Ofsted’s national director for schools Mike Cladingbowl has written a document pithily titled Why do Ofsted observe individual lessons and how do they evaluate teaching in schools? It does exactly what it says on the tin. It is a pragmatic, common sense statement of intent.
The highlight, for me, is this – “inspectors should not give an overall grade for the lessons” they observe as part of a school inspection because it would be “nonsensical to suggest that an inspector could give a definitive validation of a teacher’s professional capacity” based on such short-term and superficial evidence ... in much the same way as “we would not expect a surgeon to be judged on a single 25 minute observation of their work”. Sceptical? Read on...
Register now, read forever
Thank you for visiting SecEd and reading some of our content for professionals in secondary education. Register now for free to get unlimited access to all content.
What's included:
-
Unlimited access to news, best practice articles and podcast
-
New content and e-bulletins delivered straight to your inbox every Monday and Thursday
Already have an account? Sign in here