Best Practice

'Giving it a Go' to improve lesson quality

CPD Teaching staff
When Ofsted feedback prompted his school to develop and improve teaching practice, deputy head Ian McCrae created ‘Give it a Go’, a scheme to allow teachers to experiment and take risks with their teaching.

For my entire teaching career I have relished the challenge of working in schools that draw on socio-economically deprived communities. I have worked at Helenswood School in East Sussex since 2007 and have seen it improve in a number of ways. 

Before our current headteacher took up post in 2009, there was almost no quality-assurance of teaching standards and very little support for developing teaching practice. This was confirmed by Ofsted after a visit in 2009. 

The key problem was that Ofsted’s criteria for teaching and learning had rarely been used to help develop teaching practice and, crucially, had not been shared with teaching staff as part of a strategy. As a result, some direct interventions were required to drive up standards.

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