Lesson observations

Traditional lesson observations make teachers feel like failures or fakes, says Lizzie Williams. Which is why she developed a better way to improve teaching standards...

As both a teacher and school leader, I have felt dissatisfied with the process of lesson observations for many years. As a teacher, I often succumbed to the pressure to produce an ‘all-singing-all-dancing’ lesson when observed, even though I knew my ‘performance’ didn’t necessarily reflect the reality of my teaching. If deemed ‘satisfactory’ or worse, I felt hopeless. How could I work any harder? If awarded the elusive ‘outstanding’, I often felt like a fake. Moreover, I frequently found the feedback frustrating, an overwhelming array of targets and a detailed dissection of a lesson I would never again teach.

As a deputy headteacher, I also experienced frustration – but from the opposite side of the process. As well as being timeconsuming, observing and feeding back on lessons that don’t reflect day-to-day practice is futile. Ultimately, the processwrongly focuses on improving performance, rather than improving teaching.

The motivation to change this in my school was sparked back in 2012 when I was fortunate enough to participate in a study tourto New York. There I attended a seminar led by Doug Lemov who, with his colleague Paul Bambrick-Santoyo, has developed aninteresting approach to lesson observation and feedback, and it was the implementation of this model – Instructional Leadership– that came to form my Impact Initiative project, a requirement for the Future Leaders programme.

Taking this model back to my school, I put in place our current system in which teachers are observed weekly at a pre-agreedtime, for a short period of 10-15 minutes. Each observation is followed by a brief coaching session where they are set just onesuccinct target. Lessons aren’t graded, the teacher often collaboratively identifies the action step with his or her coach and,perhaps most importantly, the discussion and practice that follows focuses on how this can be achieved.

Don’t get me wrong – the transfer to this technique was not easy. In fact, initially, it was a logistical nightmare.

Fifteen observation and feedback sessions every week were overwhelming, and my productivity in other areas dropped as a result of mytimetable having become so fragmented. However, over time, I improved my efficiency and developed new strategies to deal withthis. I now note down precise details from the lessons I observe, such as what specific pupils have said, which later helpsreconnect the teacher and me to that moment in his or her lesson. As well as saving time by typing up feed back during theobservation, I video the lesson on occasion so teachers can reflect on how it went.

It also needed to work for all our teachers, and not be yet another task in an otherwise long week. I carefully scheduled allthe feedback sessions to take place within the school day and always within 24 hours of the observation.

We were soon making great progress. Although most initially found it fairly stressful to be observed so frequently, their mindsets quickly changed as they realised it was a great opportunity to develop. As a result, trust has grown across our team.Teachers who had at first asked me to observe them teaching lessons in which they felt confident now began sign-posting metowards aspects of teaching they were struggling with.

Of course, things don’t always go to plan, and sometimes I observe parts of lessons that don’t go well. But it doesn’t matter,because one lesson forms only a small part of what I see over time. This is in stark contrast to the traditional model whereteachers often feel their lesson grade is like a badge of identity that cannot be changed until the next gruelling round ofobservations. 

Now, over a year later, Instructional Leadership is well-established across the school. Teaching is consistently high-quality, as verified by Ofsted this June, and the model has grown trust and collaboration throughout the team, with teachers now displaying their weekly targets on their classroom doors and inviting feedback from their peers. Ultimately, it’s a strategy that has benefited both teaching and learning and relationships throughout the school, and it’s one in which I would strongly encourage other senior leaders to invest.

Future Leaders (future-leaders.org.uk) is a leadership development programme for aspiring headteachers of challenging schools. It offers a residency year, personalised coaching and peer-support through a network of more than 300 Future Leaders. 

To apply, nominate a colleague, or find out more about the programme, please visit bit.ly/teachprimary_fl

About the author

Lizzie Williams joined the Future Leaders programme in 2012. She has been in primary education in London for 10 years and is currently deputy headteacher at King Solomon Academy in Westminster.