As a teacher you will be aware of the new OFSTED Framework and its introduction of the ‘Deep Dive’. The Deep Dive is going to become a method of scrutinising departments to establish the quality of the curriculum the school offers. Get the Deep Dive right and it will be a good step towards a positive OFSTED inspection.
As a Performance Coach, I also want to help you benefit personally from reading this, so I’m also going to offer some advice of how you can do a Deep Dive into your own life. OK, there won’t be an OFSTED inspection knocking on your door, but think of it as a way of raising your own standards.
First of all, a Deep Dive could be any subject but may focus on the weakest and strongest subjects in the school. Whatever happens, assume they are coming for you.
Before I go on, here’s a snippet from OFSTED’s ‘Inspecting The Curriculum’ document.
Deep dive: then, a ‘deep dive’, which involves gathering evidence on the curriculum intent, implementation and impact over a sample of subjects, topics or aspects. This is done in collaboration with leaders, teachers and pupils. The intent of the deep dive is to seek to interrogate and establish a coherent evidence base on quality of education.
OFSTED’s Deep Dive and Curriculum Plans
In preparation for OFSTED’s Deep Dive, they will speak to your Headteacher for about 90 minutes. They will get an overview of what is taught in school and the rationale for this. The crucial part to this is about the intention of the curriculum. Why should they study what they study?
The curriculum is your road map and it must take the students on a journey that best suits their needs and desires. There will be the school’s overall curriculum intentions but then each subject will have their own. Do you know the topics taught in your subject or the subjects you lead? Do you know why you teach what you do? Certainly asking why students may study a particular place in Geography or a key historical event in History could be one route the inspectors take. Your responses may be that the particular Geography case study links to the nearest city where some people live, or possibly a certain aspect of World War 1 because there was a regiment which came from the local area. Should the students be learning about this? Will it create more purpose to your curriculum?
So what about your own curriculum?
Have you mapped out the journey you are going on in life? Do you even know where you are going? As with the school Curriculum Intent, what is the intention of what you are doing now?
Too many of my clients have not been sure which direction they want to go in. For this we should be thinking about the second habit taken from Steven Covey’s 7 Habits of Highly Effective People; ‘Begin With The End In Mind’. If you don’t know where you are going, you will never get there. You can access further information on Habit 2 by clicking here.
With your personal curriculum intent, start from where you want to be and work backwards. In my coaching role, one of the main starting activities I do is to speak with the client about where they want to be and it would be my role to help them achieve this. You can find more information about choosing your coach and the coaching process by clicking here.
OFSTED’s Deep Dive with the Curriculum Leaders
Once OFSTED has established the intent of the curriculum the school offers, they will be in and possibly sitting down to speak with you. So, what do they want to know?
Firstly, they will want to know how your curriculum meets the National Curriculum. Where would certain topics in your subject be taught? Do you know the answer to this? (I’m sure there is a suitable Emoji to include here). You may want to have a cross referencing key on your Schemes of Learning to help you with this. Do be aware that if you are an academy you do not need to follow the National Curriculum, but OFSTED do state any curriculum should be ‘Broad and Balanced'.
Something to note here is that there is a shift from the progress and attainment aspect of your time with the inspector. Be clear with your curriculum, and the rest should fall into place.
So can you withstand scrutiny of your life’s journey?
Ok, so what about you? Can we learn from an inspection like this? As a coach, I would discuss the goals (intent) and the plans they had to reach them (curriculum). Working with a client I would be questioning where in their lives would they be making changes. In your Life Curriculum, I would recommend you put in the key stages whereby you can achieve smaller goals to help you reach your overarching main goal.
Check out one of my previous posts on goal setting questions. This should give you some really good starter points to help get you on your way. Click here to access it.
OFSTED’s Deep Dive to observe Teaching and Learning.
As a Middle Leader, I would certainly have Teaching and Learning as the main focus of the monitoring I do day to day. When it comes to observations, I don’t like the single lesson observation each term. Personally I would rather spend 5 to 10 minutes each week in the classroom, then share with the teacher what I liked and a target they could work on in the following week. This rapidly improves a teacher’s practise. It’s all about small incremental improvements.
It’s therefore important to have developed this habit of going into lessons and getting a feel for what’s happening. If you’re visiting a class with the OFSTED Inspector and it’s the first time in the lesson and it’s not going well, how are you going to feel?
If you are looking for somewhere to go to get excellent teaching and learning techniques, do check out the work of Doug Lemov and his book ‘Teach Like A Champion’.
. I have used this with many of the teacher’s I have trained. Watch out for some future articles about this.
Have you ever done a self-reflection observation?
As I mentioned, one really great way of improving Teaching and Learning is through small observations with feedback. Have you ever taken some time out to do some inward reflection? Actually stopped in complete silence? I heard a story the other day of a CEO who would spend half his working day, sat in his empty office, staring at a blank wall. Why? Because he wants to clear his mind so that he could focus on what needed to be done. Teachers are always working at full steam ahead mode. So how about stop, take some time out, think what is going well and how you can improve.
You may want to try these 20 Ways Sitting in Silence Can Completely Transform Your Life.
OFSTED’s Deep Dive into student books
Ever felt embarrassed when a member of the Senior Leadership Team walks into your class and picks up the only book that hasn’t been marked? Imagine how you would feel with an OFSTED Inspector doing that? (Another suitable Emoji here). Books need to be great! Marking is the bread and butter of teaching. I’ve heard of teachers getting Outstanding because the evidence in the book is so strong that even if the teacher doesn’t turn up to the lesson, their feedback is still great. (Not 100% if this is true, but hopefully you get what I mean from this).
In my opinion, the classroom books tell you the most about the student, subject and teacher. Certainly when books of the same student are compared across different subjects, this can show lack of consistency across the school. This is not good.
If your life was presented as an exercise book, what would it look like?
What can we learn from a book? It shows the knowledge the students show. The fact that they seem to complete all the work. Dates, titles, underlining, highlighting, using the correct equipment etc shows that they turn up and when they do turn up they give it all they have.
So how about you? If your life was a book, what would it tell us? Are you turning up everyday? Are you equipped? Ready for whatever comes your way? Kids are always learning something new. Are you learning something new? At the end of this year, what would your book look like? Would it be full of evidence of the great things you have done or would it be scruffy with pieces missing because you never put in the effort?
Want some marking tips to help you deal with those books? Here you can find 5 quick marking tips to help you when it comes to the OFSTED Deep Dive book check.
OFSTED’s Deep Dive into teacher discussions
I always find the word scrutinise to have negative connotations. I also think that if you are not prepared for the OFSTED Deep Dive then it may well feel very negative. The opportunity now is for you to prepare for the inspection. It’s a chance for you to shine. You will know if you are in an OFSTED window, and if unsure, speak to your leadership team.
In your discussion, you need to be able to talk about what you’re teaching and why? This was mentioned earlier but this can apply to all staff and not just curriculum leaders. You will also need to know where the curriculum will take the students in the future. Possibly further topics, or even links to what the school sees the purpose of its curriculum to be.
Based on what I’ve said, everyone needs to be ready for the inspection. Everyone needs to know what is being taught and why? What we also need to see is that all staff have a good grasp of what is being taught generally across the school. Do you know if your school offers Computer Science? Do you know what they learn in Computer Science? Could there be some linkage between your subject and Computer Science? This could be difficult if you’re not sure what is taught. I know that Computer Science involves logic so I might start dropping the term ‘logic’ into my lessons as a way of solving some form of a problem.
As part of your own Deep Dive, are you aware of what others are doing?
Sometimes I think you shouldn’t compare yourself to others. They have different starting points and different experiences to you. However, I do think you can learn from them. Create connections with people who you would assume are doing better than you. You want to be speaking to, networking with and learning from people who are better than you. This can make us feel like a failure because we can have the mentality of “Look at them, they’re better than me, I’m a failure’. This can happen but it’s only your mind saying this. In fact, what will happen is that you will start to improve yourself and it’s just because you are circulating with people ahead of you.
OFSTED’s Deep Dive into what teaching is all about; the kids
As part of OFSTED’s Deep Dive, the inspectors will want to meet with a variety of students. PP,SEN, HA, LA and anyone in-between. This is why it is so important that your focus on improvement across all areas. You will have certain students who may be disengaged in lessons. Well, these really need to be a focus for you. Some students have underlying issues which may be causing them to be far behind other students. Making sure you know the issues and are fully supported by your SLT may have to be enough for you here. The message here is that all students are important and you want your students to feel important, especially when they are sharing their experiences with the inspectors.
Now in your personal life, what lesson can we take from students meeting OFSTED Inspectors during the Deep Dive? I think it has to be that you treat everyone with respect. You show care and consideration. You appreciate others. The reason I think this is so important is because it boosts endorphins in the brain. It makes us happy. What else makes us happy? The fact that this could be reciprocated.
Click here to get a summary of what schools should expect and what they need to do as part of an Ofsted inspection.
This article was written by Paul Martin. Head Coach at Coaching for Leverage
You can visit the website at www.coachingforleverage.com
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