Observation

Early Years PiP Cards: 3.1 Observation, assessment and planning

scameron — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 15:47:14 +0000

Theme: Enabling environments
‘The environment plays a key role in supporting and extending children’s development and learning.’

Commitment 3.1 Observation, assessment and planning
‘Babies and young children are individuals first, each with a unique profile of abilities. Schedules and routines should flow from the child’s needs. All planning starts with observing children in order to understand and consider their current interests, development and learning.’

Areas of knowledge covered:

Early years: eight principles for observational assessment

scameron — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 10:21:01 +0100

1. Assessment must have a purpose.

Assessment informs planning for the next steps in learning for each child, deepening and extending the child’s learning.

What it looks like

Understanding classroom practice – what school financial managers need to know

admin — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 10:20:42 +0100

Financial managers in schools, especially those aspiring to be leaders, now play an increasing part in every aspect of whole-school management. The growing tendency for financial managers to be part of a school’s senior management team means school administration and financial strategy can no longer be separated from the day-to-day business of a school, which is generally seen as providing young people with the chance to develop and achieve both inside and outside the classroom. In this article we will explore this classroom dimension in more detail.

Achieving a fully inclusive school: Brampton Manor

jlee — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 10:20:40 +0100

In December 1999 an Ofsted inspection found that Brampton Manor’s academic standards were below the national average. Other failings cited included overall unsatisfactory teaching in KS3, below average pupil attendance and weaknesses in leadership and management that ‘reduced the impact of management commitment on pupils’ learning.’

I was appointed as headmaster within two months of the inspection and a recovery plan was written by the school and agreed by Ofsted for immediate implementation.

Involving students as researchers in the setting up of a school council

jlee — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 10:20:30 +0100

This pilot is part of a three-year action research project, LSSCARP (the London Secondary School Council Action Research Project) which has been exploring how school councils can improve schools. As part of making school councils more effective, some of the schools involved in the project have been focusing on areas such as teaching and learning.

Observing classroom assistants

jlee — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 10:20:23 +0100

Whichever member of your staff team you are about to observe, it is important that all observations are made against the criteria that you have set for that person to apply as they carry out their role. Starting from a person’s job description you can compile a list of the skills and attitudes they should be displaying as they carry out their role. Let us take the person who is assisting a teacher or other professional practitioner as s/he carries out her role. How can you assess someone who is assisting another professional?

Planning for teacher learning

ewtemp — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 10:20:22 +0100

In the first two editions of Learning & Teaching – and no doubt in all our future editions – we brought you many stimulating accounts of new ideas and development in classrooms relating to learning and teaching. We have broached innovative ways of working with parents, formative assessment, cooperative group work and thinking skills. This is exciting stuff.

Getting the best from classroom observation

admin — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 10:20:12 +0100

The amendments to how schools continue to develop performance management are expected to take effect sometime in 2007 and the Rewards and Incentives Group (RIG) makes it clear in its consultation documents that classroom observation is still one of the key ways of measuring any teacher’s performance.

Three significant changes are proposed:

Classroom observation 'not used effectively'

admin — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 10:19:30 +0100

An online survey of members by the teachers’ union the NASUWT has found huge variation in the range and extent of classroom observation going on in schools up and down the country.

Sharing best practice

admin — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 10:19:29 +0100

You’ve been appointed as G&T coordinator, you’ve written your policy and delivered a whole-school Inset; how do you find your G&T holy grail – ensuring that G&T pupils are differentiated for in every classroom? Whatever the quality or range of the extra-curricular provision, the ideal scenario is the ‘inside-out’ method, where the onus is on every classroom teacher to implement strategies for G&T pupils (see Naomi Ferguson’s article in G&T Update issue 25, June 2005).

Problems with classroom observation