OFSTED
Ofsted is to give children a fair deal and ensure consistency across England to ensure children have an outstanding education
Nicol Mere headteacher looks through Ofsted reports and highlights the key points for their school
Reducing Staff Workload
Organisation and priorities are key
Make a difference:
Marking
Planning
Data
Appraisal
NQT Support
Planning
Why plan?
Planning is needed / valuable and can be in any form - written / typed, etc.
Reduction in planning - no excessive planning, asking for support
Planning is critical and underpins effective teaching
Creating detailed written plans can become a 'box-ticking' exercise and create unnecessary workload - such daily or weekly plans should not be a routine expectation
Schools should spend time planning collaboratively, and engage with a professional body of knowledge and quality-assured resources, teachers perhaps plan separate subjects and discuss together
Greater flexibility to accommodate different subject and phase demands
Marking
In the Wigan West area, 15 schools looked at how they could reduce workload by carrying out the recommendations of the Independent Review
Project Outline
All the participating schools agreed to follow the same project structure: a review of current practice across the WOWS consortium of schools
Evaluate current practice against the 3 principles of effective marking identified in the final report of the working group:
meaningful
manageable
motivating
The new approaches varied across the schools, but included activities such as:
using marking codes
highlighting learning objectives
verbal feedback during lesson time
every school has a marking policy
peer assessment
The modified approaches were evaluated against their impact and effectiveness in achieving the 3 principles
Outcomes
Gains in reduced workload were seen in every school. There was a dramatic reduction in the time spent marking and recording, and an improvement in teacher morale
The application of the principles contained in the workload report helped to relieve the burden of marking processes
There was no negative impact on pupils as a result of the changes, and some schools reported gains
Every school has a marking policy; every teacher must follow this. Marking policy is decided by SLT. Nicol Mere use marking codes
The quantity of feedback should not be confused with the quality
Schools should review their practice with the aim of shrinking the importance marking has gained over other forms of feedback and stopping unnecessary and burdensome practice
There is no 'one-size-fits-all' approach. A balance needs to be struck between a core and consistent approach and trusting teachers to focus on what is best for their pupils and circumstances
All marking should be meaningful, manageable and motivating
Data
At each time in the year; Christmas, Spring, Summer; assess the children and formulate data from these assessments - teachers shouldn't be manipulating / calculating this data - this is the responsibility of data management / SLT
Important - reduces workload
Appraisal
All teachers appraised. At the beginning of the year, teacher and SLT set targets for the year ahead. Making sure the appraisal is not lengthy and difficult
Teacher is observed throughout the year to make sure they are meeting appraisal. SLT is responsible for making sure there is no pressure or too much hard work for the teachers to meet this appraisal
NQT Support