OFSTED

Ofsted loThis section of the site was added in 2020 to meet the request from history subject leaders who were faced with the quite unreasonable demands of the new OFSTED Framework of 2019 (EIF).

In particular, they asked for guidance on how best to prepare for what seem like quite rigorous requirements of deep dive inspections. I have always fought shy of focussing too much on trying to please OFSTED. Surely, if you are doing your job well, your quality will shine through. Unfortunately, my experience of carrying out over 60 inspections for OFSTED at both primary and secondary level I realise that this cannot be taken for granted. My most recent analysis of OFSTED reports under the new Framework reveals a disturbing lack of judgement from inspectors who are saying crass things such Ks1 pupils lack a grasp of terms such as ‘empire’. Yes, I had to read it twice, too.

So now I have decided that history subject leaders deserve to be supported in practical ways on this website. You’ll find help in four categories:

1. The 2019 Framework ( EIF) and how it relates to history, both primary and secondary
2. Deep dives – What deep dives mean for history leaders and how to prepare for them. This includes a comprehensive list of questions that seem to mostly frequently asked.
3. What OFSTED are looking for – This explores in detail the sort of criteria being used to make judgements in history. We are still awaiting the detailed guidance to inspectors which I saw a draft of last year.
4. Recent reports – some verbatim, some summarised to give you a flavour of what seems to be praised and what criticised. You don’t have time to scan these, so I’ve done it for you and will keep it up to date, publishing termly dated digests to see if the issues start changing.

Full sample recent primary history report January 2020

Pupils in your school thoroughly enjoy learning history. They like the enquiry-based approach you take to learning in the history curriculum, as they learn to ask and answer questions about history. Several spoke about the memorable experiences they have had when studying history, for example...
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OFSTED’s view of deep dives in history

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Recently Matthew Purves , the Deputy Director for Schools, set out OFSTED’s latest thinking on deep dives in primary schools. He makes reference a number of times to what that means in history. Here are some of the highlights for you to ponder. ‘A deep dive…...
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Report on leadership of primary history 2020

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One of the key features underpinning the high quality of history learning was that history has a high status throughout the school, recognised by the headteacher. The subject leader attended local network meetings and time was made available for feedback from these meetings to be shared with all staff as...
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OFSTED’s early EIF (2019) primary history deep dives

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What do the first 3 months’ of reports tell us?

Although there is even less detail in the new shorter OFSTED reports than in the previous ones, there are still some clear indicators of what OFSTED is expecting-whether they care to admit it or not! Here are...
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What do deep dive OFSTED inspections look like for history?

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What does a new deep dive 2019 inspection look like for history? Basically, there are 6 areas that the history subject leader may expect to be involved in
  1. Exploration of medium/long term plans for history
  2. Meetings with history leader(s)
  3. Observations/Learning Walks (often with the history leader)....
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More thoughts on primary history OFSTED deep dives

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Recently Matthew Purves , the Deputy Director for Schools, set out OFSTED latest thinking on deep dives in primary schools. He makes reference a number of times to what that means in history. Here are some of the highlights for you to ponder. ‘A deep dive…...
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Assessment in history at KS2- What OFSTED is looking for

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Mention the words 'assessment in foundation subjects' and you're likely to be met with a frosty response. 'Its hard enough in English and mathematics, how on earth will we find the time to carry out assessment in all those other subjects. And even if there...
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