Inspection

#OfstedSEFPlanner – Quality of Teaching

This blog post was first written in November 2013.  I have updated it using the latest School Inspection Handbook and Subsidiary Guidance published in December 2013 which came into effect in January 2014.  Amendments are in red and whilst there is a great deal of commonality between previous and new documents there are some key differences.

The first has been plastered all over twitter and commented on by many:

“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.”

The section on Quality of Teaching goes on to say:

Subsidiary Guidance on Quality of Teaching, January 2014

This has been seen as a break through by many teachers in instructing inspectors not to favour a particular style of teaching.  

In evaluating the quality of teaching it is important to look at the impact of the teaching on the progress of students, including consistently high expectations of all students and differentiation within the class to meet individual needs, which can be seen in lessons and evidenced in students’ books.  Beyond the classroom, intervention strategies by teachers, setting of homework and marking and feedback, which is used by the learner to help improve her/his performance, all need to be considered.

I would recommend you reading Mary Myatt’s blog on “Why Lesson Observations Only Count for So Much” and she has a number of links to some excellent blog posts on the subject.

It does rather beg the question why so much time is spent on observing lessons during an inspection or why an outstanding grade in Quality of Teaching is required to get an Outstanding overall – why not just defer both and look at the Achievement of Students?

If you look at the data below from Ofsted for inspection in secondary schools between April to June 2013 (448 schools in total) you do wonder about why there are two different grades for achievement & teaching quality:

There is very little information in the Subsidiary Guidance on the Quality of Teaching. Maybe the observation of teaching and internal assessment data provided by the school gives the most current information about student achievement?

Just to note at the moment, inspectors will also make a judgement within lessons that affects the grade for “Behaviour & Safety” linked to whether students show a thirst and passion for learning or are too passive – the latter for many of us can look like well-behaved students getting on with their work!

Gathering the Evidence

In a similar way to the #OfstedSEFPlanner – Achievement there is a need to collect data over time and the focus on the core subjects is unrelenting.

In terms of lesson observations during the Ofsted Inspection senior leaders should expect to do a number of paired observations with inspectors and have their judgements tested.  In past years I have had my lesson observation judgements moderated by a trained Ofsted Inspector.  However, this year I involved senior leaders alongside myself and the trained Ofsted Inspector in moderating lesson judgements and invited in a number of governors to quality assure the whole process.  I think it was really worthwhile.

When observing lessons remember, “What works, is good” and this is now enshrined in the School Inspection Handbook:

Taken from the School Inspection Handbook

Once the lesson observation data is collected it is important to join the dots.

Connecting the Dots – Achievement & Quality of Teaching

One of the most substantial changes to the current Ofsted Framework is the introduction of the impact of teaching over time.  This links the judgement on teaching and learning with that on achievement.  If “the most important purpose of teaching is to raise pupils’ achievement” then it is difficult to see how it could be any other way.  It is critical when writing the SEF to look at where there is a discrepancy between achievement data and quality of teaching information.  There may be a valid reason that can be offered or crucially a mis-match between the data that will raise the question about whether the lesson being viewed is representative of what is being delivered over time.  This cuts both ways – a bad lesson or day when an inspector visits can be seen in the light of excellent results over time but also vice versa.

Either way it is important to compare and categorise the achievement of students and the quality of teaching judgements.  In the red and amber zones, particularly the amber one where achievement requires improvement or is inadequate, there will be an expectation that leaders have taken action.  Put simply, if outcomes are not good or better how has this been reflected in performance management, salary determinations and in terms of specific and targeted professional development programmes?  This isn’t particularly pleasant work but inspectors are asking, “If things aren’t right for students what have you done about it?”  It is far better and expected of leaders to help staff.  Don’t leave them struggling, that isn’t fair on anyone.  Just an additional note her, governors need to know this information as it is a question that may well be asked of them.  I wonder whether a briefing sheet for governors with key information as well as regular sight of the SEF would be very useful.

Make sure that “work scrutiny” is regularly conducted and in particular look for evidence of where students have responded to feedback to improve the quality of their work.  This has a significant impact on levels of achievement and so is something all schools, teachers and students should be aiming for.

Spiritual, Moral, Social & Cultural

Gathering evidence on this can be extremely helpful in presenting your SEF to inspectors.  It cuts across a number of the judgements and lesson observations can be a rich source of evidence of the spiritual, moral, social and cultural development of students.

Bringing It All Together

The tables below are taken from the School Inspection Handbook and will hopefully help you make your overall judgement for “Quality of Teaching”.

Taken from the School Inspection Handbook

Taken from the School Inspection Handbook

In coming to a decision it is helpful to justify to yourself, senior leaders, governors and staff, as objectively as possible:

Why you have graded the school at a certain level?

What would you need to do to secure this grading?

Why is it not the grade above or below?

You Can Download Versions of the #OfstedSEFPlanner – Quality of Teaching here:

#OfstedSEFPlanner – Quality of Teaching (Word Version)

#OfstedSEFPlanner – Quality of Teaching (PDF Version)

Other posts in the #OfstedSEFPlanner series include:

#OfstedSEFPlanner – Achievement of Students

#OfstedSEFPlanner – Behaviour & Safety

#OfstedSEFPlanner – Leadership & Management

If you are looking for more assistance on preparing for Ofsted the following might be useful:

• #5MinOfstedPlan by @LeadingLearner and @TeacherToolkit (getting organised for Ofsted)
• #5MinCallPlan by @LeadingLearner and @TeacherToolkit (getting organised once you have the call)
• Pupil Premium Analyser and Tracker

This is one of a series of posts on producing an Ofsted Self Evaluation Form.  It is part of my current workload and as I stated in the last post:

“I have no special insight beyond that gleaned from reading the School Inspection Handbook and Subsidiary Guidance.  This is not by way of a disclaimer, although maybe it should be, but it is also to invite others to add comments and suggestions to this work and help improve it for others.”

#OfstedSEFPlanner – Achievement of Students

This blog post was first written in November 2013.  I have updated it using the latest School Inspection Handbook and Subsidiary Guidance published in December 2013 which came into effect in January 2014.  Amendments are in red and whilst there is a great deal of commonality between previous and new documents, three things to note are:

• An increased emphasis on the achievements of pupils currently at the school
• Less emphasis on the previous three years of data particularly where a school has become and academy – the distinction between a converter and sponsored academy seems to have been removed.

Ofsted Subsidiary Guidance – January 2014 p. 40

Ofsted Subsidiary Guidance – January 2014 p. 40

• A number of changes to judgements around achievement in Early Years Foundation Stage & Key Stage 1 and Sixth Form which need to be checked using the Subsidiary Guidance in particular.

I have no special insight beyond that gleaned from reading the School Inspection Handbook and Subsidiary Guidance.  This is not by way of a disclaimer, although maybe it should be, but it is also to invite others to add comments and suggestions to this work and help improve it for others.  This on-going process of self-evaluation is seen as key by Ofsted but I would also suggest is key for the health of a school.

Taken from The Framework for School Inspection

If you are “number adverse” you may want to look away now.  The Ofsted Inspection process is data driven and inspectors are used to interrogating a school’s achievement data and pursuing certain lines of enquiry revealed by the information.

Taken from the School Inspection Handbook

The challenge in producing this first section of the Self-Evaluation Form is to take a very large amount of information and tell the story about the successes of your students and school whilst still having an analytical perspective on the improvements that need to be made.  I’ve always thought that this is the section that drives the whole inspection process – everything else is subservient to the achievement of students and judgements flow from it.  This doesn’t mean I’m right, it’s just what I think.  The current inspection requirement to look at the quality of teaching over time, as shown by results, has only reinforced this perspective.

Students’ Progress & Attainment in the Last Three Years

Progress and attainment are now looked at over time.  The data below can be taken from the school’s RAISE document with unvalidated data from the school’s own Management Information System.  It will hopefully provide a useful summary page to allow trends, positive achievements and potential areas that need addressing to be identified.

Key attainment measures currently used are 5+A*-CEM, which may need to be considered alongside floor standards for some schools, percentage A*-C in English & Maths and point scores – total, capped and for English & Maths.  Over recent years the English & Maths results have been pretty static at a national level but hugely variable within some schools.  You may need to prepare a narrative on this for inspectors for your own school.

The progress measures of three plus levels progress, expected progress Key Stage 2 to 4, or four plus levels progress, better than expected, alongside the value added data can help support a powerful dialogue with inspectors about the impact of the school on students’ achievement.

Grade descriptors for Outstanding and Good Achievement have both been changed to include expected progress and exceeding expected progress, in English and Maths with separate judgements being made about progress in reading and writing at the end of Key Stage 2.  Good requires figures to be ” close to or above national figures” whereas outstanding states outcomes must be “high compared with national figures”.

It’s very important that you have looked at the “Expected Progress” grids in RAISE, for English and Maths, including the ones that show progress at a sub-level.  These grids also have data for “Achieving More than Expected Progress”.

The analysis table is provided to allow you to make notes and will be useful when coming to an overall judgement for this section.  Where you identify outstanding or good achievement a note about why this has happened is useful.  Conversely for things you judge as requiring improvement or inadequate but avoid long sets of prose.  A simple point, impact and evidence as a series of bullet points is best.

There is additional subject specific data in RAISE that you may also want to include in your analysis.

Closing the Gap & Challenging the Most Able – Achievement of Students (sub-groups)

Throughout the Handbook for Inspection and Subsidiary Guidance there is continual reference to the progress of various sub-groups.  My “good read” rather than a detailed analysis suggests that students entitled to Pupil Premium funding, SEN & disabled students and the more able are the most frequently mentioned groups.  It’s worth noting the change from a focus on free school meals (FSM) to Pupil Premium which includes those students entitled to free school meals in the past six years – a much bigger group in many schools.  You should also check out the achievement of Children Looked After, those with English as an Additional Language and Service Children particularly if there are a significant number in your school.  The subsidiary guidance suggests 20% of a cohort but there is a lot discretion for inspectors around this 20% figure.

Again a lot of this data is in RAISE and the performance tables.  Inspectors drive hard on this sub-group data so there is no gap or it is rapidly closing celebrate it.  If not intervention is needed for the sake of the students, never mind Ofsted.  The inspectors will also expect a few case studies on individual students as part of the evidence base so don’t forget to write a few.

The Pupil Premium Analyser and Tracker has just been introduced at the school to help us monitor more closely the progress of these students.

Learning & Progress of Students Currently on Role

This is often the forgotten element of the Self Evaluation Form.  The data provided and analysed so far is about students who have left the school or moved on to the Sixth Form.  What about the progress and learning of the students who are currently being taught?  This has become even more important given the January 2014 changes to the School Inspection Handbook.  You will need to have attainment data for current cohorts ready at hand for when you get that call.

“Inspectors will balance evidence about previous cohorts with evidence about the progress being made by the pupils currently being taught in the school.”

School Inspection Handbook – January 2014, p. 35

This analysis needs to be on-going, possibly revising this section of the SEF at the mid-point and end of the year.  It is very challenging in the middle of an inspection to suddenly pull together and analyse progress data for year groups and sub-groups hence the inclusion in the SEF.  There is always a time lag between any actions you have taken to improve things and improved outcomes.  They will most likely appear in your internal data first and this is also key to monitoring the effectiveness of any changed that has been introduced.

Again there is a big focus on the key indicators used by Ofsted and the issue of measuring progress between Key Stage 2 and 4 is going to be crucial.  For the moment, until something better is established, we will stay with levels and look to break down the new national curriculum documents into a series of “level milestones”.  It is equally valid for a school to decide to move away from levels but the same issue of measuring progress remains.

Additional Thoughts

If any of the elements of your initial analysis leads to you considering that a particular area requires improvement or is just simply inadequate there is a need to analyse it more carefully.

• Whilst this will be a declining issue in many secondary schools after the November 2013 early entry debacle, what impact has early entry had on results?  Look particularly at the progress of the more able, students coming in on a level 5, from Key Stage 2, would be expected to make four or possibly five levels progress to attain an A or A* grade rather than the “expected” three.
• The progress matrices, for English & Maths, in RAISE are worth careful scrutiny.  Are there any particular strengths shown or areas that need significant improvement.  For example, three levels progress looks fine but the average point score is low you may look to see what percentage of students are making better than expected progress or if students are not making three levels progress do they make two or much, much less?
• Is lack of progress in one of the core subjects or key sub-groups having an impact on the data for each indicator that allows you to identify a more precise intervention – more able students’ attainment in Maths, students’ progress who are entitled to pupil premium in English.

Data is not always good at answering questions but can ask some very interesting questions of the achievement of students within a school.

Bringing It All Together

The tables below are taken from the School Inspection Handbook and will hopefully help you make your overall judgement for “Achievement of Pupils”.

In coming to a decision it is helpful to justify to yourself, senior leaders, governors and staff, as objectively as possible:

• Why you have graded the school at a certain level?
• What would you need to do to secure this grading?
• Why is it not the grade above or below?

You can download versions of the #OfstedSEFPlanner – Achievement of Students below:

#OfstedSEFPlanner – Achievement of Students (Word Version)

#OfstedSEFPlanner – Achievement of Students (PDF Version)

Other posts in the #OfstedSEFPlanner series include:

#OfstedSEFPlanner – Quality of Teaching

#OfstedSEFPlanner – Behaviour & Safety

#OfstedSEFPlanner – Leadership & Management

If you are looking for more assistance on preparing for Ofsted the following might be useful:

• #5MinOfstedPlan by @LeadingLearner and @TeacherToolkit (getting organised for Ofsted)
• #5MinCallPlan by @LeadingLearner and @TeacherToolkit (getting organised once you have the call)
• Pupil Premium Analyser and Tracker

#5MinCallPlan by @LeadingLearner and @TeacherToolkit

It’s just after midday, the phone rings and your sixth sense twitches.  You’ve guessed right; an inspector calls. 

Hopefully you are already well organised with the #5MinOfstedPlan by @LeadingLearner and @TeacherToolkit but the next few hours, whilst not determining the actual outcome of the inspection, will be critical in ensuring a smooth inspection.

We hope the #5MinCallPlan may just help edge things to a more favourable outcome for the school.

Core Team

A successful inspection is a team approach.  Decide in advance which members of staff need to form part of the core team with responsibility for co-ordinating arrangements for the inspection.  Think about where and when they will meet.  For example, you may want a meeting as soon as possible after the call is received – the call from the inspector often seems to come just after midday Monday to Wednesday – so this could be at lunchtime, followed by a meeting after school and also at the end of the first day to gather information and possibly the morning of the second day.  The Core Team are responsible for pulling together and implementing your #5MinCallPlan.

Notifications

Some thought needs giving to the best way to inform staff and students.  For example it might be most efficient to send an e-mail to all staff, however, this may also come as quite a shock to them.  If staff know in advance that an e-mail will be sent then this could help reduce the impact.  Alternatively, calling staff together in the staff room to notify them at lunch time is a more personal way to receive the news and staff will be able to give each other a bit of support.

Briefing students so they know what to expect and be at their best is really useful.  Many students have a real affinity for their school and will want to raise their game for the inspection days.  In a small school an individual class briefing by a senior leader is possible, alternatively, holding an Ofsted Assembly for the last twenty minutes of the school day may be more convenient.  Decision must be made in advance so staff and students know what procedures will be put into place.

Letters need to be handed out to parents about the inspection including information about the Parent View website and these can also be put onto the website.

There are a number of people who need contacting about the inspection including: Chair of Governors/Directors, local authority or Diocese (or other trustees possibly).  This is a simple administrative task that can be sorted quickly by an efficient PA or secretary who can have an e-mail group or list of telephone numbers to call as soon as the call has come in.  Don’t forget some of these people will also be required to meet inspectors.

Diary & Events

This will be an important decision about what you will allow to go ahead in terms of activities, whether there are training courses that will have to be cancelled and possibly appointments that can be rearranged.  It’s going to be a pretty stressful couple of days and managing staff and students carefully will help ease the pressures.  A good question might be, “Will this activity or event help support a positive inspection outcome or not”.  A lot of lessons being covered, given the focus on observing lessons during an inspection, may be counter-productive.  Make decisions and record them along with the name of person who will be auctioning them.

Key Meetings

Inspectors will want to meet, in the next few days, with:

• Governors, including the chair of governors,
• Middle leaders (Heads/Co-ordinators of English, Maths & Science are a pretty obvious group),
• The Special Education Needs Co-ordinator and
• Senior leaders – one of the senior leaders – in a primary school the expectation may be that it should be the headteacher – will need to be able to pull together data requests very rapidly.  Use your #5MinOfstedPlan to ensure your self-evaluation form is rich with data including outcomes for students in receipt of pupil premium.

Think about what meetings might be requested, who will be in them, where they can be held and any last minute briefings.  Remember to give this responsibility to a named person.

Staff Well-Being

The stress levels almost inevitably start rising and can sometimes go through the roof as the inspection process starts and then escalates.  Our experience of Ofsted Inspections is that it can bring a staff together against the “common enemy” and staff teams are often at their best in the face of adversity.

There are two dimensions to think about:

• Emotional support for staff who may just need someone to chat to, ask a question of or have what they think or has actually been a bad moment.  Who is available and where should they go?
• Energy boosts with some cakes, additional breakfast or fruit can all help keep the engine room of the school running.  Be aware that many staff will want to get things just right and irrespective of what you say will use breaks and lunches to prepare for their next lessons.  Equally a member of staff could be in conversations with inspectors for part of their break or lunch.  The option of a quick refuelling station may be necessary and very well received.

Ofsted Hymn Sheet & Staff Meeting

Some schools will prepare a last minute briefing sheet for staff – keep it concise and only include key issues to focus on.  For example, “make sure you know the data for your classes”  – targets, current attainment, G&T, SEN, Pupil Premium students etc.  A few bullet points related to the great work you have been doing on pedagogy can be prepared in advance – nothing new or glitzy it’s too late for that.

Staff might want to come together at the end of the day for a short briefing, to ask some questions and support each other.  So a meeting time and place should be arranged.  Be sensitive to staff who already have other commitments and can’t make it.  Keep the briefing brief – the main focus now is on getting the lessons and learning right and trying to get a bit of sleep.

Document Preparation

In #5MinOfstedPlan by @LeadingLearner and @TeacherToolkit there are a number of key documents that need to already be collated in readiness to send to the lead inspector.  There are some that will need to be at hand the following day for scrutiny, these include:

• The Single Central Record – always worth one last check that it is up to date and complete.
• Log of exclusions, pupils recently taken off role, racist incidents, incidents of bullying including homophobic bullying.  Make sure that these are regularly collected and analysed for trends including looking at sub-groups.
• Up to date attendance information including the days of inspection as they become available
• Documents evidencing the work of governors, including how they have challenged the school where outcomes are below expectation, are required.  It maybe useful to record “challenges” in meetings so these can be easily evidenced later if you don’t already routinely do so.

 Domestic Arrangements for Inspectors

Whilst some inspection teams make easy guests and others are less welcomed or badly behaved it is important to have a professional approach to these visitors to your school.  Car parking arranged for them can be helpful as well as WiFi access.  There will need to be a room organised and cleaned with arrangements made for tea, coffee and meals.  You might want to think about a meet and greet team – be warned inspectors tend to arrive early.  A lead inspector wandering into and all over the school first thing doesn’t do your safeguarding rating a great deal of good.  Equally you might consider it an appropriate way to welcome visitors to your school.

Feedback including Staff & Students

Senior staff, governors or trustees, the local authority and Diocese, if you are a faith school, will all be invited to the feedback by the inspectors.  Who will communicate these arrangement?  At the feedback often two different senior leaders are tasked with making notes on each section and one given the task of writing them up.  This will be a useful aide memoir in the days ahead.

However, the staff and the students will also be desperate to know how things have gone.  This is a careful balancing act as the outcomes of the inspection will need to be moderated prior to being made public so you will need to think carefully about what is said.  Plan a time to give feedback to the staff pretty soon after the inspection finishes.  Students are often happy to be given a genuine thank you, for all their support and great work during the inspection, and an idea when the inspection report is released.  At St. Mary’s Catholic College all students received a Mars bar along with the last inspection report.  We considered this part of our healthy eating programme as they weren’t deep fried!

Staff Celebrations & Party

At the end of the inspection process many staff will want to come together for support and hopefully to celebrate a good or possibly outstanding couple of days.  This is an important part of being a community.  Give one person the lead for this – it is a job that possibly a support member of staff would happily take the lead on and do exceptionally well.  It may be you celebrate with a cup of tea or coffee and cakes at the end of the day.  You may organise to go out for a drink a bit later on or organise a more formal celebration a week or two later once the report has been released.  Or why not all three – the staff deserve it.

Here’s an early version of the #5MinCallPlan completed in five minutes:

We hope you find the #5MinCallPlan useful if you are preparing for an Ofsted visit.

#5MinCallPlan v1.3 (PDF)

#5MinInspectorCallsPlan v1.3 (PowerPoint)

Don’t be caught out at the last minute, time to plan for success.  Good luck.

Please leave any feedback below as we will adapt and update the plan in the light of your comments.