Co-ordinator Questions

[Guest]

Hey all. Think this is mightily cheeky of me because I don't think this is possibly the right place for it, but our LEA is doing a 3 day review of us next week. As a subject co-ordinator, I've been told that I will be interviewed.

 

Was wondering if any of you had gone through similar, or an Ofsted (as I've never gone through one! I was actually wondering whether you would have any clues as to what they may ask in the interviews - types of questions etc. I'm a little nervous and want to be prepared - so thanks in advance for any clues you may have!

 

x

[catma]

Across FS/KS1/KS2

what are standards of attainment in all year groups and how do you know

How do you track attainment, and what do you do with the info?

Wave mapping/support for sen/eal/G+T - how are children supported at wave 2/3

Use of data to support above - what/how. What groups are underperforming, achieving highly, by gender ethnicity sen eal FSM etc etc and what is being done to ensure equality of access to curriculum/raising attainment of underperforming groups

Quality of resourcing

Creativity in the curriculum - how is it developed

Assessment for learning - policies and practice. What would an inspector see in practice? How are formative assessments built up to make judgements especially in F2/YR2/Yr6

What are the areas of strength in the delivery of the subject across phases/weaknesses. What are your development plans for subject - linke to SEF.

How well do you consider you manage the subject?

 

Hope this helps.

Cx

[mundia]

I think catma has covered everyhting! We had the PER (which i think is the review you are talking about?) last year, and thier main focus for us as a school was progress towards the SIP, and what we were doing in each pahse to develop that (in our case our issues are speakng and listening, handwriting, ICT).

 

They also looked at our progress towards the SEF. have you had input to your school SEF in the FS aspects? make sure that anyhting you say about yourselves can be evidenced.

 

Our review wasnt brillinat, and the person who came into FS unannounced came at a time when the children were doing a short (10 min) whole class jolly phonics and assumed we did that all day!! She went away grumbling that she didnt expect to see ANY whole class/group teaching AT ALL in FS. We were hopping mad to say the least!

 

It wasnt meant to be judgemental it was more of a this is what you need to do to make sure you have a successful OFSTED when they come..sort of thing

 

I do hope you have a much better than we did experience gater.

[Marion]

In reply to the point raised by Mundia about whole class teaching in FS we have JUST had the dreaded OFSTED and about the only thing the inspector asked was could he come back and see some whole class teaching Just shows that no one is sure what should be happening in FS not even the people who are sent to judge us. Can I also add the OFSTED inspectors never spoke to any subject co ordinators this time around (we were last inspected in 1999 when we all had individual interviews) but took all their information from the SEF

Edited February 26, 2006 by MARl0N

[Guest]

Thanks for your replies - gives me something to think about!

 

As re the Ofsted inspection not interviewing subject co-ordinators:

 

I recently completed a Developing the Primary Subject Leader course where we went into the ins and outs of inspections etc (obviously didn't get the answers I wanted re questions posed there though!!!). Anyway, it was disussed that with the new Ofsted regime, there will be new 'Subject specific' inspections carried out in 'sample' schools. Subjects will be inspected on a rolling programme and on a three yearly cycle (if memory is correct). Anyway, if you are doing well in a subject, you may be sampled, if not, possibly, but you may be inspected once every three years on subject specific issues - as new Ofsted regime doesn't allow for the in-depth stuff of years gone by where they were able to get in and have a good look around.