Best Practice

How teachers can show student progress during lesson observations

How can you demonstrate visible improvements when an observer or inspector comes into your classroom and asks the pupils what they are doing? Roy Blatchford, who has observed more than 8,000 lessons, offers some advice.

It is incredible to think of the number of lessons that I have observed in the past decade. I have entered classrooms as an inspector, a reviewer, a coach in primary, special and secondary schools from Mumbai to New York, Barcelona to Birmingham, Jeddah to Jarrow.

And the recurring question that UK teachers ask me is the one above – how can they show visible improvement during lesson observations?

The Ofsted inspection framework places a strong emphasis on key skills in schools. The definition of outstanding teaching makes explicit that the teaching of reading, writing, communication and mathematics must be highly effective and cohesively planned and implemented.

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