Individual lesson grades have been dropped, so now inspectors are gathering evidence from a range of activities and lesson observations to judge the quality of teaching. Suzanne O’Farrell examines the implications.

What's the outcome?

The updated Ofsted School Inspection Handbook states: ‘The most important role of teaching is to promote learning and the acquisition of knowledge by pupils and to raise achievement.’ Essentially, inspectors are focused on looking at how effectively the teaching promotes learning and what the outcomes of the learning are.

In the classroom

Ofsted has repeatedly emphasised that there is no preferred style of teaching and schools and teachers can decide for themselves how best to teach in order to achieve the best outcomes for pupils. Individual features of teaching are evaluated in terms of the impact they have on pupil learning and behaviour; the focus is not on individual performance. Inspectors will also identify ways in which teaching and learning can be improved.

Ofsted’s summer pilot for not grading lessons is now their adopted approach, and the key questions inspectors bear in mind are:

• How well are groups of pupils learning and making progress?
• What are the key strengths and weaknesses of the teaching that are having the greatest impact on learning and progress?
• What impact are pupils’ attitudes to learning having on their progress?
• How effective is the curriculum in stimulating interest, enjoyment and engagement in order to promote good learning and progress?

Inspectors also record evidence about achievement, behaviour and safety, leadership and management, and the social, moral, spiritual and cultural development of pupils.

Feedback to teachers can be given individually or in groups, such as subjects or key stages, and is likely to focus on the strengths and weaknesses of the teaching observed. However, inspectors will use this opportunity to talk to teachers about the support and professional development they have received, particularly if they are early on in their teaching careers.

They are also likely to talk to teachers about their overall perception of the quality of teaching, how well they are supported in establishing high standards of behaviour in the school and their views on how performance management is being used to improve teaching. Teachers’ comments may be fed back in making the overall judgement on teaching and learning.

Inspectors also consider the climate created in the classroom by teachers, as illustrated by the following: ‘Teachers command the respect of their classes, set out clear expectations for pupils’ behaviour at the start and finish.’

One of the biggest challenges facing inspectors is the need to ensure that they have enough evidence about pupil progress from the analysis of pupils’ work. Consequently, student folders or key assessment pieces will be of interest to them. Inspectors already glean a lot of evidence from pupils’ work, such as presentation, how work builds on prior learning and how much unfinished work there is; the new guidance asks inspectors to consider not only the impact of marking but also whether marking is in line with the school’s policy and the level of challenge in pupils’ work.

Inspectors will discuss pupils’ learning with them and not just probe pupils’ knowledge of their target grade but whether they are able to articulate what they know, what they need to do to improve and how they are being helped with this. Inspectors will also give careful consideration to the impact that teaching assistants are having in the classroom.

Inspection teams judge the impact of teaching over time and schools can evidence this by providing inspectors with pupil outcomes of their last key assessment piece or a recent data capture to show the progress pupils have made over time. Inspectors will not expect to see lesson plans but will look at one if teachers have prepared them.

Leadership of teaching and learning

The handbook states that, while inspectors will not expect to see records of graded lessons, they will, however, want to discuss and examine with school leaders how they evaluate the quality of teaching. They want to judge the accuracy of the leaders’ evaluation of teaching and learning. Schools are likely to use a range of evidence to inform their overall evaluation of the quality of teaching, which may include close analysis of the progress pupils are making, pupils’ perceptions of their learning, evidence in books and visits to lessons.

In evaluating leadership inspectors will expect leaders to be focused on improving teaching and learning and will want to know what the school is doing to drive improvement in this area and how they measure the impact; inspectors are likely to scrutinise the school’s records on, and evaluation of, professional development.

Records of lesson observations that are helpful, constructive and developmental clearly indicate the value a school places on improving teaching and learning (whether they are linked to Ofsted grades or not is an individual school’s management decision).

An effective professional development programme that is valued and embraced by teachers themselves is potential evidence of strong leadership with capacity to sustain or improve learning outcomes. Inspectors will want to see that best practice is identified, modelled and disseminated across a range of subjects.

Schools have the opportunity to share their own evaluation and leadership of teaching and learning in a professional dialogue – another step along the way to a school-led self-improving system we hope.

Ofsted handbook: www.ofsted.gov.uk/resources/schoolinspection-handbook

For further information, read Suzanne’s blog on improving the overall quality of teaching in schools online at www.ascl.org.uk/improvingoverallquality-blog

You may also be interested in attending the ASCL PD course that Suzanne is leading on: Key Steps to Improving the Overall Quality of Teaching – book your place online at www.ascl.org.uk/improvingoverallqualitydecember

Suzanne O’Farrell is Specialist ASCL Inspections

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