Ofsted for Humans

Apologies in advance for this very long blogpost entry. It’s got a lot of information in it and I’ve purposely not edited it down too much as – on this subject – I think teachers want to know details, so I’ve included as much as I feel is useful. So this is, hopefully, some common sense, based on FACTS and translatable into normal classrooms, for normal HUMAN teachers and all the other humans that inhabit those classrooms.

The idea that there is a magic formula to teaching Good and Outstanding lessons is catnip to teachers and SLTs. However, those of us that have been teaching a while will have seen myriad versions of what will impress the inspectors. A few years ago, horror stories abounded of schools being put into special measures after offering inspectors cups of tea before asking to see their i.d. (ah, who can forget ‘Ofsted – the Safeguarding years’?) A mass of confusion arose over what it was the inspectors were actually looking for in lessons, and it’s not surprising given the mixed messages from well-meaning but misguided school leaders, from the Daily Mail and from some proper media outlets as well.

However, more recently, HM Chief Inspector Sir Michael Wilshaw is/has been endeavouring to get the message of consistency across. No matter what our opinion of SMW (and my opinion is severely affected by seeing him on Homes Under the Hammer in the summer hols), he does seem to have student progress at the forefront of Ofsted’s priorities.

An increasing number of Heads and senior teachers have now decided if you can’t beat them, join them, and are signing up as Ofsted Inspectors themselves, so they can see for themselves what messages are being given and, perhaps a little more altruistically you’d hope, take part in inspections in order to support other schools and show them that these inspectors are (mostly) humans too, who know what schools and classrooms are Really Like.

We have two fully trained Ofsted inspectors now at my school and they have helped me to create CPD for colleagues and other schools in our county and beyond. We’re also lucky enough to have an observation classroom that allows a fair number of people to observe ‘live’ lessons and the feedback we’ve had from the courses we’ve run already has been very positive.

The course starts with a presentation and discussion outlining what Ofsted and the inspectors are looking for when they enter your classroom.

This is then followed by observation of a lesson, with the inspector giving a running commentary to the delegates behind the glass (it’s all sound-proofed so they hear the lesson via the mics but the lesson isn’t disturbed by the discussions at all). The inspector then joins the lesson for 15 mins and acts like he would during a real Ofsted visit, taking notes, looking, listening and talking to students. He then rejoins the delegates behind the glass.

We’ve found that the teachers attending the course also enjoy the chance to speak to the students themselves so we always build 10 minutes before the end of the lesson for the delegates to join the class and chat. The lesson is wrapped up and then we have a post-match analysis from the inspector, which includes a grading on the section he 'inspected' and we then discuss why this decision would have been reached.

What follows now is a summary of the presentation, based on the most up-to-date training given to Ofsted inspectors. Obviously, the disclaimer here would be that you cannot bank on every single inspector having properly heard and acted on the messages SMW is giving to his inspectorate, but I’d also say that if any inspector veers wildly from this, challenge it. SMW has actively encouraged schools to do this.

Before your lesson begins

• Raise Online data is scrutinised

• Any areas of concern will be a key focus

• First impressions count:
• The learning environment
• The way the students are with you and one another
• The way you respond and engage
• Your relationships
• Evidence of embedded good habits

The inspection team will have an idea of whole-school concerns before they observe your lesson, but they will have been told not to pre-judge in any way. They are told very strictly to use evidence only in their judgments.

The main thing I think you can take from here is that it sticks out like a sore thumb if the lesson being observed is a long way from the norm. If you are using active teaching strategies and a method that promotes behaviour for learning and student progress in your normal ‘teaching repertoire’, this will be evident.

When the inspector arrives

• He/she will attempt not to disrupt learning
• They will look at your displays for signs of positive spiritual, moral, social & cultural focus 
• …and literacy/numeracy, whatever the subject, e.g. key words, writing types used, etc.

Show them to a seat and then get on with the lesson and try not to deviate from what you wanted the lesson to be. They will allow a bit of time to settle and in this time, they will carefully look around at your classroom, the seating arrangements and evidence of Spiritual, Moral, Social, and Cultural focus.

This can be translated as: is this a good learning environment? Good displays? Are school expectations up anywhere? Are there motivational and stimulating posters up, etc? Do students feel safe and well-looked after in this environment? Are health and safety posters up (if appropriate for this subject)? Is there a whole-school literacy or PLTS policy or similar? If so, are these messages evident in this classroom? Do you have key words up on the walls?

Don’t expect the inspector to stay still! If you don’t want any books seen, keep them out of sight (although they might ask for them anyway). Be aware that inspectors may well pick books from piles on nearby shelves, whether they belong to this class or not.

The inspector will begin to interact with students as soon as is appropriate. You may have carefully choreographed the seating for the inspector but s/he will soon move. They have been known to ask students about what the behaviour code is in this class; who usually causes any problems? If anyone is pointed out, the inspector will make a beeline for them!

They will almost certainly look in books at evidence of learning through your marking and assessment. Best practice allows them to see your marking, their response with actions and your re-assessment. If you always end your comments with a question, it forces the students to answer it. I like to think of marking in books as an ongoing conversation that shows students where they’re at, what they’d need to do to get there, and then evidence of the having worked at that – with you re-visiting it to let them know if they’ve cracked it. We as a school divide up our marking into 3: one third tick and flick; one third peer or self-assessment; one third close teacher marking and feedback.

In the meantime, they will look at how engaged the students seem and what you are doing; how you are talking to the students and whether the school ethos is evident in their behaviour. A BIG focus for inspectors at the moment is behaviour for learning*. How ready are the students to learn when they come in? What do you do to foster good learning?

*I’ll be blogging about this quite soon as it’s become a bit of an interest for me.

 

Ofsted Myths

• Lessons need to be fast-paced
• Lessons need to be packed with a range of activities
• Lesson plans need to be massively detailed
• You should not deviate from your plan
• Lessons need to be reviewed every 10 minutes
• The lesson has to be ‘perfect’

All of these really!

Even if the lesson goes wrong, e.g. a student decides to really kick off, you can still get an ‘Outstanding’ as long as you stick to the school’s referral system. The inspector doesn’t expect everything and everyone to be perfect but they need to see what happens when things go wrong and whether this matches what the school says happens.

If you look at Sir Michael Wilshaw’s recent speech from the London Festival for Education, he said lessons can be actually quite boring at times – as long as students are learning. Ofsted does not have a ‘preferred learning style’ and teachers shouldn’t feel pressured into teaching in a way they are not comfortable with. I think this is the most important message of all: As long as students are learning and this is evident, the lesson can be graded as Outstanding.

Learning Objectives

• Need not be on display throughout
• …Should not be copied down
• …But must be 'woven' into the lesson

Making students copy down learning objectives is a Big Fat Waste of Time overall and an inspector will certainly not expect it. However, if your school has it as a whole-school policy, you might be forced to do it. But you shouldn’t be afraid to question: who is this actually for? Is it a settler? If so, do something else more meaningful to settle students instead!

As long as expectations are very clear, e.g. through questioning at the beginning of the lesson, or introduced by you, the inspector will be happy with that. If they were to ask a student ‘What are you learning? Why are you doing this?’, could they answer? It really should be obvious throughout the lesson.

Lesson Plans

• …are NOT required
• …but seating plans and student profiles (SEN / FSM / EAL etc.) are really useful

Detailed lesson plans are NOT necessary. All inspectors have been told not to expect a lesson plan and not to mark anyone down for not providing one.

However, a class list – or even better – a seating plan is really useful. If that is annotated with who is EAL/SEN/G&T/FSM, again that is really useful and it will help the inspector put the lesson into context. S/he will certainly monitor those students in the time they are there and see if they are making comparable progress to the other students.

If having no lesson plan freaks you out completely, then I’d use a Lesson Progress Map. This is adapted for my own school’s needs from one created by @JohnTomsett and I think it’s great as it focuses on the learning and the key questions you should be addressing (Ofsted or not). You could also look at the 5 min lesson plan by @TeacherToolkit; it’s entirely a personal choice.

 

AfL / Plenaries

A plenary isn’t completely necessary, as long as the progress can be determined by activities/strategies in the lesson. Mini-plenaries are often the way to go, as long as students are used to this and they don’t get fed up with being interrupted part-way through the lesson. If the learning is visible, this is a bonus.

Inspectors will never refer to it as assessment for learning as there is not a set definition for this term. That’s not to say they don’t like it, but they won’t refer to AfL specifically. In my classroom, I often use a ‘washing line’ or similar for students to move up as the lesson goes on. Each student has their name on a slip, the line is marked 0 to 10 and they indicate their learning in a physical way that’s easy for all to see (just one example of course).

Following a Trail

• Inspectors will pick up on any positive evidence of targets being met OR areas of concern
• They will start a trail across school looking for evidence of these things

When the inspection starts, the team will start a ‘book’ with information that they share from all their dealings around school, to establish whether a pattern is emerging, e.g. if they think behaviour standards are low in an area of the school, like movement between lessons, it will go in the book and the other inspectors will look out for it. Any further evidence of this they notice will go into the book and a profile will build. If the trail dies out (e.g. no further evidence) it will go down as a ‘blip’.

 Ofsted Priorities

• Any areas picked up by Raise Online
• Impact of every activity – “So what?”
• Evidence of cross-curricular literacy
• Evidence of SCMC
• Evidence of embedded good practice

It sounds a bit rude, but the question asked most often by inspectors is “So what?” when they are faced with any information about what goes on in a classroom or in the school. Basically, they want to see the IMPACT of everything.

It’s actually a good habit to get into when you are planning (in pairs is good). Whenever you plan to do a certain task, ask “So what?”: it will get you questioning why you’re doing it. If you can answer this, and it leads to learning and progress, then that’s OK.

Literacy is massive at the moment and Ofsted will look for evidence of it in every part of the school. They will want to see every teacher in every subject picking up on literacy issues, and the good news (for English teachers) is that they won’t expect the English department to be in charge of this! But they will expect to see whole-school literacy policies implemented in lessons.

Quick heads-up as well – all inspectors have just had LGBT (Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender) awareness training and they will expect to see good practice in this are in your school. Look at my blog entry on this if you want more info as I wrote about it at length recently (http://edulike.blogspot.co.uk/)

In a Nutshell...

• Create a ‘ready-for learning’ environment
• Ask Questions
• Stop Talking

This might sound slightly-contradictory, given the stuff from SMW about not being afraid to do lessons that aren’t all-singing-all-dancing, but there is still much room for teachers to get away from them being the whole pivot of the lesson.

Yes, a teacher might talk a fair bit and in theory they could get an Outstanding, but is every single student hanging on every word and actively learning throughout? Much better to keep whole-class teacher-talk to a minimum and encourage more independence with the students, whether they are working alone, in pairs or in groups.

 

I hope you find this information useful – do get in touch if you have any further questions and remember that this material is contributed to by two serving Ofsted inspectors as well as me, but obviously you have to take into consideration this is just ‘their take’ on current training.

If you’re interested in coming along to one of our courses including the ‘live’ lesson (we’re in the Midlands), do let me know. I’m also an SLE and, as such, can be booked out to visit schools.

@murphiegirl