OFSTED has decided that it will no longer grade individual
lessons when it undertakes school assessments.
Instead there will be a “meeting of minds” once lessons have been
observed where the inspectors will as a whole, assess where there have been
seen to be any causes for concern.
Apparently, this change will include a meeting with the Headteacher to
discuss their observations and seek an understanding if the Head agrees with
the findings. If that isn’t quite
radical enough for you, then how about the suggestion of scrapping their
assessment of “quality of teaching”? The
criticism that their assessment in this regard merely mirrors what the school
is attaining in grades, appears to be gaining some traction.
What OFSTED do take into account when they are evaluating
the quality of learning over time at any school are the views of parents, staff
and pupils. This is all in stark
contrast to how driving instructors are assessed. An examiner from the DVSA sits in the back
seat and observes a 45 minute driving lesson with a pupil (this “pupil” does
not need to be a paying pupil or indeed ever to have had any previous lessons
with the instructor, in fact the pupil can even be a qualified driver). Once the driving lesson is completed, the
examiner calls the driving instructor into an office where their grade is given
to them with a short explanation of why (unlike above, there is no desire here
to seek an understanding if the instructor agrees with the findings), and the
driving instructor lives and dies in their business with that grade until the
next assessment. That said, the public
awareness of driving instructors’ grades is minimal compared to their awareness
of a schools OFSTED inspection grade. In
6 years I have never had anyone ever question my grade. All of us can draw our own conclusions as to
why that might be the case.
Crucially though, what the assessment most certainly does
not take into account are the views of the pupil (or parents as in the case of a
17 year old pupil who is having driving lessons financed by parents). The examiner will undoubtedly observe the
pupil at all times of the “driving lesson” but they do not ask a single question
of the pupil, they do not seek clarity of understanding, enjoyment, attainment,
confidence, or satisfaction. Worse than
that though, as was demonstrated on my own recent assessment, the examiner is
unwilling (and seemingly unable) to differentiate their assessment as
appropriate for the “pupil”. For
example, my pupil was a 62 year old retired English teacher. I was marked down on the assessment criteria
of “Did the trainer ensure that the pupil fully understood how the
responsibility for risk would be shared?”
My error was that before I drove off from the Test Centre to find a
suitable place for my pupil’s driving lesson, despite myself turning and checking
that the examiner in the back had put his seat belt on, I did not explain to my
62 year old pupil the importance and necessity of such a check. The reason I was given for being given a zero
mark on this was because I needed to bear in mind that 17 year old pupils will
not necessarily be aware of such matters.
So despite never having a single collision (of any kind) in my driving
school cars in 6 years of giving driving lessons, I find myself being marked
down on the subject of “Risk Management” because I failed to treat my 62 year
old pupil like a 17 year old.
Am I bitter? You bet
I am. In much the same way that I
imagine there will be hundreds (if not thousands) of bitter teachers across the
UK who were marked down by an inspector on an OFSTED when they were grading
individual lessons. But breathe easy, as
from tomorrow (01/09/2014), that will no longer be the case for any teachers in
schools.
Related articles: http://news.tes.co.uk/b/ofsted-watch/2014/08/29/ofsted-scraps-grades-for-individual-lessons.aspx
http://www.ofsted.gov.uk/resources/school-inspection-handbook
BIG TOM Driving School 0800 689 4174
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