Outstanding!

I have been watching our teachers...  They have been observed teaching Literacy, Numeracy, Science - all sorts of things!

The reason I observe, is to make sure that all the staff that we employ are working at an acceptable standard, and that if there are issues for development, they are tackled straight away.

When observing, I look at the quality of plans, the learning environment, the quality of questions, the quality of feedback and marking, the quality of differentiation.  the most important aspect of the lesson observation though is whether each and every child has made progress within the lesson.  Do they know something now, that they didn't know before....?  Can they understand something that they had trouble with previously?  Have they developed a skill which they hadn't acquired in other lessons?

In the last week, we have been incredibly lucky to witness THREE outstanding lessons!

Lesson one was a maths lesson.  the way the teacher challenged the children, and ensured that each and every child was extending their learning was amazing.  During the second lesson, the teacher was guiding children to look at the best language to use for different audiences.  The complexity of the work, coupled with the determination of each child to achieve their very best, was inspirational.  The final lesson was outstanding, because after over half the lesson, it became infectious... As a child I would have never wanted to leave.  The children learnt so much through fun, inspiration, creativity and variety.

I want to ensure that every teacher at Oakfield and Temple Hill are working at a GOOD or OUTSTANDING level.  "Just good enough" isn't good enough for our children.

GR