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How Heathfield Primary went into inspection knowing their evidence was there

Read how Intelligent Evidence helped Mark Thornley map his school’s strengths clearly against the new framework and hold his ground during a rigorous two-day inspection.

What happened

With three inspectors spending two days in a one-form entry school, the scrutiny was thorough. Under the new framework, inspectors work through the toolkit line by line, looking for evidence against every descriptor. It is an exact-fit model. Either the evidence is there, or it isn’t.

Mark had used Intelligent Evidence to build his evidence base before the call came, mapping documents against the expected standard first, and then the strong standard. He felt prepared, and that paid off – even when confidence wavered on day one, his evidence base gave him the ground to stand on and go back fighting on day two.

The inspection resulted in a strong outcome across the board.

"It's the most purposeful activity I've ever done. It definitely got us to where we wanted it to be. I knew in my heart of hearts that this was a strong school and I had the evidence to prove it - it wasn't just a gut feeling."
Mark ThornleyHeadteacher, Heathfield Primary School
"I felt confident going into the process that my evidence base was there."
Mark ThornleyHeadteacher, Heathfield Primary School
"They hold you to account against the toolkit. What Intelligent Evidence does is help you hold the Ofsted team to account against it too. I'll never go back."
Mark ThornleyHeadteacher, Heathfield Primary School
"It gave me that time to go back, readjust, and think actually, we have got this. And then go back fighting."
Mark ThornleyHeadteacher, Heathfield Primary School
"It's purposeful now and useful. And the gaps will naturally emerge, and I'll just start using that to inform some development."
Mark ThornleyHeadteacher, Heathfield Primary School
"I've always written the SEF and collated evidence myself and maybe sent the final version out to the team to look at. Because of the way Intelligent Evidence has everything set up, they can just log in themselves and do their areas. It was just easier to do."
Mark ThornleyHeadteacher, Heathfield Primary School
"It helped me make sense of all the documentation we have as a school and how that matches against the framework. It gave me the confidence before that phone call that we were an expected school at the very least - and then a strong school when I started to work through the strong guidelines."
Mark ThornleyHeadteacher, Heathfield Primary School
"We all looked at it and just went through it all and made sure it all made sense to everybody. Everyone felt, pre-Ofsted, that we had enough evidence for strong."
Mark ThornleyHeadteacher, Heathfield Primary School

Prepared before the conversation started

From the very first meeting, inspectors were referencing details from the evidence summary Mark had shared in advance – a document generated by Intelligent Evidence mapping his school’s evidence against each grade descriptor. The conversation started from a position of clarity rather than explanation.

Confidence to go back fighting

By the end of day one, inspectors had flagged specific grade descriptors across several areas where the lead inspector suggested the evidence hadn’t yet been seen. The indicative judgments shared with the SLT did not match the school that Mark knew. It was clear that the team just hadn’t seen what Mark had shown them.

That evening Mark made sure that he could show exactly what the team had missed in the evidence base.  The clarity and organisation provided by Intelligent Evidence allowed him to meet with inspectors the next morning and show them what they had missed.

The evidence base that runs itself, so you can run your school

Mark plans to keep building his evidence base term by term – uploading new documents as they’re produced, using emerging gaps to inform the school development plan, sharing the summary with governors. Not because another inspection is on the horizon, but because having a clear, current picture of where the school stands has proved its value.

Read the full case study

The full case study goes deeper - how the SENCO, deputy and early years lead each played a role, what happened in the reflection meetings on day two, and how Mark is using Intelligent Evidence now inspection is behind him.

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