OFSTED spoke to DD alone

[Ineedsleepnotsugar]

Why the need to speak to her on her own in a separate room? How is this justified? I dont see the need for it and it matthews me feel uncomfortable.
Dd is 6.
She said the inspector asked her to read a book to her and then asked her time table as. And also asked her if she liked her school.

You’re being weird about this. It’s perfectly fine for a DBS checked adult to have a chat with a child as part of an Ofsfed inspection.

Our local schools have different coloured lanyards for people who have a DBS and those who don’t, and the pupils know the difference

For all those saying the op shouldn’t have an issue you are all wrong.

there is no way a child should be expected to read ect in front of an unknown adult.

by all means the inspector should observe children reading but not as described.

Genuinely, why?

Because depending on The child they might not be comfortable speaking with a stranger.

having been through several ofsted inspections it was I thought out dated practice.

@quitefranklyabsurd children will come across “unknown” adults in school all the time. Have you never heard of a supply teacher?
The OPs child will have been introduced to the ofsted person before hand.
Do you not realise many schools have adult volunteers who come into school all the time to listen to children read. They don’t just wander in off the street? They will be part of an offical scheme and will be introduced to the child before any reading starts.
Do people really think the only adults their children interact with at school is their class teacher, the TA and the Head teacher?
They interact with loads of different adults all through the school day.

Are you a teacher, @quitefranklyabsurd ?

In my (fairly significant) experience, the vast majority KS1 children are fairly relaxed about reading to adults. They will encounter quite a roster of volunteers, supply teachers, TAs etc, and within the context of the school setting they don’t regard these adults as ‘strangers’.

Every single inspection of a primary (or infant / junior) school involves a deep-dive of reading. It isn’t possible to evaluate leaders’ assessments without hearing a sample of children read.

How is recalling times tables any reflection about how they are teaching maths. No maths is done when recalling times tables!

@WeeWillyWinkie9 they have a statutory times table test in Y4

Times tables are amongst the ‘number facts’ that children need to know automatically to support their mental arithmetic, hence why there is a statutory check in year 4.

I haven’t read through the entire thread but I think it’s a good thing and do not see an issue at all.

Im saying that as someone who is an absolute nightmare with this kind of thing- I only trust school staff, never ever any parent volunteers ( they could be the chair of the chair of the PTA and I still wouldn’t) on any school trips. Not ever or anything. Not even play dates.

So I get it.

But highly highly vetted Ofsted staff? Nope. Not an issue with this at all. It’s positive. One hundred percent.

I know this I lead maths but saying words that you remember is not doing any maths at all. Yes they are needed but they are needed to be understood and also needed to be flexible and needed to be applied in a range of contexts. Rattling off words that do not show understanding is not maths.

I know this, I lead maths but saying times tables is not a test of how well maths is being taught as recalling times tables is not maths.

So you know perfectly well that a maths deep dive will involve both checking of rote learning of number facts and observations of their application in the classroom!

OP this happened to my daughter at exactly the same age many years ago. She was asked to read, and I think they had a general chat. She was a bit puzzled, but went along with it because her teacher had asked her to.

On a subsequent occasion, at senior school, she would have loved the chance to have a 1 to 1 chat with an inspector, as she definitely had views she would have liked to express. Funnily enough, she wasn’t asked then…..

I know that a maths deep dive rarely check the application in class as they will just be lucky to watch a multiplication lesson and more often than not it is another lesson in maths that isn't about that. From my maths work it isn't common that they do either.

YippieKayakOtherBuckets
But going back to my point - getting a child to rattle off times tables does not show that maths teaching is good or not.

No, but if the school are claiming that 'these 5 children already know all their times tables' for example, checking that isn't necessarily a bad thing.

Knowing TT makes later maths so much easier. You can get by if your TT are shaky but it makes secondary maths much harder.

It isn't an unreasonable thing for an inspector to ask a child to say, especially if they have been flagged as knowing them. Takes what, 30 seconds?

You're bothered about being 1:1 because you have mistakenly believed children aren't left 1:1 with teachers.

Each teacher has 30 pupils in a class. There are not enough teachers or TAs in schools.

And you think they are never alone?

I sometimes wonder where people get their ideas from 🤦🏼‍♀️🤣

My son has 1 on 1 time with a TA at school for feelings and reflection time, this is done in a separate room,

Since when do they come in and ask which kids know their times tables? They just pick kids at random. Some kids will rattle them off, some kids might freeze with fear and not be able to do it. Does that show them poor teaching if a child is scared? Bit of a shite way to test if a whole inspection goes on the fear of a child.

Knowing times tables doesn't show good teaching. A whole class can know their times tables but if not one of them understand what multiplication is and just rattles off the facts then how is that good teaching?

A Y2 child who knows them all might not even know what it means. They might just be a string of words they know they have to say in the correct order to get team points or something like that. If they don't understand them they have no meaning.

A Y2 child who doesn't know them might've made huge progress that year and come into that year working at Age 4 EYFS level and now working at Y1 level which shows good teaching with the progress they have made. They might not yet know their times tables but they have made excellent progress.

Yes I get that it makes maths easier but only if you understand them! My receptions can rattle off their times tables as I have a mixed class and so they pick them up by hearing the Y2s, do they know them? Yes. Can they understand them? No. Only one of them understands what it is but he is a reception kid who is gifted and is working at KS2 level.

They don't get flagged as knowing them and an inspector asking a kid to rattle them off in 30 seconds doesn't prove they know them or not know them.

I have been a teacher for nearly 20 years and have never been made aware of any rule which states I shouldn't be alone with a child in a room.

TeenDivided
What I am saying is that it is a hugely flawed process of assessing good teaching based on if a child can rattle off some words in the right order. It doesn't assess teaching at all.

Like others have said, they are highly vetted and schools are designed so that a 1:1 is still visible to other staff (windows in doors etc). I do Ofsted visits to children’s homes and you can imagine it’s very important we speak with kids on their own - we are trained and checked to within an inch of our lives of course. I understand that it feels a bit intrusive and entitled but honestly, unless your little girl was troubled by something specific I would say it’s fine :)

I find it a bit odd as the approach ofsted use now is to observe a child reading to a member of staff who they usually read to. They used to listen to readers themselves but have moved on from this.