Ofsted And Planning

[Guest]

Hi everyone,

I am wondering if anyone has had an ofsted recently - one of the new ones - only 2 days notice? Can you tell me if they looked at Reception planning, was it ok and if it was what do you do. Hope this makes sense. We are in our 5th year since last one and the Head is driving everyone to get ready. I have taught R for 12 years only 6 years R only he is driving me nuts. Can anyone help. Hope this makes sense.

 

Abi

[Guest tinkerbell]

Hi abi

I'm in the same position 5 years since the last Ofsted and every friday the head comes to tell me the letter hasnt arrived!!!! sigh of relief although its getting to the stage that I wish they would come and go then we can get on with it!!!

Yes Ofsted will look at Reception apparently the six areas,and Every Child Matters is their brief.

Hope this helps, there have been some discussion on the forum about Ofsted do a search and somthing will come up.

Hope this helps Tinkerbell

[Guest]

I've just experienced the 'new' Ofsted as an NQT in reception and they did not look at any of my planning or even ask about my organisation. They asked about how the children have settled, EAL, and the low attainment on entry. They then observed an EAL activity with my TA and then sat in my creative area and did an observation of role play and the making table. Don't know if they were being nice as they knew I was an NQT but it was very painless. The weekend before was the worst bit.

[Guest]

Had Ofsted in three weeks into the Autumn 1 term. Everybody handed in current planning file and one teacher from each KS (Rec. Y1 and Y3) handed in planning files for summer term as there wasn't much in present ones. BUT I'm not sure whether they had requested them or whether our head thought it would be a good idea. Personally I won't say what we do (I think it's excessive!!). Our Early Years Advisor once said that he believed Ofsted would only be really interested in planning if they couldn't make sense of what they were observing. So, sorry, can't really help.

 

As Matilda says - it was relatively painless - compared to before. But if it's hanging over you I guess it's not. Hope you get the call soon - and get it out of the way.

 

Best wishes

Harricroft

[Guest]

We are having a pre ofsted inspection first 3 days back!!!!!! LEA advisors coming in to observe alongside the head - but not everyone is getting observed - but guess who is!! so sitting here in my half term desperately trying to get e-profile up to date and new planning topic in place - so much for a relaxing holiday!!

[Guest]

As I understand it Every Child Matters is central to Ofsted inspections. We have been told there is much less emphasis on observing teachers and huge emphasis on talking to children and discussing the sef with staff - it's going to be very important to know what is in the sef and what the evidence is for it. Coordinators need to keep a portfolio of supporting evidence. We were also told that inspectors are likely to observe alongside the head or deputy in order see how closely their gradings agree - if they don't match closely it puts all the head's judgements in the sef as suspect...

[Guest]

We had OFSTED two weeks into autumn term. Rang on Friday, visited Wed and Thurs. THere is a completely different emphasis under the new system. It is really about inspecting how well the senior management team in the school are evaluating the school's strengths and weaknesses. Now if planning was considered to be a weakness in your school then there might well be a great deal of focus on it, or indeed if it was highlighted as a significant strength. In order to know what the inspectors are likely to look at you have to know what is in the schools self-evaluation plan.

We were asked to submit our medium term, weekly and daily plans and I know that our team looked at them before coming to the school. I guess if they are not happy with those plans they might choose to focus on that for the inspection. They were clearly happy with our plans. What they want to see is that adults roles are clearly defined, there is differentiation especially for any special needs children and that you identify what the role of any EMAG (english as additional language) support is. You need to be clear about any adult focussed activities that are taking place with clear learning intentions. However they don't expect that every activity taking place will have a detailed plan with learning intentions.

 

The pressure is on senior managment to know what is going on in the school, how they measure 'value-added' , a lot of emphasis on data collection and detailed analysis which should then be fed through into the school improvement plan.

 

They talk to the children a lot. THey spoke longer with our school council than with any individual class teacher. The inspection with be completely related to the standards in 'Every Child Matters'. Individual class teachers will not get more that brief visits - most of our staff had one ten minute visit. One or two got more (4 was the most I think) but that was to look at specific issues in the curriculum not their teaching.

 

You will not know the main points for inspection until the first morning of the inspection when they are agreed by the team together with SMT. If you know what are issues for you as a school and specifically your Foundation Stage, that will most likely be what they look at.

Our teachers were surprised and how little pressure they felt. Our managment team were surprised by how much pressure was on them, especially to provide concrete evidence.