What inspectors look for in children’s feedback

It doesn’t matter if you make a hash of a lesson when Ofsted is watching, it’s children’s books that are the real measure of your teaching, says Julie Price-Grimshaw...

There was a time when ‘work scrutiny’ was carried out for a single purpose: to check that books had been marked. We would flick through looking for red pen. It was quite rare to look in great detail at the marking, or even the work itself.

How things have changed. Book scrutiny has become more and more important, not just as part of monitoring but also as an inspection activity. Since September, there have been no grades awarded following lesson observations during inspections. But pupils’ books, particularly in core subjects, form a vital part of inspection evidence; it’s reasonable to say that they are seen as a direct reflection of the quality of teaching over time. When I’m working with schools, I tell teachers not to lose any sleep over observed lessons during inspections. If you’re being observed and the wheels fall off – and let’s face it, it can happen to any of us – your pupils’ books should be able to tell the story of typicality. However, an Oscar-winning performance in front of an inspector will not necessarily impress if the books suggest the lesson is a ‘one off’ in terms of quality.

So what can we gain from looking at pupils’ books? Let’s start with marking and feedback. We can look at the frequency of marking and also the quality of the advice being given. But what really matters, more than anything, is the impact. Is it really making a difference to pupils’ work? Are errors being identified – and if so, what happens as a result? A few weeks ago I saw the phrase ‘You need to take more care with your capital letters’ written in a pupil’s book in October. The same phrase appeared in every piece of marking since then, up until February and wasn’t having the desired effect. I also see numerous examples of ‘ticks’ on pupils’ work that contains errors, particularly in maths. Some teachers see the tick as a code for ‘I’ve seen this work’. Pupils, however, see it as an endorsement – ‘You got this right’ – so it’s a problem if he or she actually didn’t.

Then there’s pupils’ response to marking. How I wish I’d bought shares in a company that makes green and purple pens. One school was so proud of its approach that they urged the inspector to mention the ‘purple pen of progress’ in the inspection report. This request was turned down on the basis that it was open to misinterpretation by some members of the public who may believe that it referred to a magic pen, which corrected errors as you wrote – (now there’s something I would buy shares in). However, it’s not the colour that counts, once again it’s all about the impact. If it’s making a difference, it’s great. If not, then we are urged to consider why not. If pupil response consists of a comment such as ‘Thanks, Miss. I will do next time’ – written in any colour – then we have to look at whether this is really making a difference. However, pupil response in the form of re-drafting or reworking will often show real improvements.

Next we have the world of peer and self-assessment. Again, it’s about the impact. I recently saw a class of children assessing each other’s work in English, typically a couple of sentences that they had taken 15 minutes to write. It took another 15 minutes to go through the peer assessment process, with the irony that almost every comment included, ‘You could improve your work by finishing it.’

Pupils’ books tell us about the level of challenge in the tasks set. They show us whether or not pupils are taking pride in their work. They can show us the journey that pupils are on in developing their skills, reflecting progress over time.

So perhaps we all need to look at our pupils’ books with fresh eyes: what do they tell us about learning and progress? And what do they say about the quality of our teaching? If we can be confident about our books, then there’s no need to put on a special show for inspectors – and, in the unfortunate event of the wheels falling off in the observed lesson, we’ve got the evidence of learning over time.

Julie’s book, Self-propelled learning and effective teaching, is available on Amazon. It examines dozens of teaching strategies to discover what works and what doesn’t. 

About the author

Julie Price Grimshaw is a teacher, teacher trainer, and education consultant. She has taught primary and secondary and has been involved in school inspections since 2001. selfpropelledlearning.co.uk