Looking at Our School 2016: A Quality Framework for Primary Schools provides a unified and coherent set of standards for two dimensions of the work of schools:

• teaching and learning

• leadership and management

It is designed for teachers and for school leaders to use in implementing the most effective and engaging teaching and learning approaches and in enhancing the quality of leadership in their schools. Through the provision of a set of standards describing ‘effective practice’ and ‘highly effective practice’, the framework will help schools to identify their strengths and areas for development and will enable them to take ownership of their own development and improvement. In this way, the quality framework seeks to assist schools to embed self-evaluation, reflective practice and responsiveness to the needs of learners in their classrooms and other learning settings.

The quality framework will be used to inform the work of inspectors as they monitor and report on quality in schools. Evaluation models will draw on the elements of the framework that are most relevant to the focus of the model. In this way, while the framework will be used flexibly, it will ensure consistency in Inspectorate evaluations.