Ofsted READING questions from the “DEEP DIVE”
- How often do children read to teachers and teachers read to children?
- In KS1 if children come up below expected what is happening to help them catch up?
- How do you match the levels of the children to the books in KS1?
- What does this look like in KS2?
- If a child is free reading in KS2 how do you ensure they are reading at the right level and reading a breadth of literature?
- Tell me about the phonic scheme?
- How does this look in practice? What will I see when I visit the lessons?
- On a term by term basis how do you map out what you are doing in order to get the children to where they need to be?
- How do you ensure that the teachers and teaching assistants are adequately trained and consistent in their approach?
- Adherence is crucial so how do you ensure consistency?
- As there was a shift in results in phonics in 2019 what makes you think tis was due to practice rather than cohort differences?
- In Y2 and beyond how do you ensure that fluency and accuracy continue to improve?
- In Y1 how many books do you think the teachers read to the children per year?
- Which books will you revisit and why?
- When looking at individual reading tell me about the wider reading of the children. How do you ensure they have the encouragement and opportunity to read a wide ranges of texts and types?
- How do you match the books to the children and monitor the progress and process of reading?
- Do all children have a book to take home?
- What do you do about the children who do not read at home and are not motivated to read?
- How do you promote the love of reading – what will I see when I go to the classrooms?
- How do you ensure that the children are able to access challenging texts?
- Which class texts does each class read per year? Can I have a list to check the variety and the challenge of these texts?
- How do you promote the vocabulary and sentence structure element of reading?
- How do you ensure that the children who come into Reception have the intervention to catch up if they are behind in there development?
- What does catch up look like in practice?
- How do you ensure that the disadvantaged children have full access to their learning, without any barriers put there through lack of experience or input?
OFSTED questions from the “DEEP DIVE”
Curriculum
- What was involved in the vision?
- Give me a timeline of how your curriculum came about?
- How does the motto of the school fit in with the intent and the implementation of the curriculum
- How does the commitment to the disadvantaged fit into the curriculum?
- What does this look like in real terms – how is this implemented?
- What is the subject knowledge of the teachers like
- How do the subject leaders ensure that they sustain the knowledge and expertise of the teachers?
- How has professional development fed into the implementation of the curriculum?
- How do the leaders support the teachers?
- How do you ensure that the children apply previous learning to current and futire learning?
- How do you ensure the children learn the key facts and acquire subject knowledge?
- How does the teacher ensure the quality of long term sequential planning and how is this implemented in real terms?
- How are the principles woven into the curriculum?
- How are you checking that children know what they have learnt?
Reading
- How often do children read to teachers and teachers read to children?
- In KS1 if children come up below expected what is happening in school to help them catch up?
- How do you match the levels of the children to the book in KS1
- What does this look like in KS2.
- If a child is free reading in KS2 how do you ensure they are reading at the right level and reading a breadth of literature?
- Tell me about the phonic scheme?
- How does this look in practice? What will I see when I visit the lessons?
- On a term by term basis how do you map out what you are doing in order to get the children to where they need to be?
- How do you ensure that the teachers and teaching assistants are adequately trained and consistent in their approach?
- Adherence is crucial so how do you ensure consistency?
- As there was a shift in results in phonics in 2019 what makes you think this was due to practice rather than cohort differences?
- In year 2 and beyond how do you ensure that fluency and accuracy continue to improve?
- In year 1 how many books do you think the teachers read tot eh children per year?
- Which books will you revisit and why?
- When looking at individual reading tell me about the wider reading of the children. How do you ensure they have the encouragement and opportunity to read a wide ranges of texts and types?
- How do you match the books to the children and monitor the progress and process of reading?
- Do all children have a book to take home,
- What do you do about the children who do not read at home and are not motivated to read?
- How do you promote the love of reading – what will I see when I go to the classrooms?
- How do you ensure that the children are able to access challenging texts?
- Which class texts does each class read per year – Can I have a list to check the variety and the challenge of these texts?
- How do you promote the vocabulary and sentence structure element of reading?
- How do you ensure that the children who come into Reception have the intervention to catch up if they are behind in there development?
- What does catch up look like in practice?
- How do you ensure that the disadvantaged children have full access to their learning without any barriers put there through lack of experience or input?
Other Questions
How do you promote the well-being of the staff?
How do you manage the work load of the staff?
How do you ensure that all children have access to the same educational input?
How are opportunities and equality accessed by all groups?
How is diversity celebrated and how does it run through the curriculum?
Some questions Ofsted asked governors:
How do you know that safeguarding is effective?
How do you know that funding for disadvantaged pupils is used wisely?
How do you know that pupils with SEND are making good progress?
(how to do quality assure?)
How do you know that the curriculum is implemented well?
How have you changed your work to align with the new framework?
Can you give me an example of when your monitoring led to improvements? (impact)
Checking if you know your school well rather than detailed questioning.
What has been the effect of CPD offered to staff.
Do you have good quality conversations as governors?
Questions about reading:
Prioritise reading:
In a nutshell how do you ensure that the teaching of early reading is prioritised?
Love of reading:
Leaders
How often do teachers read to children?
How do support teachers to ensure that story times are engaging?
How do you select the books that you are going to read to children?
How do you decide the stories that children get to know inside out?
How do you get parents to love reading with their children?
Teachers
Which books have you most enjoyed reading to your children recently?
Pupils
Can you show me your favourite books? Which makes this one your favourite?
Do you take it home to read/share? (if learning to read)
Programme and progress
I see that your phonic screening results are X. I’d like to explore how your programme enables you to achieve this year on year (or if PSC is below 95% What plans do you have to improve the Year 1 PSC scores next year?)
Let’s look at some of the elements for word reading and spelling from the National Curriculum. How do you ensure that all children: remember the sounds for letters, digraphs and trigraphs (mnemonics, repetition);blend the sounds into words; read exception words; learn correct letter formation and learn how to spell?
Could you tell me what you want all of your children to know- term by term-so that they met the PSC standard by the end of Year 1.
How much time do children spend learning phonics, reading and writing?
What do you do to ensure that children continue to make progress in reading accuracy and fluency in Year 2 and beyond?
Books match sounds
How do you ensure that children’s reading books help them to practise the sounds that you have learned?
How do children increase their reading fluency?
Which books do children take home to read?
How often do children change these books?
How do parents listen to their children read these books?
Ofsted Inspector questions during meetings with pupils (from Y2)
- Last year, I know you learned about a, b, c and d. Please choose one of these and tell me something you can remember. Have you used any of this knowledge since then?
- How does your teacher help you remember important things that you have learned?
- I saw you learned about x in your lesson today. Can you tell me about what you learned?
- Tell me how your teachers plan learning that builds on what you already know.
- I notice in your books that this piece of work highlights particular vocabulary. What do these words mean?
- Sometimes you, or other pupils, might need help to understand what you are learning, or to catch up. What help do you or others get and is it useful?
- Are there any subjects you don’t study anymore?
- What knowledge that you learned in previous lessons were you able to use in this lesson?
Thank you to several sources and one particular HT who collated this!
Ofsted Inspector questions during meetings with teachers
- What is this content part of?
- How do you expect this specific bit of Y4 content to create readiness for Y5?
- How will this specific content in the first term of Y3 foster pupils’ capacity to tackle z task that your curriculum shows they will meet in the summer?
- Why this? Why now?
- When pupils struggle – do you know why?
- How do you get the best from pupils?
- How do you ensure pupils remember the curriculum long term?
- Does CPD support you in teaching the curriculum confidently?
- Tell me about assessment and how you use it to ensure pupils know more and remember more?
- How do leaders support you to ensure a manageable workload?
Ofsted Inspection questions for curriculum leaders
- How does prior content prepare pupils for current learning?
- What should pupils already know and does this build on it?
- Are content choices and activities appropriate for the subject?
- Does assessment check that the necessary components are learned?
- How do you respond to what assessment is telling you?
- How do you ensure your subject staff have the expertise to deliver your curriculum?
- What support is there for non-specialists?
Parent View Questions – from September 2019
From September 2019, Ofsted is updating what they ask in their Parent View survey so that it links more closely to Ofsted’s new education inspection framework. Ofsted has removed and adapted some of the statements. They have also added new questions including a question for parents of children with special education needs or disabilities (SEND).
In total, there are now 14 questions to answer Ofsted ask of parents:
- My child is happy at this school.
- My child feels safe at this school.
- The school makes sure its pupils are well behaved.
- My child has been bullied and the school dealt with the bullying quickly and effectively.
- The school makes me aware of what my child will learn during the year.
- When I have raised concerns with the school they have been dealt with properly.
- Does your child have special educational needs or disabilities (SEND)? (yes or no) … If yes, the survey asks parents how strongly they agree with this statement: ‘My child has SEND, and the school gives them the support they need to succeed.’
- The school has high expectations for my child.
- My child does well at this school.
- The school lets me know how my child is doing.
- There is a good range of subjects available to my child.
- My child can take part in clubs and activities at this school.
- The school supports my child’s wider personal development.
- I would recommend this school to another parent. (yes or no)