OFSTED CHANGES 2014 A Teacher’s Perspective

1. OFSTED CHANGES 2014A Teacher’s Perspective By Peter Monfort

2. Those sneaky Ofsted types • While everyone else was contemplating the start of Christmas on the 23rd December 2013 OFSTED were updating all of their guidance. • But is isn’t all bad news.

3. What’s changed • School Inspection Handbook • Subsidiary Guidance • Subject Guidance • A few other bits and bobs.

4. What do you need to know? • Inspectors must balance evidence about previous cohorts of pupils with evidence about progress being made by pupils being taught in the school currently.

5. SO WHAT • Have your class data to hand for observers. Does it show progress? • Share data with pupils regularly. • Track progress. • Challenge poor progress. Feed back to pupils in marking, highlight what needs to change. • This will reassure an inspector you are • Tracking progress. • Doing something about it. • Provide inspectors with evidence that progress with the current cohort is good or better. • Most importantly – it might actually help you to be more effective.

6. What do you need to know? • Greater emphasis on behaviour between lessons, at break and lunch, as well as settling into your class and following routines. More focus on low level disruption.

7. SO WHAT • Have a routine. Embed routine in every lesson. • Eliminate the things that slow your lesson start. • Get the good pupils to help you. • Make sure you do your break/lunch duties – be in time. • Help out at lesson change overs, even if you are teaching. TEAM WORK. • Make sure you log sanctions and rewards. It is a rich source of evidence for school, never mind OFSTED.

8. What do you need to know? • More focus on the way pupils look after the school and their belongings.

9. SO WHAT • Make sure books are well presented. Develop strategies for dealing with pupils who don’t look after their books. • Keep your classroom resources in order. Maybe make a pupil responsible in each lesson. Don’t make work for yourself. • Ensure there are enough bins in school. • Have a selection of basic equipment in lessons. I always lose my pens. Lend one out without drama. Tackle the pupils who never bring equipment at a different time. Not at the start of your lesson when you should be focused on getting a prompt start and injection of some pace.

10. What do you need to know? • Inspectors cannot insist on three years worth of improved data to judge a school good.

11. SO WHAT • If results have dipped you can still be good but you need to show good progress now in lessons and books. • Can you show strong value added progress as well. • Consider how progress over time in lessons can be shown. If you do this for yourself it will help you to teach more effectively. Have the evidence to hand in an observation.

12. What do you need to know? • Inspectors must not give the impression that Ofsted favours a particular teaching style. Moreover, they must not inspect or report in a way that is not stipulated in the framework, handbook or guidance. For example, they should not criticise teacher talk for being overlong or bemoan a lack of opportunity for different activities in lessons unless there is unequivocal evidence that this is slowing learning over time. It is unrealistic, too, for inspectors to necessarily expect that all work in all lessons is always matched to the specific needs of each individual. Do not expect to see ‘independent learning’ in all lessons and do not make the assumption that this is always necessary or desirable. On occasions, too, pupils are rightly passive rather than active recipients of learning. Do not criticise ‘passivity’ as a matter of course and certainly not unless it is evidently stopping pupils from learning new knowledge or gaining skills and understanding.

13. What do you need to know? • When in lessons, also remember that we are gathering evidence about a variety of aspects of provision and outcomes. We are not simply observing the features of the lesson but we are gathering evidence about a range of issues through observation in a lesson. • Do not focus on the lesson structure at the expense of its content or the wide range of other evidence about how well children are learning in the school.

14. SO WHAT • Use variety of teaching approaches across a range of lessons. • You are not expected to do it all in every lesson. • Don’t over plan. • Adapt the plan where it doesn’t go as you expected. • Ensure your books show that you use a variety of approaches. • You can’t differentiate every lesson, but it should be there over time. • Imagine you are an inspector. What questions would you ask pupils to find out if the evidence was there? Why not try asking the pupils yourself.

15. Discussion points • How can you demonstrate differentiation through effective feedback? • What questions would you ask pupils to discover if they have a broad range of experiences, differentiation, AFL etc overtime? (Do you think it would help if you asked pupils – the feedback would be useful to you – never mind OFSTED?) • What features of your lessons regularly slow pace or cause disharmony. What can you do about it? • How could you demonstrate progress to an observer without having to break away from your teaching? You may have only 20 minutes. What could you include in a concise context file about each class. Would such a document be useful to you?