How can schools use potential OFSTED deep dive questions to sharpen their curriculum?
Main, P (2022, October 07). OFSTED deep dive questions. Retrieved from https://www.structural-learning.com/post/ofsted-deep-dive-questions
An inspection is an opportunity to clarify exactly what and how a school curriculum is delivered. It is as much for the school as it is for accountability measures (putting a positive spin on the experience!). There's a lot more to an inspection than a simple lesson observation and a chat with the curriculum leaders. An OFSTED inspector will expect to see how curriculum subjects are organised and delivered. The recent deep dive in school documents gave school leaders insight into what questions inspectors will ask and what type of knowledge they are looking for. In this article, we provide some extracts of what this looks like in practice. If nothing else, the questions can be used in staff meetings to help clarify how the curriculum is designed and delivered. The prompts below are an interesting reflection tool for discussions about effective learning and in this case, are solely focused on an English subject Deep Dive.
The curriculum for novices in English enables pupils to gain fluency in key practices which are essential for later success.
How does the school understand what it means ‘to get better’ (progression) in the subject and does the school give meaningful attention to all categories of progression in English? Is the scope commensurate with that outlined in the National Curriculum?
Curriculum Intent and curriculum impact questions
The curriculum is planned so that essential knowledge is prioritised. For instance, more time may be spent on it, including time checking it has been embedded. This knowledge is introduced sequentially and revisited so it can be memorised. See 2a to 2d for details of this component knowledge.
This requires pupils to receive information in manageable chunks. For example, in phonics sessions, pupils are given daily opportunities to practise using and applying their learning. They may be asked to read and write graphemes, words or sentences using taught GPCs.
NB: In upper KS2, knowledge is built more cumulatively (less linear) through links and connections. It does not always need automatising in the same way as reading and writing knowledge in KS1.
Show me which bits of your curriculum (like concepts, ideas, vocabulary, etc.) are really crucial to re-visit so that they are able to build further knowledge.
Curriculum Intent and curriculum impact questions
All pupils follow the same phonics curriculum for early reading and writing. They must learn the phonic code to become fluent decoders and spellers. Pupils with SEND who are struggling to read and write (often those with poor visual memory and/or weak auditory skills) may take longer to secure some of the components of early reading and writing. The curriculum components need to be broken down into smaller steps and are repeated more often until they are automatic.
Additional support to become fluent in reading and writing may be required and should be prioritised to prevent pupils from becoming further behind and struggling to access the age-appropriate curriculum.
Any additional intervention is not a different curriculum. It follows the same curriculum progression but provides sufficient practice so that pupils secure their understanding of the essential components.
The focus before Reception should be on language and communication. There is no requirement to formally teach reading and writing before children begin phonics instruction in Reception. Therefore, teaching activities before Reception are more likely to be incidental teaching when children ask about how to write a letter in their name, for example, as well as more direct teaching, through stories, for instance.
Reception and KS1: As shown in the simple view of reading, word recognition and language comprehension are different elements of reading. Therefore, they need different kinds of teaching and activities. Phonics is taught daily and directly in a settled environment where distractions are kept to a minimum. Lessons are focused and keep pupils engaged and involved. Common exception words are introduced sparingly when children begin learning phonics. Phonics is still the method used to read these words. Adults make sure that in phonics sessions, and later the same day, children have lots of practice sounding out, blending and reading graphemes, words and sentences.
Keystage 2: Pupils to both store subject-specific knowledge in long-term memory and apply this knowledge to draw increasingly sophisticated conclusions (as they encounter more challenging texts). Deep process complex ideas/concepts, e.g. deep processing implicates semantic processing which occurs when we determine the meaning of a word and associate it with similar words with related meaning.
Curriculum Content and pedagogical practice questions
An inspection is an opportunity to clarify exactly what and how a school curriculum is delivered. It is as much for the school as it is for accountability measures (putting a positive spin on the experience!). There's a lot more to an inspection than a simple lesson observation and a chat with the curriculum leaders. An OFSTED inspector will expect to see how curriculum subjects are organised and delivered. The recent deep dive in school documents gave school leaders insight into what questions inspectors will ask and what type of knowledge they are looking for. In this article, we provide some extracts of what this looks like in practice. If nothing else, the questions can be used in staff meetings to help clarify how the curriculum is designed and delivered. The prompts below are an interesting reflection tool for discussions about effective learning and in this case, are solely focused on an English subject Deep Dive.
The curriculum for novices in English enables pupils to gain fluency in key practices which are essential for later success.
How does the school understand what it means ‘to get better’ (progression) in the subject and does the school give meaningful attention to all categories of progression in English? Is the scope commensurate with that outlined in the National Curriculum?
Curriculum Intent and curriculum impact questions
The curriculum is planned so that essential knowledge is prioritised. For instance, more time may be spent on it, including time checking it has been embedded. This knowledge is introduced sequentially and revisited so it can be memorised. See 2a to 2d for details of this component knowledge.
This requires pupils to receive information in manageable chunks. For example, in phonics sessions, pupils are given daily opportunities to practise using and applying their learning. They may be asked to read and write graphemes, words or sentences using taught GPCs.
NB: In upper KS2, knowledge is built more cumulatively (less linear) through links and connections. It does not always need automatising in the same way as reading and writing knowledge in KS1.
Show me which bits of your curriculum (like concepts, ideas, vocabulary, etc.) are really crucial to re-visit so that they are able to build further knowledge.
Curriculum Intent and curriculum impact questions
All pupils follow the same phonics curriculum for early reading and writing. They must learn the phonic code to become fluent decoders and spellers. Pupils with SEND who are struggling to read and write (often those with poor visual memory and/or weak auditory skills) may take longer to secure some of the components of early reading and writing. The curriculum components need to be broken down into smaller steps and are repeated more often until they are automatic.
Additional support to become fluent in reading and writing may be required and should be prioritised to prevent pupils from becoming further behind and struggling to access the age-appropriate curriculum.
Any additional intervention is not a different curriculum. It follows the same curriculum progression but provides sufficient practice so that pupils secure their understanding of the essential components.
The focus before Reception should be on language and communication. There is no requirement to formally teach reading and writing before children begin phonics instruction in Reception. Therefore, teaching activities before Reception are more likely to be incidental teaching when children ask about how to write a letter in their name, for example, as well as more direct teaching, through stories, for instance.
Reception and KS1: As shown in the simple view of reading, word recognition and language comprehension are different elements of reading. Therefore, they need different kinds of teaching and activities. Phonics is taught daily and directly in a settled environment where distractions are kept to a minimum. Lessons are focused and keep pupils engaged and involved. Common exception words are introduced sparingly when children begin learning phonics. Phonics is still the method used to read these words. Adults make sure that in phonics sessions, and later the same day, children have lots of practice sounding out, blending and reading graphemes, words and sentences.
Keystage 2: Pupils to both store subject-specific knowledge in long-term memory and apply this knowledge to draw increasingly sophisticated conclusions (as they encounter more challenging texts). Deep process complex ideas/concepts, e.g. deep processing implicates semantic processing which occurs when we determine the meaning of a word and associate it with similar words with related meaning.
Curriculum Content and pedagogical practice questions
