Guidance on Scrutiny of work for middle and senior leaders

Scrutiny of work is rapidly taking over from lesson observations in schools as the main method to evaluate the overall quality of teaching and achievement over time. In general, when scrutiny of work has been carried out, too much emphasis has been placed on evaluating teachers’ marking. While it is important to evaluate this, it is even more important to look at pupils’ learning over time.

Achievement data is important to have to hand when doing a scrutiny. A pupil list with levels or current working grades or a transition matrix for the class is very useful. This will enable you to select a range of work of different abilities and if you have a matrix, you can find out why some pupils are underachieving or those that could make better progress.

Whether you do the scrutiny in class or in a central place is largely a matter of taste. I prefer in class, because things can be followed up with the pupils concerned, asking questions such as : What did you learn from this? What did you enjoy about that? What confused you? Did you find this too easy/hard?

Remember the 4 areas of the Ofsted handbook : Achievement, behaviour, teaching, leadership. You can make comments about each of these. Under behaviour, for example, you can talk about pupils’ attitudes to learning including the presentation of their work, how they look after their books, attention to detail, response to teacher comments etc. Issues about the curriculum can be reflected in the leadership and management judgement.

The proforma at the end is a suggestion of how scrutiny of work might be evaluated.

Procedural issues

  • Are books marked regularly and is marking up to date?
  • Do pupils respond to the feedback that is given?
  • Are there opportunities for pupils to mark their own and each others' work?

Qualitative issues

  • Is the feedback that is given to pupils sharp enough and do they improve their work as a result?
  • Is there visible improvement to pupils' work as a result of teachers' marking?
  • Do teachers give praise for tangible things ('Well done, I like your use of connectives in this sentence') or is it not obvious what the praise is for?
  • Is productivity high enough? Look at the work covered over one term? Is it enough?
  • Is quality high enough? Is it too hard or too easy for some?
  • Do pupils continually get work right. If so, is the work too easy?
  • Do pupils of different ability get the same work to do? Look at work from different pupils on the same dates
  • Is there evidence of an interesting, lively curriculum that pupils can engage with?

Literacy and numeracy

  • Is spelling, punctuation and grammar corrected? Do pupils make repeated errors or does this improve over time?
  • If spelling is a known issue, what strategies are there to address these? (glossaries, word banks etc.)
  • Are there opportunities for pupils to explore the application of number and data in their work, for example, looking at population graphs in geography or calculating dimensions in D&T?
  • Are there opportunities for pupils to justify their opinions in full sentences and is the vocabulary and sentence structure they are using good enough?
  • Do pupils have the chance to draft and redraft their work with improvements?
  • Do pupils have the chance to summarise or condense text?
  • Are there opportunities for pupils to present information to others?

Behaviours for learning

  • Do pupils present their work neatly and legibly?
  • Do teachers reinforce positive messages about presentation of work?
  • Do pupils show a pride in their work, or is it scruffy?
  • Are their books neat and tidy, graffiti free and do they look after them?

Subject specific guidance

Maths/Science

  • Do pupils solve real-life problems or is there an over-reliance on bland repetitive arithmetic
  • Is there sufficient coverage of shapes, spaces and measures and data analysis?
  • Are different calculation methods taught, such as the grid method and number lines?
  • Is there an over-reliance on number lines and 100 squares etc.?
  • Do pupils use long-winded calculation tools to do simple calculations?
  • Is there evidence of pupils knowing their times tables and number bonds well to an age-related level?
  • Is there enough challenge for pupils when drawing diagrams?
  • Do pupils use scientific language when evaluating experiments etc.
  • Do pupils compile glossaries of scientific terms?
  • Do pupils decide for themselves how to present data, findings of experiments etc. or is this guided by the teacher?

English

  • Are there enough opportunities for pupils to write extended prose?
  • Are persuasive writing techniques taught in English?
  • Is there evidence of vocabulary being developed to an age-appropriate level?
  • Do pupils justify the points they are making by referring to texts. For example, making a point, then evidencing this through quotations from texts.
  • Is there evidence of a range of literature having been studied, including prose, poetry and literature from different countries and times?

Geography/History/RE

  • Is there evidence of human and physical geography knowledge being developed?
  • Are key terms used in sentences or are they only used as lists of key words. In other words, do pupils apply their use of subject specific vocabulary and is this encouraged by the teacher?
  • Are there opportunities for data work, to link with numeracy, such as interpreting population graphs, map work and understanding of the geography of Britain?
  • Is there evidence of fieldwork or observational skills being developed?
  • Are a range of religions studied, compared and contrasted?
  • Do pupils justify their beliefs and are ethics studied in any detail?
  • Are sources in History evaluated and are pupils taught to weigh up the validity of different historical perspectives?
  • Is British History studied in enough detail or depth?

Music/Drama/PE (Remember these should be practical subjects, so do not penalise too much for lack of productivity)

  • Do pupils evaluate their own and each others' performances using subject specific vocabulary that may have been taught in the lessons?
  • Do pupils understand and use different notations and is this taught?

Art/D&T

  • Are a range of themes, genres and culturesrepresented in the work includingstudies of different artists, craftspeople or designers from historical and contemporary references?
  • Are thereopportunities to develop theuse subject specific vocabulary to show whatthey have learntin self or peer assessment or writtenannotations ontheir work?
  • Is therea range of media, materials and techniques explored in two andthree dimensions represented in the work?
  • Are pupils encouraged to analyse, evaluate and respond todifferent approaches toart including abstraction?
  • Are pupils given opportunities to respond in a personal and creative way to develop their thoughts and ideas using design sheets,sketchbooks or journals?

Scrutiny of work

Undertaken by / Date
Class / Teacher(s)
Achievement / Teaching / Behaviour / Leadership
Strengths / Areas for improvement

is not an Ofsted document