The goal of training is not to attain an ‘outstanding’ grade from Ofsted. There are many great programs and practices in our colleges which do, and need to proceed to, accomplish wonderful items for our most vulnerable students, even however they never immediately inform or affect the school’s report. Nonetheless, colleges all as well often focus on Ofsted inspections to the detriment of anything at all that doesn’t impact it. This obsession can trigger upswings in employees anxiety levels.
The new Ofsted framework divides into 4 locations: achievement, quality of teaching, behaviour and safety of pupils and good quality of leadership and management. Not too long ago, there is also been a lot interest on the certain areas of spiritual, moral, social and cultural improvement (SMSC) and the pupil premium.
Numerous specific educational wants co-ordinators (Sencos) have commented on the positives of the new framework. It does not contain a distinct special educational demands (SEN) or inclusion group for the inspection, but as an alternative integrates inclusion into all four key areas. By highlighting the progress of all inclusion cohorts across yr groups and departments, it reshapes the role of the Senco as important to a school’s achievement as a entire. Nevertheless, whilst it now appears that inspectors will focus much less on inclusion or SEN as a division, the reality that it crops up so broadly helps make it much more crucial than ever.
One of the most typical inquiries I get is: what do I have to do to put together for the inspection? Here are 7 methods to help you as a Senco get the outstanding comments that you deserve.
Know your data
Realize and summarise the method by which you determine college students with different demands. Your assessment method paperwork may incorporate a 1-page summary of all assessments you carry out, your thresholds and the conditions under which you may use them. Ensure all your paperwork about interventions clarify your baseline measurements and your typical review processes. Continuously update your provision map and make it accessible to all teachers who would benefit from this information. Make sure that your inclusion groups (such as the SEN cohort) meet or exceed their target grades and, where they will not, give convincing reasons and proof for why this took place.
Know your interventions
Create a list of all your interventions with SEN students. Summarise their functions, who they are for, how often you check their accomplishment and the number of students who have progressed simply because of them. Ray, a Senco in a greater-than-regular inner city secondary college, when showed me reams of papers cataloguing each and every detail about every single provision. I was immensely impressed, but it took me a lot more than two hours to get through it all and by the end my head was spinning. With each other, Ray and I identified a clear and concise technique to demonstrating a snapshot of summarised information.
A couple of months later on he told me that his Ofsted inspector felt reassured that he had all of the comprehensive paperwork, because it backed up his summary, but they honed in on how nicely he grasped the larger picture and our summary document gave them exactly that. It is quite unlikely that your inspector will be inclined to invest two hrs studying via all of your paperwork.
Show the good quality of inclusion in the class
How broadly is differentiation practised and how can you demonstrate its efficacy? Demonstrate that this is looked for in paperwork like your teaching for learning policy and formal observations. If possible, cite some of individuals final results. You will also achieve loads of feedback about this on a normal basis via teaching assistants (TA) and what students inform them. The quality of inclusion is most typically measured by whether students make progress or not.
Demonstrate the strengths of your TAs
Justify how they are employed by listing the statement hours and how you fill them. Hold this probably really long document to a summary. It ought to be sufficiently clear that an inspector can consider a quick glance and know that you know what you are undertaking. Demonstrate that information you consist of about their optimistic influence have been gleaned via a range of approaches – that might contain observations, line management and help meetings.
Lisa, a major school Senco, explained that all of her TAs often support brilliantly in the classroom. I asked her how she knew this, and she replied that every time she did an observation they followed all the protocols. We discussed the limiting nature of observations: the Hawthorn Effect describes how people modify their behaviours when they are being watched. After a couple of weeks, Lisa told me that feedback she had gained from students and teachers revealed that some TAs were working even far better than she could see by means of observations, and she was ready to address a couple of worries as nicely.
Tackle the pastoral concerns affecting SEN
Guarantee that the attendance, lateness, exclusion and bullying of your SEN students are restricted and any difficulties are decreasing. The place there are difficulties, be open about them and show how you are dealing with them. I presume that every single surroundings that manages youngsters will have pastoral problems of some sort, from behaviour considerations to social issues to attendance.
It would be unrealistic for a college to preserve that it had no challenges at all, so your best approach is to be open and display what you have experimented with to do even if it has not worked. Peter, a Senco in an outstanding school, advised me he was worried about ten instances that he felt would allow his complete SEN technique down. I advised we should use a couple of his largest failure situations as his situation studies and soon after some persuasion he agreed.
The Ofsted inspector that looked at the circumstances gave Peter positive feedback. He mentioned that even however the outcomes were not ideal, the cases demonstrated the efforts made by the college and how staff had gone beyond the contact of duty. At times a failed situation can in fact be a way of displaying the very good a college tries to do.
Prepare your Ofsted pack
Existing the pack with diligence – make certain that it looks like a essential document for the college. Guide the inspectors to your strengths, do not wait for them to ask. Contain the following paperwork:
• Two to 4 case research
• Summary of assessment procedures and evaluation of pupils
• Evaluation of interventions
• Pupil premium
• Suggestions from pupils and dad and mom
• SEN CPD and affect
• Evidence of observations – top quality of educating
Also, prepare for the most typically asked questions by inspectors, which consist of:
• How do you function with companies?
• What does inclusion suggest to your college and how does it match into the college improvement programme?
• How do you deal with social, emotional and behavioural issues, as nicely as pastoral matters?
• How do you justify your spending budget?
• How effective are your techniques of communication about SEN students?
Inform and involve your governors
The worth and sum of governor involvement differs broadly from school to school. By way of the new framework, Ofsted is keen to guarantee that your board of governors is concerned with SEN and inclusion, and the inspector will most probably interview your link governor. In a preparatory meeting with your governor, you ought to introduce them to the paperwork listed over in the earlier phase and inquire that they evaluation them cautiously and come back with any queries. At a second, stick to-up meeting make certain that the governor entirely understands the materials. If you can provide evidence that these two meetings took place, you can show that your governors are informed and concerned.
It is understandable – and universal – to be anxious about your school’s Ofsted inspection. All Sencos I have worked with locate it to be a very demanding knowledge. Alternatively, see the planning procedure as an possibility to share with your senior leadership staff and board of governors your team’s superb work, and present the strategies in place to plug any gaps. Practically each and every Senco I have worked with does brilliant function and has a lot to be proud of. So, be concerned much less, demonstrate the positives, and never ever forget why you chose this job in the initial spot.
Daniel Sobel is founder of Inclusion Expert and an schooling advisor. He tweets via @Inclusionexpert. He is working with the University of East London to create a neighborhood of colleges across the nation who can learn from every single other in the endeavour to shift social migration.
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Seven steps to Ofsted success for Sencos
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