#EIF2019 The experience of a primary subject leader.
‘Hi Paul, We’re primary, two form entry. Three inspectors for the first day, two for the second. I’m a subject lead in foundation subjects. They did deep dives into history science, then reading and maths. With a “shallow dive” into PE and phonics.
We’ve just had a two day section 5 inspection. While I feel that the overall judgement is probably fair given where we are on our journey with our wider curriculum, the deep dive aspects were horrendous for subject leads. The questioning was really intense, it was very apparent that we were only to answer the questions directly. They were totally uninterested in hearing us talk around our subjects, cutting us off a couple of times. We all felt totally inadequate for not having spent much time (four weeks in) doing learning walks and book scrutinies for our subjects (history and science). We also found them typing on laptops to be really distracting.
They only observed lessons for no more than a couple of minutes at a time. I was asked for a lower ability child who probably wouldn’t achieve the phonics screening check for the inspector to read with. He said that the child had really struggled and could not blend even CVC words. He said he wanted to see her receive an intervention the next day, which was fine, but he didn’t turn up to watch the intervention despite it being on his timetable. Had he turned up, he would’ve seen the child segmenting and blending beautifully. Perhaps they need to understand that taking a 5 year old girl that has never met him before to a small room, expecting her to read (while looking very serious in a suit) is not conducive to a good reading session.
Overall, subject leaders who were chosen for a deep dive, were made to feel really terrible about their areas of the curriculum. I hope Ofsted realise that we are not paid for this, have multiple subjects to lead and do not receive any extra time.’
I’m sure this will be useful to many and may act as a warning too. I’m very grateful for the information. You know who you are and you’ll remain anonymous!