| Archive for Primary Teacher Resource Centre - Forum A place to chat, share ideas or simply let of steam about current Education issues. |
| JD1970 |
Those of you with recent 'Big O' experience...Yep, we have had the call. Horrible time of year to visit, what with Y6 in post SATs mood and focusing mainly on their end of year play. Never mind, stay calm, it's only ofsted (with small letters ). So, those of you that have been done recently, were there any big surprises? reckon their going to focus on reading and attainment.
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| seemeafter |
No recent experience but just wanted to say good luck. Shout if you need anything! | ||
| magpie nic |
I echo what Seemeafter said! | ||
| smallholder |
Hope it all goes well for you. | ||
| Opera Diva |
March 2012 inspection - practically 3 years to the day.
I shared the pre-inspection briefing with all teachers and TAs as soon as I received it and added my notes so that everyone knew what would be looked at and why etc... All staff had been involved in self evaluation as well as going through salient points of Raise On-line - governors too. Every teacher was observed at least once. Lots of listening and talking to children from different groups. Asked for 6 less able readers from Y1 and Y2 but not the SEN children. Lots about data and different groups of children - esp SA SA+ FSM. Talked with SLT and then middle leaders. All staff received feedback. Focus on any issues from last inspection and checked upon how well that had been addressed. As HT I was asked to do several learning walks - this was not about looking at the environment and displays - they were all about making sure everyone was singing from the same hymn sheet - was behaviour managed consistently throughout the school etc... I was involved in major book scrutiny across the school as well as joint lesson observations with Lead Inspector. School council talks as well as another group of children just picked randomly by team. Parents meeting over coffee. Lunch with children and out on yard to check that behaviour managed same way by lunchtime staff etc... Safeguarding - asked about single central record, child protection, esafety, exclusions, single equality plan and equality act etc.. Lessons - don't talk too much and don't keep kids on carpet too long. They will look at books at any point and not just the ones sent for scrutiny. Don't tech what you think they want to see - make sure the children are involved in the learning and are challenged to think independently and can be involved in research. Embedding basic skills across all subjects - opportunities for children to practice skills in other areas. |
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| JD1970 |
Thanks for the good wishes guys. have to be honest - I've been avoiding most threads with 'ofsted' in the title as we've been expecting the call for a while now and it hasn't come - until today.
OD - thanks for all the detail. Much of what you have said is what I expected. Interesting about the reader - not SEN. Have made lists of what I need to do this weekend and think it might be coming up to wine o'clock now. This time next week almost two years of waiting will be over. Have a great weekend everyone! |
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| Knightrider |
We were done on the 2 days before half term. So year 6 literacy was selling all the things they'd made for mini-enterprise to the rest of the school. My SEN literacy was making scones and table decorations for the SEN parents' tea that afternoon. The whole school was on Jubilee week and so doing relaxed just before half term style lessons. We were clearly told a) not to change anything we already had planned and b) not to write special plans. Having said that, I know some people changed things as they were concerned there wouldn't be enough learning for the inspector to see. When the call came, of the 4 lessons I taught while they were in, 3 I was happy with and the 4th was one of those "stick something on the plan and wing it on the day lessons". Obviously they came to see the 4th, so I did re-plan it.
They stuck to the schedule of who they were watching on the pre-inspection briefing, although they did do some 5 and 10 minute drop ins too. Both inspectors read with a lot of children from KS1 and 2 (definitely years 5 & 6, don't know about 3 & 4) - not the weakest readers in the year group, but the ones just above them. We were told we could have feedback if they were in the room for long enough (ie one of the planned observations) but they wouldn't give lesson gradings however some staff asked for a grading and were told. They interviewed the Maths & English leaders together and the focus was on what they have done and what the impact has been. As I'd only been at the school as SENCO for a few weeks (just over a month) they agreed to interview me with my team of TAs and SALT. I had swotted up on all the data, and our percentages of SA, SA+, progress etc compared to the national average but wasn't asked for any of it. I did a trawl on TES for posts about frequently asked Ofsted questions, prepared all the answers and got asked none of them! The whole interview was much gentler than expected but by the end of day 1 everything was already going well so they weren't looking to pick holes. I made him look at all the data analysis etc as it was all prepared and waiting. The focus was as given in the pre-inspection briefing, so we knew what we needed to be ready to answer. BUT - one of their questions was about the attainment of SEN children compared to the rest of the school and I didn't get asked about it, yet they comment on it in the report so they obviously picked it up from the data somewhere. Think that's the main points - if you think of anything else, then ask away! And if we can help with lessons at all, then let us know. |
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| sweepings |
Exactly what OD said - particularly the teaching. In the pre inspection stuff he had told our HT that he wanted to see what we did to get the high standards that we get - we did that the first day, he didn't like it so we all did what he wanted the second day!!!
Have to say it had taken me all year to get my children to sit on the carpet properly only to be told that they shouldn't be there!!! |
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| wotsitagain |
Why shouldn't they be there, sweepings? What age are they?
All the best JD. We are waiting with bated breath - have been since September... |
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| Opera Diva |
I was led to believe that discussions with HT and focus on HT involvement was very much different and reduced under new framework.
I found it to be the complte opposite. I was involved non-stop. This is where the majority of the info and data comes from. HT will be asked an enormous amount and will collate this from the whole school evaluation. Your HT will have a wealth of info and inspectors will draw upon this. Never underestimate what is known. |
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| sweepings |
I teach year 4. The lead guy we had thought the children were too passive when on the carpet - even when there was interaction. He wanted to see them moving around the room!
In one of our joint observations our member of staff disagreed with his judgement ( mainly because he didn't like the teaching style, but they are an incredibly difficult group of children to manage). She asked him to go back at the end of the lesson to look at the outcomes, which he did, and agreed that the outcomes were outstanding. OD is right about HT involvement. Our ht was involved all the way. In fact she talked so much the first day that it completely threw their schedule! I did ask them if they were avoiding her the second day so that they could keep on track, they laughed. We were lucky they were a very approachable team. |
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| JD1970 |
'too passive' - that's my class all over!
So, do they tell you who and when they'll observe at the pre-inspection briefing now? That's new. |
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| Opera Diva |
I was given a timetable which was flexible and I shared it with all my staff. I was asked to choose who I wanted to do a joint observation - this was timetabled and I was able to tell those staff it would be a joint obs and which side of playtime etc... I had a cracking team of 3 inspectors - they read our self evaluation and Raise On-line and came in with the view just show us what you do to get data like this on Raise On-line. If self evaluation is rigorous and accurate and a school knows exactly what it does well and where it needs to go next, that will come out in an inspection. The whole staff team need to be involved and included in all of this - not just HT or SLT. We were also asked for the school improvement plan, all the monitoring records of lessons, book scrutinies, learning walks, staff and team meetings monitoring etc.... We also made sure we shoved things in front of their noses that we wanted them to see - the children were very good at doing this. |
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| Knightrider |
Ditto OD! JD - the pre-inspection briefing was a 4 page document that was emailed over to the school on the afternoon of the day before they arrived. 3 pages to set the context and say the sort of things they were looking for (some of which we really couldn't work out the relevance of to our school so presumably were part of some kind of national agenda) and then a page with their schedule for the 2 days. After the first day they added in some extra stuff with reception because they wanted additional evidence. | ||
| Opera Diva |
Some of the pre-inspection briefing is pre-populated prior to the lead adding information. I questioned one or two bits and he said they were always on but referred to special schools or secondary schools - he told me to ignore those bits. I think they were supposed to have been deleted but forgotten about! If staff are involved in the self evaluation and know the key parts and also know what the school's Raise On-line is saying, then there should not be anything in the PIB that would be a surprise. Good self evaluation and detailed analysis of data with a clear way forward basically tells the inspctors how to conduct the inspection. |