Ofsted

At the request of the Secretary of State for Education, Ofsted conducts pre-registration inspections of proposed free schools.

As a new school, Rowan Wood will have a pre-registration inspection in summer 2025.

Challenge Partners

What is Challenge Partners?

The Challenge Partners multi-academy Trust Peer Review (TPR) enables development and improvement in host Trusts through challenge and collaboration. It provides reviewers with unique insights to support their own Trust’s development, and helps share knowledge about what works across the education system so all can benefit.

The Trust Peer Review:

• Evaluates the Trust on its own terms
• Is sharply focused on school improvement and the impact the Trust has on outcomes
• Captures and shares effective practice
• Identifies areas for improvement
• Provides input on key challenges facing the Trust
• Is expert-facilitated
• Is done with, not to, the host Trust
• Provides powerful CPD and insight for reviewers, which benefits their own Trusts
• Builds evidence of what works in Trust school improvement

How it works

Led by an independent expert over three-days, the external review team works with host Trust leaders to build a picture of how school improvement operates across the trust and the impact it is having. This informs professional dialogue about strengths, areas for development and next steps, which are captured in a written report. There is also the opportunity for the host Trust to harness the expertise of their peers to explore a particular challenge they are facing and identify ways forward.

The Trust Peer Review relies on asking powerful, open questions in a spirit of appreciative inquiry and collaboration. We know all Trusts are different and that there is not a single formula for Trust success, so our reviews do not start with a framework or checklist, or otherwise presume to know “the answer”. The review does not check compliance or provide an audit of finance, governance or HR – though we do consider how these important factors contribute to school improvement.

We are expecting our first Challenge Partners review in May 2026.