9 replies to this topic

[j hewson]

Hello all. We have the joys of a two day inspection tomorrow and Tuesday by Ofsted. We are part of the pilot for the new framework which starts in September. All inspectors are lead people and one of them is a history specialist/humanities so I expect to be seen working my magic! If there are any real issues with the new framework that I feel you all need to be made aware of, I will let you know. Don't envisage anything radically different, but the four main foci are teaching, behaviour, management and literacy. Fingers crossed.
Jason

[JenniferJames]

Good luck! Pretty much the worst time of year! Let us know how you get on

[Dave Wallbanks]

We were just done on Wednesday and Thursday. The Humanities subjects were visited for a grand total of 60 minutes, 20 minutes for each subject. I think that these inspections were just to confirm what our own internal inspection had said which is basically that we're a good set of teachers and do great things in the classroom. The focus definitely seemed to be the quality of teaching and learning and particularly the sharing of learning objectives and how we addressed these in our lessons. My colleagues were disappointed that they weren't visited to show off their skills and I was unable to get feedback on my lesson as the inspector was in a meeting.
As Head of History I was interviewed with other subject heads and the inspector was clearly interested in the impact of the EBac and how the school was preparing for it and what I had done to develop my department in advance. I also recall a couple of bizarre questions in which the inspector asked us how we would improve the school (would anyone say anything negative and run down their own school to an offshed inspector??) and name one thing we felt was good about our department and one area for improvement. I have a sneaky feeling he wanted us to do his work for him.....

[j hewson]

While part of me hopes for no visit (like last time), I actually do want them to come in and see what I do with my classes. Been told that their main focus is maths (due to GCSE results not being great) so maybe they will leave us alone. Our subject profile is good- GCSE results are excellent, teaching all good or above in the dept and numbers at KS4 are also great. To be honest, the only lesson where I will be teaching is a year 8 one. I have 2 Year 9 classes who do GCSE Humanities and Paper 2 is Tuesday, so revision is their lesson and Tuesday I teach Year 11 all day, with Paper 1 on June 7th, so more revision. I also haven't had a drink in 3 months- think the wheels may fall off that wagon by the end of the week...

[j hewson]

After two days of inspection (where I was not seen for the second visit running) we have been told this morning that their verdict is not in the public domain (and that includes staff) for 6 weeks! Whether this is part of the new framework or not, I am not sure and will investigate, but I find it more than a little annoying that we are put through the mill for two days and to be told "wait and see".

[Dave Wallbanks]

Is this your boss keeping it quiet? My headteacher gave us all a thumbs up the day after his meeting with the inspectors and whilst we know nothing of the report we've been given enough to know what we've done well in and a couple of development areas. My colleagues were disappointed not to be seen but this can sometimes be seen as a vote of confidence in your department because if there had been anything that indicated there were concerns then they'd have been in to observe you. All you've got to do is chill out and enjoy the half-term now and get the videos on. As if!

Everyone's just been given Ofsted memo from my boss saying loads of nice things about us and the inspection and with a few vague "things to improve" points that will be addressed in our post Ofsted report plan.

Edited by Dave Wallbanks, 25 May 2011 - 11:36 AM.
New points

[j hewson]

I thought the same; just a little indication of "nothing to fear" etc would have alleviated the strain on so many staff. I think not being seen is a back-handed compliment. My lessons are consistently judged as good or higher and results are on average a grade above FFT-D so maybe they targeted specific depts or people. It's the not knowing that grates on me, to be honest.

[Ed Waller]

It's the not knowing that grates on me, to be honest.

And you can't imagine that if we were to treat the kids in this way (ahh, you've done an assessment, I'll tell you how you did and feed back to you in a month or so) being acceptable...

[j hewson]

Fair point!

[j hewson]

Apparently, with it being part of the pilot, it all has to be QA by HMI, as they don't want to be making mistakes with schools before it goes nationwide in September, which I can just about cope with. I just hope we don't see them for three more years, which will mean I have not been seen personally by Inspectors in a decade, which is just stupid (offset by the fact that I was seen teaching 8 times formally and via "curriculum walks" last year- back door inspections by anyone's standards) but the nature of the beast, I guess.