Where to go from inadequate?

I attended a fast track teaching meeting yesterday where I was asked to talk about my experiences post Ofsted. A copy of the summary can be found here.

The word 'inadequate' bring out interesting reactions in people. As mentioned before, the reult wasn;t surprising. However, we are a full 4 months on now and progress in the department is going well.

On reflection that key areas that are so important to any department are developing staff and developing the curriculum. Coupled to this, the relationship between the Curriculum Leader and Senior Leadership line manager is really important. There are excellent monitoring strategies in place in this school - but that didn't stop the department from failing.

Staff relationships are vital. By trailing my ideas at this school before passing them onto the department I have proven that they work HERE. This has gained the respect and trust of colleagues and allowed me to iron out any issues. I'm also introduced a system of peer observation where no judgements are made - we pop into other classrooms in order to help each other out as well as picking up some excellent tips. As a result I have a very funny story about teaching Latitude, but I'm afraid that'll have to remain a pub story for now!

In addition it has been really important to prioritise. Taking this job on has given a fresh perspective to my thinking. How can we demand and expect (as we should) that GIS is in every school when the infrastructure and more importantly the training aren't there. Mush training is aimed at teachers who are already computer literate. Also - what happens to those school in which there is a 2 year KS3?

Anyhow, less of the ranting and back to the planning! It's a busy week next week with the SPC tomorrow, twilight training and standardisation next week. Yes it's exam marking time again - kermit only knows why I say yes every year!

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David Rogers

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