We know how busy teachers and school leaders are, and when it comes to understanding Ofsted’s frameworks, we wanted to do the leg work for you, breaking it down into manageable chunks. The 2019 Ofsted framework revealed changes (and things that have stayed the same) that will definitely impact expectations of schools’ performance.

So why the big change anyway? 

Well, Ofsted felt that there had been some narrowing of the curriculum and that high quality learning opportunities weren’t necessarily being afforded to all children in all subjects.

They’d mentioned schools turning into exam factories and, to be fair to them, actually did some research to back up their findings.

What did Ofsted find?

They found that often a tick-box approach had been adopted for foundation subjects, checking off NC objectives rather than having a clear progression of skills that consistently taught throughout the school.

In the same report, they mentioned the importance of staff subject knowledge, specifically:

• Subject knowledge ensured both the depth of coverage and an understanding of content sequencing that related to the subject discipline.
• Strong subject knowledge often resulted in a higher overall curriculum quality score, because its impact on curriculum design and pupils’ knowledge, skills and understanding was particularly noticeable by inspectors.

(Although not noted was the fact that being an expert in 13 subjects and finding the time to teach them all in depth is pretty challenging to say the least.)

What’s in the 2019 framework?

Ofsted released a draft version of the new inspection framework last week. You can either read the Ofsted inspection framework in full if you need to OR here’s our summary:

There is a lot of focus on ensuring learners are taught all subjects across the curriculum and that teachers, supported by school leaders, have the subject knowledge to teach and assess these effectively.

Here are the five headers of the framework with a brief overview of what they cover:

Quality of education

• Curriculum is ambitious and gives all learners the knowledge and cultural capital they need to succeed in life; curriculum is coherently planned and sequenced; same ambitions for all learners; learners study full curriculum.
• Implementation: Teachers have good subject knowledge with support from leaders; teachers present subjects clearly and identify misconceptions; taught to remember in the long term; use assessment effectively; environment, resources and materials all conducive to positive learning; rigorous teaching of reading, mentioning reading for pleasure and phonics.
• Effective learning across the curriculum (where relevant, this is reflected in test results; learners ready for next phase in life; learner read widely).

Behaviour and attitudes

• High expectations; positive attitudes: show resilience
• High attendance and punctual
• Positive, respectful relationships: learners feel safe

Personal development

• Curriculum extends beyond the academic, technical or vocational
• Curriculum covers pupil wellbeing
• Prepares learners for next steps
• Prepares them for life in modern Britain – British values

Leadership and Management

• Clear, ambitious vision
• Improve staff’s subject, pedagogical and pedagogical content knowledge
• Aim to ensure all learners finish school: avoid off-rolling
• Engage with learners and community
• Engage with staff: help manage workload
• Protect staff from bullying
• Governors: have clear vision and hold leaders to account; ensure fulfilling statutory duties
• Effective and comprehensive safeguarding procedure

Arrangement for different types of provision

• Early Years
• Non-Association Independent Schools
• Schools with early years settings
• Schools with sixth forms
• Settings with residential and boarding provision
• Further education and skills provision

Key takeaways from the 2019 Ofsted framework

• Children must be accessing the full curriculum
• Teacher subject knowledge should be secure in each subject
• There should be clear progression in each subject
• Staff and pupil wellbeing should be prioritised
• Reading skills and enjoyment are of great importance

How Kapow Primary Can Help

At Kapow Primary, we can help schools teach a broad and balanced curriculum and this is particularly important because we offer exactly the kind of support and guidance that Ofsted is looking for. Our team of subject specialists can help teachers to develop the skills they need to teach specialist subjects with confidence. Teachers will be empowered with on-demand access to 700+ inspiring demo videos and specialist lesson plans such, as well as adaptable schemes of work for Art and Design, Music, French, Computing, RSE and DT to help ensure progression of skills whilst building teacher subject knowledge. You can also read more about Ofsted Deep Dives here.