Ofsted Inspections – Outstanding schools – Work in books

This series of articles examines Ofsted Inspectors' comments, as published in their Inspection Reports, in relation to "Outstanding" schools. In this article, we will have a look at work in pupils' books. Work in Books In the 2018 Ofsted School inspection handbook, which was the current one at the time of these inspections, Ofsted said that (my emphasis added): 188. Inspectors will gather evidence about the progress of current pupils through: • observations in lessons • discussions with pupils about their understanding of things they have been learning about • scrutiny of pupils’ acquisition of knowledge, understanding and skills over time as shown in their work, including that in their books • the school’s own information, taking account of the quality and rigour of the assessment on which it is based. However, in the draft 2019 handbook, Ofsted are proposing to essentially remove the last bullet point. They say: 178. While they will consider the school’s use of assessment (see paras...
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Ofsted Inspections – Good Schools – SEND

In this series of articles, we look at Ofsted inspector's comments regarding 80 schools which were deemed to be "good" overall. In this article, we'll have a look at comments relating to pupils who have SEN and/or disabilities (also known as SEND). The Ofsted Inspection Handbook (as of September 2018) states: Inspectors will consider the progress of pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities in relation to the progress of all pupils nationally with similar starting points. Inspectors will examine the impact of funded support for them on removing any differences in progress and attainment. The expectation is that the identification of special educational needs leads to additional or different arrangements being made and a consequent improvement in progress. For groups of pupils whose cognitive ability is such that their attainment is unlikely ever to rise above ‘low’, the judgement on outcomes will be based on an evaluation of the pupils’ learning and progress relative to their starting points at particular...
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Ofsted Inspections – Good Schools – Progress

This series of articles examines the comments of Ofsted Inspectors from 80 full inspections of schools which were deemed to be "good". Previous articles have looked at Ofsted's comments regarding attainment at KS2. This article looks at progress. Progress Whilst inspectors have advanced knowledge of the school's progress at the end of Key Stage 2, as calculated by the DfE, and the 5 levels (e.g. "below average", "well above average") which are displayed on the DfE's website, this headline measure was often not explicitly commented on by inspectors. When it was, the measures showed the school to be broadly in line with national averages: Progress in writing across key stage 2 has improved steadily since the last inspection and is now broadly average.As a result, pupils’ progress in mathematics improved from well below average to average...Progress has also improved during this time and is in line with other schools nationally. Pupils’ progress from the end of key stage 1 to the end of...
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Ofsted Inspections – Good Schools – Pupils’ work

This series of articles analyses Ofsted inspectors' comments in their judgements about "good" schools. This article looks at the role of examining pupils' books. The new Ofsted Inspection framework In the School Inspection update of January 2019, Ofsted said that, under the new Ofsted framework, 53. ...In doing so, inspectors will not review a school’s internal performance data for current pupils. 61. Inspectors will not consider schools’ internal performance data for current pupils during an inspection. ... This is because: internal data for current pupils has its limitations for us...inspectors will have meaningful discussions with leaders about how they know that the curriculum is having an impactinspectors will gather first-hand evidence of the quality of education in schools. The first-hand evidence sources including: 54. ...Inspectors will listen to pupils read and look at examples of pupils’ work for evidence of progression in knowledge, understanding and skills towards defined endpoints So what does pupils' works show under the current framework? Works in books Under the current...
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