better sense of the strengths in the school/provider. Reporting inspectors should try to ensure that every report is internally consistent and has a strong degree of coherence and stylistic wholeness. The aim should be to 3 Estyn writing guide have one style throughout the report rather than different styles or voices that may jar against each other. No sentence or paragraph should contradict another. Where a section has many uses of ‘but’ or ‘however’, there is a need to check that these have not modified a favourable comment in such a way as to cancel it out. On the whole, reports evaluate the current situation in the school/provider. Inspectors will consider plans for development as an integral part of leadership and management and the capacity of the school/provider to plan for the future and to bring about improvements. Having a plan does not in itself guarantee its successful implementation, but successful delivery of previous plans can help to secure the team’s confidence in the likelihood of the effective delivery of current plans. Inspection teams should report on their own findings, based on the evidence they have scrutinised at first hand. For this reason, reporting inspectors should avoid listing awards achieved by the school/provider as these derive from the scrutiny of others. Inspectors should be careful not to set out strengths in reports in such a way as to make it appear that Estyn endorses one approach only, or that one commercial scheme or product is particularly effective. For this reason, reporting inspectors should not write sentences that appear to advocate or endorse particular approaches, commercial schemes or products. Reporting inspectors should try to avoid making hidden recommendations. The report should evaluate the provision as it is rather than speculate about what needs to be done. In the body of the report, reporting inspectors should avoid phrases like ‘There is a need to do x…’ or ‘Undertaking x would ensure that y…’. Inspectors should consider statements on desirable improvements for inclusion in the section of the report on the recommendations that stem from the inspection. Report-ready and feedback ready text In the development of the new inspection arrangements, one of the key principles was the manageability of inspection activity, both for schools/providers and for inspection teams. We have therefore developed the concept of ‘feedback-ready’ and ‘report-ready’ text.