Ofsted Continued from page 9


with the inspection team. My SENCO is very knowledgeable but I am going to need to work with her on a number of these issues in order to fully prepare for our next inspection. Remind your SENCO that it is considered good practice to compare the progress of SEN children with all pupils nationally. Headteachers are advised to use the “narrowing the gap” tables at the


back of RoL as a starting point in finding information on the progress of Pupil Premium pupils. At present, the RoL summary report does not contain expected progress tables for looked-after children or free school meal pupils (or school action or school action plus for that matter), but it is hoped that these will be available in 2012. In the meantime, these can be accessed via the interactive RoL site, using the filters. Trends in achievement continue to be important and three years seems


to be the optimum period. That said, Ofsted is advising inspectors that they should not let data from the last three years pull down judgements where there have been clear improvements that are robust (oh yes, “robust” is back in vogue!) and where the evidence clearly shows this improvement across year groups and for different pupil groups.


Performance management Another significant change is the importance being placed on the impact of the school leadership team on the quality of teaching, specifically focusing on performance management. Inspectors have to consider the robustness of the performance management process and the effectiveness of strategies for improving teaching. Considering inspectors’ love of triangulating evidence, you may wish


to consider how well your staff could talk about their performance management objectives, whether they could articulate how their objectives can be measured and monitored, and how much these targets impact positively on their teaching. Ofsted advises lead inspectors to ask headteachers to provide information


about the school’s performance management arrangements, including the most recent outcomes and their relationship to salary progression. It may well be that this will include the number of staff progressing


through threshold this/last year and a table for each salary point with the corresponding number of staff and the number that met their objectives. All of this must be presented in an anonymised format. A final point: teachers can expect to be asked about the impact of


performance management when inspectors are giving them lesson observation feedback – forewarned is forearmed!


Teaching The new Teaching Standards were introduced in September. In the new inspection guidance, we are told that when judging the quality of teaching, inspectors should consider the extent to which the Standards are being met.


“There has, of course, been a strong,


recent emphasis placed on the teaching of phonics and this will definitely continue. Headteachers can soon expect a push


on maths too, as this framework has a slightly sharper focus on the quality of maths teaching”


With regard to teaching, we are told that Ofsted has no preferred


teaching style. As in the past, there is the obvious link between teaching and learning/progress in lessons. The Ofsted handbook outlines criteria for judging the school’s teaching as a whole and while this is not intended to be used for the assessment of individual lessons, it does include many criteria suitable for lesson observations and inevitably inspectors will refer to it. If an inspector observes a lesson for 25 minutes or more, feedback should


be given to the teacher. When teachers receive feedback they can expect to be given the overall judgement for the lesson. This is likely to be conveyed in words, such as “good”, rather than numbered grades. There has, of course, been a strong, recent emphasis placed on the teaching of phonics and this will definitely continue. Headteachers can


10


soon expect a push on maths too, as this framework has a slightly sharper focus on the quality of maths teaching.


Governors and parents There is an increased emphasis on the role of governors (see pages 41 and 42 ofThe School Inspection Handbook). Ask yourself: n To what extent do your governors really contribute to the school’s self-evaluation?


n Do they hold you to account for improving the quality of teaching, achievement, etc?


n How aware/involved are they in the deployment of Pupil Premium and are they clear on the impact and outcomes?


The new grade descriptors for leadership and management contain


increased reference to governors and governance. You need to consider what information you are sharing with your governing body, as they need to have “a deep and accurate understanding of the school’s performance, and of staff and pupils’ skills and attributes” if leadership is to be judged outstanding. Even to be considered good, “governors must systematically challenge school leaders”. My governing body is very supportive, but I will still work with them


so that they are able to show how they have challenged me and held me to account for standards etc, and to ensure that these “challenges” are noted in meeting minutes. If you look at the “inadequate” descriptor for leadership and management it states that “governors are not sufficiently robust in holding the school to account for pupils’ achievement, the quality of teaching and the effective and efficient deployment of resources”. Certainly food for thought. Obviously heads are now aware of the Parent View website, but judging


by the current completion rates the majority of parents are not! Schools should have efficient mechanisms in place for collecting and analysing the views of parents. Inspectors will be expecting schools to have this information and to have actions based on what the information tells them.


Behaviour When it comes to behaviour, nothing much has changed. Inspectors will still ask to see the school’s behaviour records and will want to know what exactly the school does with this information. Inspection teams will be looking to come to a judgement about “typical


behaviour” and will therefore be focusing on behaviour over time. Information from previous years will be scrutinised and inspectors will of course talk to children about their views on bullying, behaviour and safety. As has happened from January, pupils who speak to inspectors about behaviour will be selected by the inspection team.


The reports The format of inspection reports are significantly different now. The front page of the report has the grades for the four inspection areas, as well as the grade for overall effectiveness. There is also a summary. There will no longer be a letter to the pupils as there has been in recent years. Inspectors are being encouraged to avoid jargon throughout the report,


but this front page in particular should be completely jargon free. The summary on the front page sets the tone for the style of the rest of the report, as it is bullet-pointed and intended to be fairly punchy. For example, with a school rated “good” the report will state, “this is a


good school because…” – thus listing some key strengths. Below this the front page will include “it is not an outstanding school because...” – listing the key areas for development. If teaching is judged to be less than good, the first improvement bullet-


point will relate to teaching and should spell-out exactly what needs to be done in order for teaching to improve. Once inside the report, heads will find basic information about the school and then a section on each of the four inspection areas. Each of these sections is to be written using bullets and, as before, these should be evaluative and not descriptive. We are advised as inspectors that in the section on teaching, we should be precise in specifying which elements of classroom practice require improvement and in which subjects or year groups.


Prepare! As ever with inspection, the key word is preparation. Use the inspection handbook, become familiar with the new framework and make sure that you drive your inspection so that it is done “with you” and not “to you”.


• This article has been written anonymously by a practising headteacher from a primary school in England who is also an Ofsted inspector.


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40