Indeed the more you look into it, the clearer it becomes that the latest Ofsted developments are heavily influenced by the ideas of E. The British education system would not be the first to adopt his ideas. Many of the common core standards have their origins in his philosophies. Even though one theoretical approach to curriculum seems to dominate, Ofsted still ensures there is room for schools to manoeuvre.
In England, schools can have very different approaches to curriculum design and Ofsted will not penalise institutions that take a different angle on curriculum design. Discussions with senior leaders will revolve around endpoints, specific and appropriate content, and the sequencing of the content. This section is fundamentally about how teachers and other teaching staff do their job and how leaders support them. In true knowledge-based curriculum style, central considerations will be subject knowledge, presentation of material, assessment, feedback, responsive teaching, and recall of material.
Discussions with curriculum leaders and teachers, interviews with learners, work scrutiny, and reviews of long-term planning will all be used by inspectors to evaluate a school. Only nationally generated performance data will be taken into account. They will also have discussions with pupils about what they remember about the content. You can also expect observations, work scrutiny and in primary schools, time spent listening to pupils read aloud.
Ofsted have recently introduced short inspections, this is for the schools that are already doing well. Think of these inspections as a spot-checks as opposed to in-depth scrutinisation.
Here is your quick guide to short inspections:. You can expect them to be challenging but also honest and fair. They will start with the presumption that you are still running a good school. This will involve observations, conversations, and an overview of assessments. You can expect high-quality feedback that will help your school remain good as well as steps to becoming outstanding. This will be taken into context. For example, if the science department has recently had a series of negative results and there is a clear rationale for this a member of staff might have left , then this might not necessarily change an Ofsted grading.
If the team are aware of the rationale and have a clear way of improving then this might not adversely affect the outcome. Schools will need to review their curriculum offerings in terms of the 3 Is. Ofsted will be looking for knowledge-rich curriculums that promote mastery of skills. Of course, inspectors who happen to be fans of Hirsch will be looking for topics being revisited and for principles of cognitive science to be implemented spaced practice, interleaving etc.
Teachers need to enthuse learners and harness curiosity as a driver for learning. The content needs to be relevant, engaging, challenging and significant, not dry and abstract. Key concepts need to be framed, explored and contextualised. Learners need to understand the importance of the content they are learning and develop the agency to take action. In short, a school could have the most coherent, well-sequenced, balanced curriculum in the world on paper, but there is no guarantee that pupils will learn anything meaningful and lasting as a result.
Is there a risk that this focus on carefully sequenced content knowledge could be interpreted as being in support of a very narrow and scripted education?
Parents are thought no longer to pore over its findings to the degree that they used to when choosing a school for their child — they are just as likely to speak to other parents to get an opinion. Headteachers continue to challenge inspection findings, more so now that it has become harder to get a good grading, though on occasions they have complained that a good report for an ineffectual teacher has undermined their efforts to deal with the case.
Academics have also been critical. He was keen to know if different inspectors would pass the same judgement on a school. So, has Ofsted improved schools? A study by Ofsted found only five per cent of teachers believed inspection had had a positive effect on teaching, while 40 per cent said it had had no effect at all.
And despite Ofsted inspectors themselves suggesting schools have improved generally over time, the debate about standards continues unabated, with successive governments raising the bar and revising the curriculum and examinations system in the clamour for better and higher pupil attainment.
Has Ofsted been outstanding? Good with outstanding features? Over a short period, at some point, perhaps. Requiring improvement? It is suggested that the high-stakes nature of accountability in terms of the current grading system can lead to providers gaming the league tables. A particular criticism is directed upon the practice whereby outstanding schools are exempted from routine inspection, with some outstanding schools not being inspected again for over 10 years.
It has been pointed out that a providers effectiveness is not always stable, and that this exemption should be removed. However, this system fell into disrepute because of inconsistent standards across the country and concerns about the independence of inspectors of local chief education officers and councillors.
The Office for Standards in Education Ofsted was formed under the Education Schools Act , as part of the major overhaul and centralisation of the school system begun by the Education Reform Act , which introduced the National Curriculum, extensive testing in schools and the publication of league tables. Initially through the Section 9 inspections of the Act, and then Section 10 of the School Inspections Act , primary, secondary and special schools had been inspected in a four-yearly and subsequently six-yearly cycle.
Ofsted increased its role with the overhaul of Further Education brought about by the Learning and Skills Act , which empowered it to inspect FE colleges and school sixth forms. Although the Act explicitly stated that Local Education Authorities were entitled to carry out their own inspections of schools under their control, LEAs themselves have been subject to inspection by Ofsted and the Audit Commission since During its early years, Ofsted was particularly controversial.
At least some of the difficulty for many years was attributed by many to the personal style of the confrontational Chief Inspector, Chris Woodhead, who ran the Office in its early years from until Mr Woodhead resigned in , claiming that he could not accept some of the educational policies of the Labour Government which had reappointed him in The inspection regime was amended in to reduce the burden on schools posed by inspections and to improve their efficacy.
We also inspect and regulate services that care for children and young people. Every week, we carry out hundreds of inspections and regulatory visits throughout England and publish the results online. We also directly contract with more than 2, Ofsted Inspectors to carry out inspections of schools and further education and skills provision. Ofsted is a member of the National Preventive Mechanism which monitors and reports on places of detention.
You can find out more about our priorities in the Ofsted to strategy. Read about the types of information we routinely publish in our Publication scheme. Our Personal information charter explains how we treat your personal information.
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