Ofsted will trial “a new approach to inspections” ahead of a consultation on its new inspection framework, which is likely to include longer notice periods for providers and “proportionate” inspection teams.

A “small number of volunteer schools” have been selected to “informally test” a revised inspection model from the start of the spring term. Findings from these informal pilots will then inform Ofsted’s consultation on a new inspection framework, expected later in January.

Further education and skills settings will also get to trial the inspectorate’s new approach, but not until “later in the term” once its proposals have been published.

Ofsted has not set out what will be different in those early informal pilots in volunteer schools.

A new inspection framework has been on the cards since chief inspector Martyn Oliver’s Big Listen exercise. Its next iteration is likely to diverge from Ofsted’s current model which places all education provision under one governing inspection framework.