10 things teachers need to know about Ofsted"s annual report

Sir Michael Wilshaw has called for crucial stage one exams to be reintroduced. Photograph: John Stillwell/PA

The country’s “two nation training method” was the focus of Sir Michael Wilshaw’s speech on Ofsted’s yearly report.

The chief inspector said Ofsted’s findings informed the tale of a nation divided into fortunate and unlucky children: “The fortunate bad youngster is born in the proper postcode, goes to the proper school and has the widest options. The unlucky poor kid does not.”

Under are some of the important findings of the report and ways that Wilshaw plans to address the regional variations in schooling.

No-discover inspections: From January, inspectors will make no-observe visits to colleges where behaviour has been recognized as a distinct concern. Inspectors will also target much more on culture and behaviour when inspecting schools in the coming yr.

Get in touch with for a lot more external testing: Wilshaw would like to see the government reintroduce external testing at the end of key stage 1 and at crucial stage 3.

In his speech he explained that in primary schools the highest proportion of great teachers have been noticed in yr 6. He believes that if formal testing was reintroduced there would be a far better distribution of employees across colleges. He highlighted that one of the ideal European performers in the Pisa rankings was Poland, which has launched a lot more national testing.

He said: “Speak to any great headteacher and they will inform you it was a blunder to abolish these tests. If we are severe about raising specifications and catching up with the best in the planet, we want to know how pupils are undertaking at seven, 11, 14 and sixteen.”

Techniques to increase English lessons: A single suggestion was that pupils should be encouraged to read through for pleasure far more. The report explained some colleges have been distracted by national exams, which do not usually assess pupils’ wider studying capabilities well.

Too minor time to comprehensive writing duties and options for extended creating had been marked as characteristics of English lessons that essential improvement. Courses also required to target a lot more on innovative duties and show pupils the sensible benefits of what they learn, this kind of as how poetry contributes to their emotional advancement.

Signs of a excellent leader: The report mentioned the most productive leaders developed an open and constructively difficult climate in their college, which encouraged teachers to be honest about the regions they essential to boost. It also explained that teachers in these large doing colleges were motivated to increase due to the fact shell out, other rewards and promotion had been linked to the top quality of their teaching.

Widespread misconceptions about good teaching: A belief that the faster the lesson, the far better the learning was a frequent misconception of excellent teaching. The report stated that although pace is important, as pupils could get rid of concentration in a slow lesson, teachers concentrate as well typically on the pace of the action rather than the volume of understanding.

Lessons that cram too many pursuits into a session had been also criticised, as pupils typically do not full tasks and studying is not consolidated or extended.

Leaders ought to get portion in inspections: Gaining an insight into how other schools operate and a greater comprehending of the inspection process have been between the rewards talked about by college leaders who took element in Ofsted inspections. They also said that it helped them create their instructor assessment abilities and determine locations for improvement.

Characteristics of bad maths educating: As well typically maths teachers centered on the how with no addressing the why the report mentioned. In weak maths lessons teachers usually demonstrated a standard technique and gave ideas on how to stay away from producing problems, which did minor to strengthen pupils’ comprehending of the topic and meant they did not have a safe basis on which to develop new studying.

Very best practice needs to be shared across the nation far more: “We need to guarantee that a lot more of our ideal teachers and college leaders are incentivised to go to the regions that want them most,” stated Wilshaw. He believes that the government ought to urgently think about the concept of introducing Nationwide Services Teachers to assistance “mediocre” colleges.

He mentioned: “We must boost the way we nurture the leaders of tomorrow. If blue-chip firms like Marks and Spencer and BP can identify, train and assistance promising candidates more than many years, why cannot we do the same in our education program?”

Important features of inadequate colleges: In a quarter of schools judged inadequate, the headteacher had been in the submit for much less than three many years and had not adapted nicely to the issues of their new position. In another half of the colleges, the headteacher was long-established or had left the college in the number of months prior to its inspection.

Holding academies to account: To ensure that people responsible for the a lot of academies in multi-academy trusts are held to account, Wilshaw mentioned Ofsted will conduct focused inspections on the colleges in the weaker academy chains.

10 things teachers need to know about Ofsted"s annual report