An in-depth view of a primary school inspection. There’s so much useful information here, enjoy.
Ofsted Summary
Initial call came at 10.31am
Admin phone call just advising us that we were being inspected under Section 8 for the next 2 days. 1 inspector. They asked what time would be suitable for the lead inspector to ring me so I said 12.30pm.
The lead inspector rang me at 12.31pm.
Initial Phone call – my deputy stayed with me and made notes and suggestions during the call.
Call began with the inspector going through the details:
- Length of inspection
- Section 8
- Overview of focus – Quality of Education
- Expectations of Behaviour/Bullying
- Gaming/Off-rolling
- Personal Development
- Staff Workload and Wellbeing
We then discussed what time she was going to arrive (8am) and she’d need to log onto the school wifi (we made her sign a disclaimer for use of the wifi).
She then said “Tell me about your school”…I talked about our strengths and how we’d moved forward since the last ofsted. I referenced our SEF and talked about community, links with other schools and what we’ve worked hard on. She asked questions as I talked and listened carefully. We talked very briefly about historical data (5/10mins max) and she was happy with my explanations.
Curriculum – she asked where we were up to with our curriculum development and how we were approaching everything.
Which subjects are stronger than others? Why?
How is the curriculum designed for SEND and Disadvantaged children?
She then asked me about the percentage of staff absence as it seemed higher than average and she wondered if it linked to Wellbeing. I talked through the reasons and offered for her to see my tracking of staff absence to ensure she knew it wasn’t staff absence.
She then went onto discuss what a ‘Deep Dive’ is. She explained the process of meeting the subject leader, visit classes, look at books and listen to children then end with feedback to any adults involved.
She told me that we’d have a deep dive in early reading and phonics – this was a non-negotiable.
Because I’d talked in length about what we’d done to improve Maths across school, she suggested that a Deep Dive in maths took place. I was happy to agree this.
She asked me how I monitor. I explained that I use a ‘Thumb Through Thursday approach’ and how is works really well in my school.
She then asked what 3rd Deep Dive I would like but that it had to be a foundation subject. I suggest History or Geography. We discussed the availability of seeing teaching in either of these subjects and decided on History as more classes had covered History since September. I explained that no one would actually be teaching History during the inspection but that she could talk to children, look at books etc. I offered for her to look at last year’s books too as we were so new into the new school year.
At the end of the call, the inspector reiterated/made a summary of what we had discussed and asked if I could send a SEF via the ofsted portal (details of this had been emailed to me via the admin team)
The inspector said she would send through a timetable for the 2 days and I had to check it and make any suggestions. We planned to speak again at 4.30pm to confirm the details for the days ahead.
The call was nearly 2 hours with a 20 minute break in the middle.
The inspector rang back again at 4.30pm for final confirmations of the inspection.
Day 1
Inspector arrived at 8am and went straight into my office and logged onto the wifi. There was no meet or greet with the staff.
Initial introductions with the SLT and straight into Deep Dive into Reading by 8.15am.
Deep Dive Early Reading
Listened to 18 children read. We were allowed to choose apart from the inspector further requesting to listen to 4 less able children from Year 1.
She observed phonics lessons and guided reading in Reception, Year 1 and Year 2.
She asked the Subject Leader the following questions:
- What do you use to teach phonics? Why?
- Is it used consistently across all of EYFS and KS1? Why? Why not?
- How do you choose reading books for children?
- Do you do story time every day (we do and she spent 3pm-3.15pm on both days visiting classes to observe this)
- How do you develop a passion for reading?
- How do you engage parents in reading?
- How do you ensure fidelity to one scheme? If you don’t why don’t you?
- How do you ensure progression in phonics?
- What do children learn, term by term in phonics?
- How do you ensure challenge in the provision in EYFS?
- How often do children change their books?
- How do you track children and what do you do for children who aren’t making progress at the rate expected?
- Where are the children up to with phonics in Reception at the moment?
- Looking at your published phonics data, how are you looking to improve it? (ours was 80%)
- TAs – do the TAs always work with the same group of children? Why?
- WHEN SHE WAS OBSERVING IN EYFS SHE ASKED THE TAS WHAT THE GLD WAS FOR THE PREVIOUS YEAR!
She didn’t ask for phonics planning, but I offered it to show how secure we were with our teaching.
After meeting with the subject leader, listening to children read and observing sessions, the inspector fed back to all staff involved as a group. During this feedback she commented positively but also told us she didn’t like the exercise books where children have half lines and half blank paper. She thought that some of the less able children in year 1 had home reading books that we too hard for them.
Deep Dive History
Initial conversation with the SL about curriculum and sequencing. Similar questions to maths and only actually talked to the SL for about 20mins before going off to talk to children.
We showed the SL file and all the monitoring that had been done and what our plans were for the teaching of History. We explained that no History teaching was taking place whilst she was here. That was fine. She was happy to look at books and talk to children. We explained our rotation and that Year 3 and Year 5 had done History so far this year. We also explained how we had kept our History books from last year and she was happy to look at those for evidence
- How do you sequence learning?
- How do you ensure coverage?
- How do you ensure challenge?
- How do you revisit prior learning?
- How do the children build on their learning?
- How do children apply their historical knowledge in other learning?
Deep Dive Maths
Initially met with Subject leader. Lots of discussion around pedagogy and the journey we’ve been on with maths. We discussed:
Maths Mastery
CPD for staff
The way we ‘rolled out’ Mastery – 1 class at a time until now everyone is doing it
Monitoring – how we do it and why
Supporting other schools to develop their Mastery teaching as part of the Teaching School
She looked at my SLs subject lead file for examples of her monitoring and records of CPD etc.
Questions included:
- How do you differentiate in Maths?
- What (if any) Maths schemes do you use?
- How do we ensure consistency across school?
- What does Greater Depth look like?
- How do you ensure your monitoring is accurate?
- How do you support all children?
- How do you engage parents to work with school?
- How do we link Maths and STEM – SHE FOCUSED A LOT ON THIS! AND LOVED THAT WE DO SO MUCH STEM WORK AND LINK WITH LOCAL BUSINESSES.
- How do you support new staff members?
She then observed Maths in all classes (30 mins in each class). She looked at children’s books as she watched lessons. She then spoke to groups of children about their lessons and how they learn. After this she fed back to all staff in a group feedback.
WHILST SHE MET STAFF TO FEEDBACK, SHE ALSO ASKED THEM ABOUT WELLBEING, CPD AND SUPPORT IN SCHOOL. THIS HAPPENED AT EVERY TIME SHE FED BACK TO PEOPLE.
SCR and Safeguarding –
We met and she checked the SCR and compared it to the lists I keep of who has read and signed FOR kcsie. She asked me:
- What are the biggest challenges for Safeguarding in school AND in the community?
- She asked my opinion about the Local Authority’s inspection of Safeguarding and asked how that had affected us as school and had we seen any improvements!
- How many DSLs and when were they last trained and to what level?
- When was the last training for staff?
- If staff missed that, what did I do?
- Tell me about a Bullying issue you’ve dealt with and show her the records
- Tell me about an open CSC case and show her the paperwork
I explained how I had recently paid for an audit of Safeguarding by the Local Authority. I showed her the audit and how I had addressed the minor actions. SHE LOVED THIS AND HOW WE HAD TAKEN IT UPON OURSELVES TO ORGANISE THE AUDIT.
Explain ‘exclusions’ and discuss why and impact(I showed her a document which highlights the reasons, defensible decision making and impact of doing the exclusions.
Attendance – she asked to see how I monitor attendance and deal with persistence absence
CLA children – how many? I showed her the PEP and grading from Lancashire
Behaviour – how many ‘behaviour’ incidents in the last 12 months – how do we record them? How do we distinguish between serious and not?
Transition – she asked for our procedures for transitioning children into school and through the year groups.
The inspector then spent about 30mins with me going through CPOMS and looking at different children’s records. She liked the way we could pull up different reports to filter results for monitoring.
CPD
How do I plan CPD – link to appraisal and SDP
How do we choose who provides the CPD
How do we support staff to move forward in their careers and move on
She liked our discussions around school-to-school support.
SEND
She only met with my SENDCO for about 30mins
- How do you ensure support for SEND children?
- Tell me about SEN here at Coates Lane?
- How do you identify children who need extra support?
- How do you work with outside agencies to support children?
- Tell me about interventions and how you support children who are falling behind?
- What CPD have staff had to help with work with SEND children?
FURTHER TO THIS SHE ALSO ASKED ME WHAT MY OPINION WAS OF THE SERVICE PROVIDED BY THE SEND DEPARTMENT/TEAM IN THE LOCAL AUTHORITY AFTER THEIR INADEQUATE INSPECTION.
She looked at my SENDCO’s file and monitoring.
She then asked to meet 6 SEND children from KS2. She spoke with them for about 15mins. We didn’t want to ask them too much but they said she asked “how does school support you to be the best you can be?”
At the end of Day 2 she asked, is there anything else you’d like to show or tell me?
- EYFS Learning Journals
- Picture News Portfolio – she loved this!
- PSHE Diaries
- Our own parental questionnaires which had many more responses compared to the 42 on parent view
- Governing Body Minutes to show challenge
- Our social media sites
- Our recent awards, PE, ArtsMark, Social Media, Behaviour, Equality Mark etc
She briefly looked through all these things – I think mostly to appease me.
EXTRAS
The inspector said that she’d taken close notice of displays as evidence of ethos and curriculum content.
The inspector did not go outside at all on day 1. I had to ask her to go outside on Day 2 to see how the children interacted at lunchtime/play time.
The inspector did not speak to any parents.
The ks2 staff and children didn’t even see the inspector until day 2.
She constantly carried around her little laptop and typed everything on that.
Communication was good and she kept in touch with me all the time.
I was welcome to ‘shadow’ her for the whole inspection and go wherever she was – I didn’t but I hovered near.
We made the inspection sign an ‘acceptable use agreement’ for logging onto our wifi and asked her to ‘forget’ the network before she left.
| School: ; Inspection number ……..
October 2019 |
Subjects for deep dives: Early reading and phonics, mathematics, history
| Day 1 | |
| 8.00 | Arrival and EEG set up |
| 8.10 | Meet senior leaders – confirm inspection timetable and arrangements for inspection |
| 8.20 | Meet with curriculum leads for early reading and phonics and history
– including review of curriculum plans and schemes of work & offer for SEND and disadvantaged pupils |
| SCR check and SG discussion | |
| Lesson visits: phonics; reading in EYs and KS1, support groups
9am – Phonics in Year 2 10.30am – Phonics in Year 1 11am – Phonics in Reception. |
|
| 10.30 | Reflection and sync. |
| Meet pupils from phonics sessions and hear them read (x6 pupils)
(include discussion about bullying and behaviour) |
|
| Summaries – safeguarding | |
| Meet teachers and TAs observed in phonics / early reading (also consider workload and CPD) | |
| 12.30 | Meet with LA school improvement adviser |
| 12.40 | Summaries for deep dive – phonics and reading |
| 13.00 | Lunch / KIT meeting with HT |
| 13.20 | Lesson visits – deep dive in History – including visit to EYs |
| Meet pupils from History lessons (x6) with their books | |
| 14.55 | Observe story time across the school |
| Summaries – other key judgement areas | |
| 15.20 | Meet teachers observed in History and sharing stories |
| 15.40 | Joint work scrutiny – reading and history |
| 16.15 | Summaries and day 1 hypotheses |
| 17.20 | Meeting with senior leaders and planning for day 2 |
| Day 2 | |
| 8.00 | KIT with senior leaders |
| 8.15 | Meeting with maths leader – including offer for SEND and disadvantaged pupils
9am – Year 1 9.30am – Year 2 10am – EYFS |
| Meeting with leaders focusing on staff development, policy and quality assurance, including EYs | |
| 10.20 | EEG summaries |
| 10.30 | Observe break-time and talk with pupils about bullying / behaviour |
| Lesson visits- mathematics
10.50am – Year 6 11.20am – Year 5 11.50am – Year 4 |
|
| 12.30 | Meeting with staff observed in maths lessons (focus on workload and PD) |
| 13.00 | EEG summaries |
| Lunch and KIT meeting | |
| Meeting with SENDCo | |
| Discussion with pupils | |
| 14.45 | Reflection / EEG summaries and synchronise |
| 16.30 | Team Meeting |
| 17.30 | Feedback |
She stuck very closely to this!
Thank you so much to Sarah White @SarahWh02665827 Headteacher of Coates Lane Primary, in Barnoldswick.
The inspection report is here: https://files.api.ofsted.gov.uk/v1/file/50122865