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Welcome
From September 2023, all canonical inspections in the Diocese of Arundel & Brighton will be undertaken by the Catholic Schools Inspectorate. The legal basis for such inspection is present in both Canon Law and Civil Law.
The purpose of Catholic School Inspection (CSI) under Canon Law and Section 48/50 is to report to and advise the Bishop of the Diocese on the quality of classroom religious education and the Catholic life of the school. Inspection also provides an opportunity to inform parents/carers and the wider community on the quality of religious education and celebrate the school’s efficacy as a Catholic community. Inspections are undertaken by inspectors nationally trained by the Catholic Schools Inspectorate.
Religious Education is "not one subject among many, but the foundation of the whole educational process."1
It is the "core of the core curriculum."2
From September 2023, all canonical inspections in the Diocese of Arundel & Brighton will be undertaken by the Catholic Schools Inspectorate. The legal basis for such inspection is present in both Canon Law and Civil Law.
The diocesan Bishop has a canonical right and duty to inspect all Catholic Schools in his Diocese at any time (Can. 804 §1 and Can. 806 §1 and §2). This right covers any kind of Catholic School, academy or college: voluntary aided schools, academies, non-maintained schools, independent schools and sixth form colleges, regardless of trusteeship. This inspection is properly called a canonical, or diocesan, inspection and can be carried out by an appropriately licensed inspector at any point. Canonical inspection falls under the jurisdiction of the Diocesan Bishop. All Schools will be inspected by those licensed to inspect by the Catholic Schools Inspectorate. Only persons licensed to inspect by the Catholic Schools Inspectorate have the authority to carry out these inspections.
“It is true that bishops have a canonical duty to inspect all Catholic schools within their jurisdiction, but even if they did not, it would remain central to the pastoral care they owe to the parents and parishes in their diocese who trust Catholic schools with the education of their children.” - CSI Handbook
In addition to Canon Law which applies to every type of Catholic school, for Catholic maintained schools and academies, canonical inspections must be carried out under Civil Law in order to comply with:
- Education Act 2005, s48/50
- Each Catholic Academy’s funding agreement
Under the updated national framework, Inspectors will report judgements on three key areas of the Catholic school:
Catholic Life and Mission, Religious Education, and Collective Worship. Each of these key areas will be subject to three sub-judgement areas which will look at Pupil Outcomes, Provision and Leadership. In addition to assessing the key judgement areas, Catholic School Inspectors will only arrive at an overall effectiveness grade once it has also been decided whether a school meets the following criteria:
a) The school is fully compliant with the curriculum requirements laid down by the Bishops’ Conference.
b) The school is fully compliant with all requirements of its diocesan bishop.
c) The school has responded fully to the areas for improvement from the last inspection.
Current Continuing Professional Development (CPD) on offer for CSI preparation can be found in our CPD and Catholic Leaders calendar here.
As schools prepare for Catholic School Inspection, we have made changes to the purpose and format of our visits to support schools, they will now be known as Focus Visits (FVs). To ensure these visits are beneficial to schools, we have devised a Focus Visit Self Evaluation Document which you can download in the Focus Visit Documents for Schools section below. This gives the outline of the new CSI Framework in a format that should be useful as you undertake your preparation for inspection. Completion of this form is not mandatory but is a shortened self-evaluation to help prepare for the focus of the day.
Visits will be based on the needs which the school identifies in the Focus Form, allowing you and the RE Adviser to concentrate only on those areas where you feel further support and guidance may be required. At their most successful, FVs will be a partnership between the school and the Diocese, with the structure of the day jointly designed to best achieve this.
The Catholic Self-Evaluation Document (CSED) is a slightly different form that will be used by the Lead Inspector at a CSI. Two forms of the CSED are available to download in the CSI Documents for Schools section below. While all schools will need to complete a self-evaluation based on the framework areas, this particular form is not mandatory. The Education Service advise schools to limit the size of this document, for example, keeping evaluations to one page for each of the 9 sections within the main body of the document (pp. 5-13).
A copy of Arundel and Brighton's Bishop’s Mandate and Expectations can be found in the CSI Documents for Schools section below.
Ofsted is an abbreviation of the Office for Standards in Education. Ofsted is a non-ministerial department of the UK Government with responsibility for inspecting and regulating maintained schools, academies and some independent schools. Schools are required to publish their most recent Ofsted report on their website, you can also access reports on Ofsted’s website:
This handbook is primarily a guide for Ofsted inspectors on how to carry out inspections of maintained schools and academies under section 5 of the Education Act 2005. Ofsted also publish this for schools and other interested parties so that they are aware of Ofsted’s inspection processes and procedures under the education inspection framework (EIF).
