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Whether you're a permanent teacher, supply teacher or student teacher, you'll find others in the same situation on our Staffroom forum.

Ofsted to not grade lessons

28 replies

Snugglesrock · 20/02/2014 20:33

Just seen this through a link on Facebook. It was posted today.

I'm a bit Shock as our academy in sm and it's all about the lesson gradings. Non stop!!!!!

Off to try to post link Shock

OP posts:
Snugglesrock · 20/02/2014 20:34

headguruteacher.com/2014/02/20/meeting-ofsted/

Hope that's it

OP posts:
HumphreyCobbler · 20/02/2014 20:35

headguruteacher.com/2014/02/20/meeting-ofsted/

Snugglesrock · 20/02/2014 20:46

Ah thanks Humphrey. Need to figure out how to do that!!!

OP posts:
partystress · 20/02/2014 22:20

Thank you OP. Not holding my breath that the days of grading are truly over, but the link led me on a trail through some fabulous, thought-provoking blogs that I hadn't come across before despite spending most of my waking hours obsessively googling work stuff.

Snugglesrock · 21/02/2014 08:15

Party - post them Grin off to wonder if I can get away with another night of 'educational googling' rather than marking lol

OP posts:
rollonthesummer · 21/02/2014 23:37

If only we could go back to the odd observation where it was a useful, non-threatening exercise. Your pay/job/status within the school now hangs on these hour-long observations carried out by people who haven't been in the classroom for years and whatever grading they deem you hangs round your neck until your next one. Your results seem to be of less significance than your ability to refer back to the success criteria every five minutes.

Will this really make any difference?

rollonthesummer · 21/02/2014 23:43

observations

This is interesting.

Snugglesrock · 22/02/2014 07:59

Yes. It's awful isn't it Confused

OP posts:
GretaWolfcastle · 22/02/2014 08:05

interesting

as an aside head guru teacher? REALLY?

OddBoots · 22/02/2014 08:08

In a document from ofsted yesterday they seem to claim that individual lessons haven't been graded since 2009 just that some inspectors haven't realised this. Confused

Snugglesrock · 22/02/2014 08:29

So that's a 4 for the inspectors then GrinGrinGrin

OP posts:
GretaWolfcastle · 22/02/2014 08:29

apparently so - colleague told me this

Nojustalurker · 22/02/2014 08:32

Every teacher I know has been graded by lesson. Do you think it will have any impact on 'learning walks' and the like in your school?

GretaWolfcastle · 22/02/2014 08:34

well if it has been unnecessary since 2009 and we have all had it done...
How will appraisals work?

larrygrylls · 22/02/2014 08:35

As a middle aged second career pgce student, the concept of grading lessons seems v strange. Surely it depends how they fit together within an overall planned sow. For example a 30 minute video may be a great intro to a work unit but it is obviously not a great lesson taken in isolation.

No idea what the right answer is but I will never teach to the observation (except in interviews :)). If it comes to that, I will have a v short teaching career.

rollonthesummer · 22/02/2014 10:03

dea what the right answer is but I will never teach to the observation (except in interviews ). If it comes to that, I will have a v short teaching career.

Sorry to say it, but if you don't teach to the observation, you will also have a very short teaching career; you'll be put on RI and be watched continually until you improve!

Snugglesrock · 22/02/2014 10:49

This is the prob isn't it. It is now so deep in our minds that we accept it and wonder how we will cope without it. But I do remember a time when I was such a better teacher n we weren't monitored like this. My results were just as good, arguably at times better. Cos I'm a professional and we should be trusted to do what we were trained to do Confused

OP posts:
GretaWolfcastle · 22/02/2014 11:05

larry - yeah right, we all said that

rollonthesummer · 22/02/2014 14:36

You'd do an 'observation lesson' for an interview (ie to get a job) but not for an observation lesson (to keep your job!). I don't really see the difference?!

Avienus · 22/02/2014 18:05

Larry, the criterion in a lesson observation is very much about progress over time - your data on your class is the major determiner of how your lesson is judged.

Basically, a jazz-hands lesson won't cut the mustard without your evidence in books of targets being set and met; of assessment grades increasing with each test; of pupil premium students meeting their target;, of Controlled Assessment grades being analysed and weighed against Working At grades....

Avienus · 22/02/2014 18:12

Also - why wouldn't you showcase your best possible practice when you're being observed? Just as you would in any other job.

I absolutely have spent whole lesson watching DVDs (totally justifiably in terms of the SOW) but would I show this to people who are coming in to judge my classes progress? Of course not.

I want my employers (and Ofsted) to see that I am top of my game. That's not about pretending that every single lesson I teach is like this, it's about showing that creative, inspiring teaching is part of what I do. Call it professional pride if you like, but I simply wouldn't just 'teach whatever I would have taught anyway' (if that was a 30 minute media clip) for an observation lesson.

SaltaKatten · 22/02/2014 18:24

I had a lesson observation in maths which I thought was absolutely fine, the external inspector (not ofsted, just a head from another school) decided that no it wasn't and so the rest of my teaching had to be rubbish too in spite of me having hard evidence that the class had made twice the expected progress since September. All the evidence in books and the data was completely disregarded.

Avienus · 22/02/2014 19:44

God, so sorry to hear that, SaltaKatten. Were you able to argue, and point out the evidence of progress from your data?

rollonthesummer · 22/02/2014 23:12

Larry, the criterion in a lesson observation is very much about progress over time - your data on your class is the major determiner of how your lesson is judged.

I wish my SMT thought like yours. Our lesson observations are totally about jazz hands and have nothing to do with results :(

larrygrylls · 23/02/2014 09:42

Thought I would briefly (and carefully) return to this thread, as I do not want to come across as arrogant and unreflective. I have hardly any experience of teaching compared to 95% of the people on this board and my practice is currently a work in progress. On the other hand, I have worked in business for over 20 years and managed and motivated people in a tough environment. I never compromised what I thought of as good practice in my previous career, even though I at times paid for it in terms of money and promotion.

I would obviously not show a media clip during an observation and, by the same light, I would try to demonstrate my best teaching. What I meant above is that I would not suddenly do a whizz bang lesson with 10 'episodes' squeezed into 50 minutes, and weird kinaesthetic activities which, in my opinion, would add nothing to my teaching. If the observer was looking for that, then they would be disappointed.

I am going into teaching because I feel I have a knowledge and enthusiasm for my subject which I want to communicate, as best I can. Ultimately, I want the pupils to do their best when I teach them, not some inspector to enjoy the trendiness of my lesson. I believe inspections (as some have said above) are moving in that direction. On the other hand, other posts above seem to show that there is some residual tendency to look for the 'outstanding' single lesson and to unfairly pressurise teachers who fail to deliver it.

Again, as I said above, once I get to the point that I am going in to a school to go through the motions, frightened of what some observer might say, then it will cease to be what I want to do. I am certainly not doing it for the money!