Guidance relating to Ofsted inspections – March 2009

The criteria used during inspections can be found in the evaluation schedule via the link below:

http://www.ofsted.gov.uk/Ofsted-home/Forms-and-guidance/Browse-all-by/Other/General/Guidance-for-inspectors-using-the-schedule

1.  Standards and Achievement

The guidance for inspectors on using data can be found via the link below:

http://www.ofsted.gov.uk/Ofsted-home/Forms-and-guidance/Browse-all-by/Other/General/Guidance-for-inspectors-on-the-use-of-school-performance-data-EYFS-revisions

The judgements made in this section are not made purely on outcomes at end of key stages, nor simply on progress measures for just the end of KS2 cohort ie CVA etc. Neither are judgements limited by an analysis of each cohort as a whole. Rather they are made on the school’s interpretation of data and tracking information for each year group and the groups within them. It is vital for each teacher to have a good understanding of the progress made by their class/set/year group across the previous school year and the current school term. For example:

Year Group .. (Class/Set .) Subject: Reading/Writing/ Maths/Science

Progress made across previous school year as judged by QCA tests and/or teacher assessments ie between end of Year … and Year …

Group / Number of Pupils in the group / Number/ % of children who made 0 sub-levels progress / Number/ % of children who made 1 sub-levels (2 points) progress / Number/ % of children who made 2 sub-levels (4 points)
progress / Number/ % of children who made 3 sub-levels/ 1 level (6 points)
progress
All pupils
Girls
Boys
G&T / more able
SA
SA+
Statement
LAC (care order)
EAL
FSM
Ethnic Group eg Black African, White, Chinese

Teachers MUST then be seen to use this information to prioritise support, select intervention programmes and group pupils for their lessons. Both the tracking and the analysis of assessment outcomes for groups of pupils must be thorough and lead to appropriate action. Any actions taken must then be monitored, eg entry and exit data is recorded for intervention groups and any school priority must be evaluated according to its impact on the progress of each of these groups.

There is a clear focus from Ofsted on ‘within-school variation’, it is not enough for the year 6 teacher and booster support to produce good results, there must be evidence of even progress and consistently good teaching across all year groups and for all groups within each year group.

NB See the NCSL publication, ‘narrowing the gap; reducing the in-school variation in pupil outcomes’ accessed via the link below:

http://www.ncsl.org.uk/publications-index/publications-display.htm?id=21360&idnum=30

2.  Care, Guidance and Support

The pastoral support provided is a key factor in determining the judgement in this section, but good care also requires children to recieve academic guidance as described below:

v  Children should know their targets ( reading, writing & maths and possibly science or learning behaviours etc)

v  Written feedback should link to learning objectives and/or targets and children should respond to the feedback by revising or extending the original piece of work (not simply being expected to ‘remember to use paragraphs next time’!)

v  Children should know what they need to do to improve in their work

NB target setting is a key component and the criteria can be found in the evaluation schedule.

3.  Teaching and Learning

Teachers may plan with reference to the national curriculum, the renewed frameworks etc but they must also modify any materials or published guidance to meet the needs of the different groups in the class. Teachers can not simply deliver the designated programme for their year group, they must develop the next steps in their children’s learning as determined by ongoing assessment information.

Children must be active participants, they should be engaged in independent research and challenged by higher order questions. It is essential for children to make decisions, to solve problems etc

NB Teachers need to be very aware of the assessment for learning strategy and personalised learning guidance accessed via the links below:

a)  The Assessment for Learning Strategy

http://publications.teachernet.gov.uk/default.aspx?PageFunction=productdetails&PageMode=publications&ProductId=DCSF-00341-2008

b) Personalised Learning – A Practical Guide

http://publications.teachernet.gov.uk/default.aspx?PageFunction=productdetails&PageMode=publications&ProductId=DCSF-00844-2008

Monitoring of the quality of teaching has to be rigorous, with clear evidence that areas for development are being reviewed and supported, for example:

Teacher / Other Adults / Year Group/Set
Length of observation / Observer / Girls ….. Boys …..
SA … SA+…. Statement ….. EAL…..
Subject / Focus for the lesson
Strengths / Possible areas for development
Agreed actions / Strategies / CPD opportunities linked to actions
Review date / Follow-up notes

4.  Leadership and Management

The aspect which at times has been judged as not good enough is often the development of middle leaders. Many foundation subject leaders are not getting involved in the analysis of data (eg how is history impacting upon progress in writing?) nor are they engaged in sufficient monitoring. And when they have ‘monitored’ they do not seem to have been guided to triangulate the information gathered and then to synthesize this as an evaluative summary report. All leaders should be synthesizing information gathered from a range of monitoring activities eg talking to pupils, scrutinising work, taking a learning walk etc to decide what the areas of strength and areas for development are across the school.

OTHER ISSUES

1. A new aspect of focus is ‘community cohesion’, this begins with a judgement on the involvement of parents/carers in the life of the school, so whether there are parent helpers, what information is shared with parents about the curriculum, targets etc? Then the inspectors want to know how other agencies (health, police etc) and local community (church, other schools etc) get involved.

2. Finally please remember that the changes to the Early Years Foundation Stage have also resulted in a separate guidance document for inspections, which can be found via the link below:

http://www.ofsted.gov.uk/Ofsted-home/Forms-and-guidance/Browse-all-by/Other/General/Using-the-early-years-evaluation-schedule-Guidance-for-inspectors-of-registered-early-years-settings-required-to-deliver-the-Early-Years-Foundation-Stage

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