CIS evaluation, leading to accreditation, is distinctively different to evaluation/inspection. The CIS evaluation and accreditation process is led by peers in a full Visiting Team (i.e. colleagues from other CIS accredited schools rather than full-time evaluators). The OFSTED sub-contracted inspection system uses colleagues from schools and recent retirees to inspect schools. However, in a CIS evaluation and accreditation exercise, CIS has a long term relationship with the school concerned, from the point at which the school applies to be a member, to the Preliminary Visit and onwards through the ten year accreditation cycle. CIS will have visited the school on several occasions in the cycle through full-time, professional colleagues working on school support and evaluation, and CIS will know the school well: it is a long-term relationship and therefore, the evaluation may be contextualised by the school and its longer term school improvement goals. OFSTED inspections, be they by any of the sub-contracted providers, tend to be single week episodes.
CIS is a non-nationally affiliated, non-regionally affiliated global organisation. It does not favour any regional or national curricula over any other, nor does it form government partnerships that may jeopardise its non-partisan nature. CIS is not an inspection body in the way that the British government defines school inspection, i.e. through OFSTED, a non-ministerial government department.