What's that coming over the hill? Is it Ofsted? Literacy

Every baddie in a TV show has a catchphrase. In Doctor Who, it is ‘EXTERMINATE’ for the Daleks. For the Cybermen, it is ‘delete’ or ‘upgrade’. As I was visited by Ofsted a few weeks ago, I heard them mutter their own unique catchphrase. They obviously had their cloaking device on, but for a brief second I heard a voice utter their phrase of intent. What was their catchphrase? The simple word – Triangulate!

Yesterday, I wrote about my Ofsted experience as a teacher. Today, I am going to share my experience as someone responsible for ‘Literacy across the Curriculum’. As I had only started the job in December, I was panicking about the mere thought that Ofsted would pounce on me in an inspection. The less time I had, the less evidence I would have ready, the less I could convince them that we were a good school. The last eight months had been tough. Each week I had prayed that Ofsted wouldn’t come. Then, April arrived and I decided that I wanted to have them visit as soon as possible. Why? Well, easy – you cannot live in a constant state of fear. The fear of a visit was causing me sleepless nights and constant anxiety. There was constant second guessing by me. Wednesday became the new Friday, as by Wednesday you knew you could relax until Monday as they were not coming in. All this made for a poisonous atmosphere. We were working hard for something that could happen tomorrow, next week, next month or even next academic year. All jobs have ebbs and flows and productivity isn’t always at 100%. That’s why you have breaks. Yet, the constant worry of Ofsted meant that productivity was at 100%. I think some people did the work of a whole year in two terms.

 

The Call

When the call happened, all the staff were called to the staffroom and awaited the news. I sat there anxious, worried, scared, bemused, confused, uncertain and so many other things. We always talk about Shakespeare’s plays being cathartic. However, Shakespeare has nothing on an Ofsted inspection. I was purged of all the emotions my body could produce, just waiting to hear that they were coming. The Head arrived and informed us of the obvious: they were coming tomorrow.  Then, I was told: ‘They're focusing on reading; good luck, Chris’.

Why reading? Well, I think they had worked out that a lot of my work over the last eight months had focused on writing. They had clearly spotted our weak point. That’s what a good enemy does. Find your weaknesses first. Ours was reading. And, if I am honest, writing can be addressed with some quick fixes and strategies. Reading is the biggie. It is the one that is harder to address as it is often hard to define. If I was awaiting a call from Ofsted, I’d think about this. What are you doing about reading skills?

Anyway, I retired to the War Room, my classroom, and planned my case for the defence. If there is one thing I am pleased of, that is my evidence folder. Everything I had done in the role of co-ordinator had been collected in a folder and dated. I think somewhere in the back of my mind I had long ago thought that Ofsted was like going to court and being on trial. I had even watched endless repeats of Perry Mason to make sure I was ready with my final address to the jury. Furthermore, I had practised the following phrase several times in the mirror: ‘You can’t handle the truth!’.  I now had several hours to get my case ready. Panic!  Coffee and Red Bull aplenty.

The Meeting

This surprised me: I wasn’t called to a meeting. In fact, I tagged along to the teaching and learning meeting with the inspectors. It was primarily concerned with the teaching and I was left waiting for a space to start my opening speech. Nothing. I waited and waited and nothing appeared. I understand how conversations work and I knew I was in the wrong meeting. Mentioning Literacy at this point was like mentioning watching SAW III to someone during a hymn at a funeral. It has a tenuous connection, but it isn’t really appropriate. I left the meeting saying virtually nothing and being left frustrated. Therefore, I went straight to SLT and asked (demanded – depending on perspective) for another meeting, explaining that it wasn’t the right moment to discuss what had been done.

Luckily, I got another meeting. All that training in the mirror had helped. You do really have to fight. Not in an aggressive knives and guns way, but a words and arguments way. I had my meeting, which was very brief. This was mainly because it was towards the end of the inspection on the second day. They had, in my opinion, at that stage had most of their evidence. This is where I think inspections are making their opinions on Literacy. It is through triangulating things. They look at the teaching, the exercise books and the students, and from all these they then form an opinion. What the schools says is only one part of this triangle. This happens towards the end, so prepare your argument for the end of the inspection.

My second meeting was lovely. I know I am using the word ‘lovely’ to describe a meeting with Ofsted, but it was. I sat chatting to the inspector about what he had seen and the meeting was filling the gaps. It was about tracking improvements and about evidence. At the end of the failure of the first meeting, I had given the team a sheet with key aspects relating to our Literacy strategy. He knew the basics and I admitted the problems we had had. The main problem was that a lot of evidence with Literacy at the moment is anecdotal. The changes have been so sudden that getting evidence and data is quite hard. Thankfully, I had some data to support progress. We discussed the issue of reading and I told him the truth: we have a plan. This year’s focus was writing and next year’s focus is mainly on reading. I was honest and told him that it was still being developed. I told him the plans and what was currently in place. I felt that that was important for Ofsted visiting. They know that things may not be perfect, but they want to see action and plans and strategies. They don’t want a list of excuses.

The Result

The result was really good. I cannot say how pleased I am with it, but it was a team effort. Literacy is a team effort. The report featured lots of lovely comments relating to Literacy:

‘Students’ literacy skills have improved in most subjects because staff have well-thought out approaches to improving spelling and punctuation, specialist vocabulary and writing structures.’

What was the magic ingredient? What was the secret? To be honest, I don’t think there was one simple thing. No, maybe there is one: a culture of literacy. (I will in a future blog write about creating a culture of Literacy.) The Ofsted inspectors couldn’t escape literacy because it was in every lesson. It was referred to everywhere. It was constantly talked about. It was part of everyday conversations. It was something students were aware of. It was everywhere. There wasn’t one thing that everybody was doing. Each teacher was doing literacy in their own way. They were skimming and scanning. They were guiding students on how to form an argument. They had a little booklet of key terms. They had mats. There was a consistent approach to Literacy, but not a consistent way to how it was delivered in lessons. Teachers were seen to be thinking about Literacy rather than just doing it. Things were joined up in lessons and not just superfluous grammar lessons.

As with most things, we might have just got lucky and had a nice team. But, I like to think we would have got the same result with another team.

Advice

At a recent teachmeet, I was inundated with questions about the inspection and I think it is hard to give pointers and suggestions. These are some of the things I might suggest. I must add that my experience is isolated to one inspection, so I am hardly an expert. Below, are just a few things I would consider if it was me facing an inspection in the next few weeks.

 

1: Think of triangulating and the strengths and weaknesses of Literacy in the school.

What will the students say about reading / writing in lessons and Literacy?
What will their exercise books show?
What will the teaching show?
How will the inspector see that Literacy is a priority across the whole school?

2: What is your plan?

What strategies have you put into action?
Why did you use those strategies?
What are the problems you are working on now?
What is the plan for the next term or year?
What are your strengths and weaknesses?
What are you doing about reading, writing and speaking?

3: Where is your evidence?

What evidence have you got to show that the improvements in Literacy are working?
What data can you provide? 
  

I think the best piece of advice I picked up in the Ofsted journey is to have a ready made crib sheet. On one sheet, write down bullet-points about the key things you have done and have in place. Like a court of law, have your brief ready for the judge. Be prepared. In courts, juries are subjective and have their own set of prejudices and judgements. They may have their point of view, but it is the prosecution or the defence’s job to convince them. Ofsted may have some assumptions based on the school’s data, but it is our job to fight.  However, the key to any good fight is having done the preparation. We shouldn’t avoid the difficult questions, because you know sooner or later that is where Ofsted will focus on.

What’s that coming over the hill? Is it a monster? Is it a monster? I don’t know if it is a monster, but all I can hear is, ‘Triangulate. Triangulate. Triangulate’. Like Doctor Who, the monsters I thought were really scary were in fact nice people (smaller than I thought) dressed in scary suits. We might have been lucky, but I do think that the process was fair. I might not like the process, the scrutiny, the extra pressure, but I felt it was fair. Oh, and it was quick. I just bloody wish they were more transparent about what they want to see. Where's the crib sheet, Ofsted?  

Thanks for reading,

Xris32

The day a tiger came for breakfast, lunch and tea – Ofsted

Ofsteded – verb( past tense), to describe the process of an inspection in a school.

In case you missed it, I was paid a little visit by Ofsted three weeks ago.  The report was published finally this week and I can scream from the rooftops that our school received a good. This, I am incredibly happy about, as ‘good’ is like the new ‘outstanding’ in the new, harder, tougher regime of inspections. It feels like that the title of good was well and truly deserved. It was a team effort and everyone pulled together and proved our worth. So, how do I feel about the process?  Was it worthwhile? Was it as bad as I thought it would be?

The Process

Firstly, I am glad it is over, because the disruption it caused for two days was monumental. As soon as the call was received, the school turned into ‘Tracy Island’. The offices were moved. Paintings were moved so that people could access the emergency chute. The palm trees moved aside so the inspectors could park their sparkling and shining Audis. Surprisingly, they were all black, suggesting they like leaving and arriving under the cover of darkness. In fact, it reminded me of a poem, ‘Stop all the clocks’. I stopped eating, breathing, sleeping and being remotely human for a week.  I dropped my family from all my thoughts and worked hard. Ofsted became my North, South, West, East, my everything.

In fact, that is the problem with the inspections: we know we do a good job, but the chances of seeing it in one lesson is reduced considerably, when you know a lot is depending on the outcome of an observation. I’d love to be the type of person that thinks, ‘I am going to teach how I normally teach.’ But, I am not, because actually I care and I know that Ofsted are observing. Let me just repeat myself: they are observing. The key word is observing. They want to see things. I did teach a normal lesson, but it had the Ofsted veneer. I made explicit the things I do implicitly in a normal lesson.  I am subtle with some things in lessons, so I don’t advertise that I am checking progress or doing some AFL, but with the big O I made those things explicit.  For a start, I used the words or terms, when teaching. 

The planning is the worst thing, I think. I can teach reasonably well, but as soon at Tracy Island got the call and the pictures started flashing in the Head’s office flashing, my brain starting to download an unnecessary file and ran a full virus scan. A lesson that normally takes me 20 minutes to plan took me several hours. Why? Because the pressure is heaped on to one lesson.  You know there is a very good chance they will see you.  However, there is no guarantee that they will see you twice.  If they saw me twice, then there is a greater chance of me demonstrating my full potential. See me once and  then everything is focused on one lesson. I procrastinated so much that I started to doubt my own name. Will this work? Is this too hard? Is this too easy? Have I differentiated enough? Will they show progress in 5 seconds?

The Lesson (Year 8 last lesson of the day)

You are on edge and so are the students.  During the whole process, it struck me how good the students were in this kind of situation. I started the lesson and waited and waited. The students were furtively looking at the door, checking to see if we expecting an inspector. I was staring furtively at the door, hoping that the inspector had the wrong number for my room. It was tense. Will they come in?

Simple overview of the lesson planned

Objectives: To explore different types of persuasive writing

Starter: Students guess what links four pictures together. They are all adverts.

Task 1: Students are given a pack of persuasive texts or extracts. They have to rank them for effectiveness.

Task 2: Students put the texts into different groups.

Teacher discusses how persuasive texts have different effects.

Task 3: Students identify the different effects and then list the features on A3 sheets of paper stuck around the room.

Plenary: Students, in pairs, make a small advert for a new chocolate bar, but they use an effect given to them.

They did come in. Well, she did and she had a clipboard – nothing quite says power like a clipboard. The lady walked in and I pointed out a chair at the back of the room. She sat and observed and remained silent for the whole time. She watched. And she watched…. and she watched so more. I am a little pushy, so I didn’t want her to just watch. I wanted her to do more. If I am going to fail at something, I am not going down without a fight. In fact, I was prepared to fight. Before the lesson had started, I placed the exercise books from each class near the Ofsted position / chair.  As she was watching and watching and making notes, I walked up to her and said: ‘please, feel free to look at the exercise books’.  And, she did. So she stopped watching and started reading the exercise books.   

Then, the inspector walked around the room, looking at displays and listening to the students’ work. She didn’t talk to the students once. (Some lessons they did: some lessons they didn’t). She just listened and listened.  She watched and watched. She even picked up a feedback sheet I had to help students from a wall display. Shockingly, the inspector nabbed it. Not only did this lady watch and watch, read and read, listen and listen, but she stole and stole – right from under my eyes.  Finally, she walked and walked. Thankfully, she walked out of the classroom. The whole class, including me, let out a sigh of relief as the door closed.

For the next day, it was back to the first paragraph of this section – waiting and waiting.

The Feedback from the Lesson

I always think a ‘thumbs up’ would be great as an observer leaves. As a teacher, you know how important instant feedback is. Sticking a thumb up would reduce my stress and relax me a bit more, but no, I had to wait in line for my feedback. The lines I had seen throughout the day looked like the lines to Madam Guillotine.  I joined a line and waited for my turn. During the day, I had heard good and bad things.  If you weren’t a teacher, that line would be the best place to sit and knit, as you could see people being crushed or praised.

I have debated whether to share my feedback here, because I am quite reserved. I have never shared the grades of my lessons with anyone, apart from my wife. But, I feel it necessary in this case and, please, do not think I am boasting or showing off. Believe me: I have buckets of humility. In fact, I could probably bottle it and sell it off.

I got an outstanding for the 20 minutes the inspector saw of my lesson.  I was ready to challenge and attack, but the wind was taken out of my sails. I sat there speechless. I had heard so much about how things were tougher and I was expecting to fight, but I was completely taken aback.  She mentioned the following:

·         The displays supported the learning – even though she nabbed a bit of one

·         The students were engaged  and the relationship between students and teacher were positive

·         The planning

·         The students were independently learning

·         They were using talk to develop their learning

I walked away happy and then replanned every lesson for the next day, based on this feedback.  Things just happened to go well in that lesson. Sadly, this is the luck of the draw. I don’t think I would be lucky a second time around.

The Result

Everything about Ofsted is too subjective. The inspector observing me liked my style of teaching. If I was observed by another inspector, I don’t know if I would get the same result. I’d like to be pleased with the result, but part of me doubts things. The inspector in question wasn’t an English teacher, so would an English teacher give the same grading? I know, I should be grateful for what I got, but part of me wonders if it is better to be observed by a subject specialist or somebody from a different subject.

They also, in my opinion, went into a lesson looking for something. They knew what they wanted to see. I happened to show it. Maybe, they were looking for independent learning when observing me. It is hard to do everything in 20 minutes and that's why I think I got lucky. I don't feel too good about the result, as I think it may have more to do with luck, than anything else. I did the magic thing that they just so happened to be looking for. That's why lesson observations are a case of hit and miss. I could be an inspector looking for reading skills, yet the 20 minutes observed in a practical aspect of a Science lesson and there is no reading involved. Does the teacher get marked down? Who knows?

Anyway, Tracy Island got a good. We had ‘good’ across the board in the report.  Literacy did really well too and I will blog about it next.  The whole experience was draining. It was physically and mentally draining. It has taken me the two weeks it takes for the report to be published for me to get over the whole experience.

Secretly, the main thing we are all bothered about is: How long until they visit us again? Thankfully, they will not visit me for a while. Now, I can get back to doing what I want to do: teach.

Conclusion

Good things can stem from bad things. One of the most positive experiences from Ofsted is how teachers are pulling together. I have seen teachers supporting others over the experience. Schools are sharing their experiences of having a visit from Ofsted. I am sharing my experiences so that collectively we can work out, what on earth, they want to see.  The more we talk and share, the more we know. Let’s be honest; they are not going to produce a fact sheet about how to get an outstanding grade in a lesson observation. They are too secretive. Tell us what you want and we will do it. The mystery and secrecy surrounding Ofsted is causing the big problems in teaching. Let’s talk, teachers. Talk about lessons. Talk about what went well. Talk about what didn’t go well. There’s a greater chance of people getting good or outstanding schools, if we know what one looks like.

Please, please, please share your Ofsted experiences with other teachers. Let's help those who still face the scary call when the tiger visits for tea.

At least the visit was better than the old style inspections. The stress was reduced to fewer days and we didn't have several days waiting for their arrival.

Thanks for reading,

Xris32

P.S. I will be blogging about Ofsted again, but next time I will write from a Literacy Coordinator’s point of view.   

Blogsync 4: Progress - It's all about STEPS

Progress is the new swear word in schools. It is used frequently to describe everything. Often, you will hear phrases like 'this is progress' or 'I progressing happy', or even 'Oh progress'. It may sound like it means something positive; however, it means the opposite. Worse still, some teachers are spouting 'PROGRESS! PROGRESS! PROGRESS' like some Dalek determined to rule the Universe.

This is entry of this month’s blogsync entitled ‘Progress in my classroom? How it is made and how do I know it?'. Check out here to see more entries. I have decided to use the band STEPS as the inspiration for the blog. And, in particular,  one line:

Wanna make you mine better get in line
5-6-7-8

 
Because that is what is happening in education. We are too obsessed with the numbers 5,6,7 and 8. And students have to get in line.


I find this idea of progress a very puzzling and confusing concept. For me, progress is about the steps to improving and going up those steps. I have progressed from a C to a B. It seems on one level that ‘progressing’ has replaced the verb ‘learning’ completely in schools. It is not what they have learnt. It is all about what they have improved on. How much have they progressed?  I worry for the good, old plenary. No long will students be asked: ‘What have you learnt today?’. They will be asked how much progress they have made in a lesson. Lots. Some. None.  Progress and learning are linked, but they are separate things at times. The learning supports the progress. Not the other way round. The progress, in my eyes, does not support learning; it is the result of the learning and too much focus on it distorts the learning. On another level, our expectations of progress has become distorted. We are expecting all progress to be exponential and continually improve in every minute or hour in a day.

I do have a big issue with this idea of progress. Not because I am ‘a leftie’ and I prefer students to learn things in a more organic way, but because I think we are looking for ‘fool’s gold’. Our obsession with students making progress could do more harm than good. Our point of comparison is weak. In one lesson, a teacher could be teaching students some facts. In another lesson, a different teacher is teaching how a student can shade a piece of art to reflect the natural lighting of an object. Are the levels of progress the same in both lessons? Will there be more progress in the fact based lesson? Or, will the rate of progress be at a different pace with students and their shading as it is developing a skill?   Progress varies from subject to subject, lesson to lesson and task to task. There should be a clear measurement for progress in lessons as, after all, it is a measurement of how good a lesson is. Is there more progress in the fact based lesson because students can do more than the art students at the end of the lesson? Or, is the progress in the art lesson of a better quality because it is refining an existing skill? Knowledge vs skills, again.  There is learning in both, but the nature of one subject makes progress transparent and the other not so clear. Furthermore, what about subjects like English that are recursive? How easy is it for students to make visible progress in something they have done before? It is easy to show progress, when it is something new, isn't. Yesterday they couldn't. Today they can.

Underlying all this discussion is learning. We shouldn't be focusing on the progress in a lesson, but we should be concentrating on the learning - after that it is what teachers are about. I help students to learn. The progress a student makes is a result of teaching and the student's learning.
 

To make things worse, this progress has to be boiled down to twenty minutes of observation. There must be some element of progress in those twenty minutes or you are not teaching the students correctly. Oh, and it has to be rapid. How can I show progress in twenty minutes? This twenty minute focus is meaning that we are focusing on short, superficial learning rather than deep, long-lasting learning. The learning is going back to this ‘fast-food consumerist’ culture we are fostering. The learning has to be quick. The learning has to be visible.  The learning has to rely on the consumer being satisfied.

I have learnt several things over the years and each time I have learnt something, whether it is Spanish or how to scuba dive, it has been slow. It has also been repetitive.  My scuba divining lesson did not involve a quick starter about the use of an oxygen task. I was not then thrown into the ocean. The instructor did not then measure my progress by checking if I was alive or not. In truth, real learning can vary. You might pick something up quickly like the colours in French. Or, it might take you several lessons to understand something like quadratic equations – it did for me at school. Yet, this constraint of a 20 minute of lessons is constricting us and focusing us to reduce the teaching so that students can make visible progress.

Description of classroom action

So, how can we show progress in a lesson? Or, more importantly, how do I show progress in a lesson?

Doing it wrong

Get students to start the lesson completing a task, knowing that they will do it badly. Then, spend the next 10 minutes teaching students how to improve. Finally, they redo the original task. The new version will be better than the first and you can clearly say that there has been progress made. This can be restructured to focus on prior knowledge and then retest them.  In the words of STEPS, 'One for sorrow and two for joy.' Redoing things shows students going up the steps.

Marking

My exercise books are exhibit 1.A in the metaphorical trial of my teaching abilities. It is the source of progress. If I was an Ofsted Inspector,  I would look at the books, because I’d know that what the buffoon(me) is doing in the class might not always be what they normally do. The books would tell the full story. It would say if the teacher is obsessed with worksheets, grammar tasks, peer marking or film reviews – I hate ‘film reviews’. A quick glance says it all. If Ofsted want to look at progress, then the books are the key to this.  Two basic principles must be applied to this idea:

 

1.       Work in the book now should be better than work at the start of the book.

2.       There must be some clear progress between marked pieces of work. There must not be repeated targets.

Reflection on effect 

What does this all mean for me and my marking? Well, any time I mark a piece of work in a student’s exercise book I look at their previous target or advice. At that point, I draw a smiley face or a sad face and I write progress or no progress. Then, when I write their new comment, I make sure that I acknowledge what they have done before. I am impressed with how you followed my advice and varied the length of your sentences, Martin. By doing this, I am feeding the progress into what I do. It isn’t all about levels; it’s about making sure I don’t repeat the same targets again and again. I am showing the progress in my marking. I am showing the steps up to the next stage.  Therefore, each piece of work in their books is about the student’s progress and shows how they are slowly getting better. I am moving away from the correct or wrong approach to work and moving towards meaningful feedback.   

My last blog argued how one sixty minute block is not a true reflection of the learning in a classroom. Twenty minutes is not enough. That’s why the books are so important, in my eyes. Progress isn’t a twenty minute thing. It is an on-going thing. You can learn something in twenty minutes, but that could or could not help you to progress. Progress is the bigger picture on the learning. Learning is judged in lessons. Ofsted judge the learning in the lessons and progress through the books and data. That is why our exercise books are important to showing students the steps to progress.

If all fails, I might have to adopt some of the following to make sure that there is clear and rapid progress in lessons. Warning: these have not basis for sound pedagogical learning and they will lead to 'Tragedy' if used. Just a bit of fun.   

·         Teach a list of facts.

·         Teach students an obscure literary term, so they can at least name it after 20 minutes.

·         Read a bit of a book they don’t know. Well, they didn’t know who the characters were before.

·         Train them to write inaccurately and terribly at the start of every lesson, so that they know that after 20 minutes they have to write it better. Then, at the end of the lesson they have to write even better than that. 

·         Don’t put any effort into their work, unless I say so. Then when I mention the phrase ‘This will show me your progress’ that is when they show me their best efforts.

·         Get them to pretend they don’t know a technique, so when it comes to looking at the work it looks like they have made outstanding progress.

Thanks for reading and check out my other blog on progress here. Please feel free to comment if you think this is a load of old progress and think I should progress off.

Xris32

P.S. A big thanks to Helene for her opinions about the blog. Her blog can be found here.

 

Ofsted - An Inspector's Smalls

My school is awaiting an imminent Ofsted inspection. They have been spotted in the local vicinity and rumours are afoot of when they are going to visit. The problem is with all this Ofsted talk is it gets in the way and spoils teachers, teaching, and, learning. Ironically, the whole purpose of Ofsted is to monitor and improve standards, yet I think it has a far damning effect than improving standards. Like Father Christmas, Ofsted has a list and they are ticking off who has been naughty and who has been nice. Some good child, I mean teacher, will have a lovely reward of ‘Outstanding’ present this year, but another naughty teacher will have to ‘improve’ for next Christmas. Which list you are on plays on everyone’s mind?

 

I am sitting, pacing, walking about the classroom, worrying about the imminent arrival. Will we be on the naughty list? Or, will we be on the nice list?

"Some lesson activities occupy students and keep them busy, but are not well designed to develop their understanding."

I have no doubts about my school being an excellent school. I don’t think I would have stayed here so long, if it wasn’t. However, Ofsted monitor schools based on a snapshot on teaching and masses and oodles of data that most people would struggle to understand. Ofsted don’t judge the ‘heart and soul of a school’. My daughters’ school had an Ofsted visit and it received a judgement of ‘requires improvement’, yet I would argue that I could not find another school that has been so accommodating to my daughters and Mya’s cerebral palsy. My daughters enjoy learning, reading and they feel safe and secure. Plus, the staff are so ‘on the ball’, helpful and supportive that I cannot write this effectively down in words. This week, for example, the school secretary visited a local child minder to help some students walk to school as the usual school path was treacherous because of a large amount of ice. Now, this sort of thing isn’t picked up by this group of inspectors. They don’t see the time and effort invested in the small tiny things that aren’t always measurable, that aren’t always visible, and that aren’t always seen by most people.

"Make learning even better by giving students time in lessons to read and respond to the comments that teachers write on their work."

Sadly, this primary school came out as requiring improvement. One of the things the team picked up was the fact that some of the work wasn’t ‘neat’. I’m sorry but real learning isn’t neat, isn’t always quantifiable and isn’t always visible or known. It just happens. Evidence and accountability are words used in business and that are best suited to business, not education. How can a person be held accountable when a teenager is being grumpy and having an off day? Now, I do feel teachers should be held accountable in part for some of the learning, but we have to factor in the student into any conversation. We are dealing with human beings. Not simple statistics.

"Some students find learning tasks too difficult, and some find them too easy."

 I think one of the main problems with Ofsted is the cloak and dagger approach to inspections. What are they looking for? What do they like to see in lessons? What do they hate to see? The reports are transparent, but I don’t always think that educational ideologies they are based on are clear. I feel, sadly, that the teaching profession is a rudderless ship on a strange and bizarre course. Every so often you have a customs check for contraband that changes on a weekly basis. Where is the drive to improve teaching? Where are the people steering education? No wonder Gove is streering the ship all over the place, when there hasn’t been much of a consistent approach beforehand. He knows that education needs some steering. Unfortunately, he has the wrong map. Fortunately, some teachers have got hold of the rudder and are directing things – and I include Twitter friends and fellow bloggers.

"Students in many lessons are seen working with great enthusiasm and at an excellent pace because of the well-structured opportunities to ‘find out’ for themselves."

 

Some may argue that Ofsted are quite clear about what they are assessing as they provide a framework for grading. However, I beg to differ. Take the recent GCSE fiasco, for example. The grading criteria wasn’t changed and kept the same throughout the whole fiasco; it was just the boundaries that changed. We, teachers, don’t know what the boundaries are. Are there too many Cs? Are there too many good schools? Looking at the recent Ofsted reports printed on line, there are a large number that are coming out as being ‘requires improvement’. There seems, in my opinion, to be very few goods and outstanding schools. Some days I have struggled to find one. Are we looking at a repeat of the summer, but with Ofsted reports? Are people acting tough on schools with the onus on showing that they are committed to raising standards?

What I’d like to see is Ofsted leading the way, showing by example what they expect to see. I am like most in the profession: I work hard and I am happy to improve and change, provided I am guided. Ofsted will rate my teaching, yet they haven’t in my whole time in my teaching career emailed me, contacted me or advised me in any form or manner how I should teach. They have printed reports and they have written a few papers. Where is the guidance for me to attain an ‘outstanding grading’ in my teaching? I could buy books. Schools could pay an inspector to visit. But, where is the ‘top-down’ guidance of what makes an outstanding teacher? Where are the examples? Where are the demonstrations? Where are the resources? Where are the ideas? Show us the way and I think a lot would follow. Spell out the solutions rather than leaving teachers and staff scrambling for the ideas and the solutions. Instead we have whispers of what they were looking for at another school.

The quotes throughout this blog are taken from various reports from Ofsted. I am hoping they may give us an insight into what they are currently looking for. The recent reports are where I am currently looking for guidance on what is best for 'Literacy Across the Curriculum'. I have my ideas established and I am just checking to see if they are supported by Ofsted.  I don't teach for Ofsted; I teach for the students, but the problem is they get in the way. If I felt they were supporting me and the profession, I would relax. But, sadly, I am not always sure who or what they are supporting.  Do they have a political agenda? Do they have a remit to follow? Again, another area where transparency is needed. 

Tell you what - let’s have a system for monitoring politicians. Let’s keep them on their toes. What fun to be had? I am sorry, Mr Gove, but you have no sense of engagement with you audience. You seem to be pitching your ideas to much older students. Much older. In fact, those born in the 1850s. Also, you don’t seem to be differentiating that much for others in your constituency.

Sorry, Mr Gove, you ‘require improvement’.

Thanks for reading,

Xris32

P.S. The views held here are my own and do not reflect those hold by any establishment I might know, work in, or visited for a nice sandwich.  

 

For those that have read my blog before,  you'll know that Gwen and I work together on our blogs. I thought I'd ask her views on Ofsted, given that 'An Inspector Call[ed]' recently:

 

Over the years, I have given the ‘Ofsted’ inspectors the name of ‘The Deatheaters’. The use of a nickname is to render absurd the foreboding presence of an inspection and give some humour to the paranoia and panic that surrounds us when an inspection is imminent.

At my school, we have known we are due for an inspection this academic year throughout most of the previous one. However, it was always far enough away to blank out, and get on with the job at hand. As our two previous inspections were deemed ‘Satisfactory’  and the more recent inspection showing some elements of ‘Good’ within the school, we knew we HAD to get a 'Good' or the dreaded 'Special Measures' could be a consequence.

We began September with a newly appointed head teacher and an immense sense of pressure due to the aforementioned NEED to get a ‘Good’ combined with the consequences of the GCSE English fiasco, where blame was aimed squarely at the classroom teacher. It is easy enough to play the rules of the game, as long as you know what the rules are. Goal posts shifted seismically, pupils suffered and so did our results, making us look like we are ‘failing’ our pupils. As a consequence, I began in September in a high state of anxiety, to the extent I have needed medication to help me control it and the over bearing pressure, I know, has made me a less effective practitioner in the classroom. Ay, there’s the rub.

We had ‘the call’ last week,Tuesday PM. I very nearly had a panic attack. My pulse quickened; I felt queasy. I sweated. I nearly cried. I was already exhausted and running on fumes. That evening I planned my lessons as best I could, arrived at work at 7am to get super prepped and got ready, mentally, as best I could.

Period 1, Year 7 the Deputy and the English inspector walk in. My pulse quickens, but I can ‘act’ fine. The lesson I had planned was similar to what they normally do, as we have been told time and time again the Deatheaters are looking for ‘typicality’, but a few tweaks were made so it was more Ofsted friendly, or so I thought. In fact, I ‘require improvement’ as it turns out. When you have a stranger in your classroom for twenty minutes, knowing that they can pass judgement on you and your professionalism, how, just HOW can you perform well? I couldn’t. I contained my disappointment until the end of the day Friday before sobbing in the car for a good ten minutes. I then drove home in a haze of exhaustion.

As my now, much more astute and friendly HoF put it: our results our low, therefore we can’t POSSIBLY have ‘Outstanding’ teachers in our department. The data says so. I am teaching ‘The Crucible’ to my Year 13 this year, and being on the thick end of this data led Ofsted inspection system, to us it felt very much like a witch hunt. How is this method going to improve standards in education? How will it improve teaching and learning? I am stumped.

What has made us, as a staff, more angry is the lack of action by the previous head teacher, who sat on his egotistical laurels, while he drifted towards retirement. Having spent a term with our new Head, we know we have a great captain to steer our ship, but will Ofsted recognise it? Will the subsequent processes be fair enough to let us avoid the fatal iceberg? Can we cope with the oppressive pressure that this inspection will generate? Will it make us better? We have roughly 7 – 9 months before our next inspection. We shall see.