Book scrutiny (or sampling) is too often about criticism and too often conducted in a Big Brother atmosphere of distrust. Instead, it must be about improvement, development and sharing best practice. Adam Riches and Roy Watson Davis offer their advice

In an ever-changing world of education, with a growing weight of accountability for individuals in the classroom, getting book and work scrutiny right in school is essential.

How your senior leadership team or department/faculty heads go about monitoring what is being done in their respective areas is a sensitive business.

Get it right and you can create positive, open growth. But if you are too heavy-handed, teachers can really feel the strain on the ground (even if it is unintentional).

In any thinking about the process of book or work scrutiny, there is a basic PR problem. It is a problem that some schools call it “scrutiny”, giving the whole exercise a faint whiff of “inspect and damn” with a side order of “we’re looking for what’s not there”.
Indeed, the title says more about what the school leadership thinks is important, rather than the more supportive and positive aspects of the task.

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