Teaching and assessment

3.1

Teaching for effective learning

What good looks like

Teaching is good when teachers know the subject and the students, set work at the right level of demand, and check who is lost while there is still time to respond. Questioning, resources, and time are organised around the learning, not around finishing a slide deck.

Stages

1. Weak

   Lessons are unclear, too easy, or too hard for many students. Teachers talk for most of the time, misconceptions pass, and planning is a textbook page number.

2. Acceptable

   Teaching enables most students to make steady progress. The best lessons are unevenly spread, and some teachers do not adapt when the class has not understood.

3. Good

   Most teaching is well planned, demanding, and responsive. Teachers use what they see in the lesson to change the next step, and subject knowledge is secure.

4. Very Good

   Teaching is skilled across almost all staff. Questioning makes students think, and time is rarely wasted. Students with different starting points are all stretched.

5. Outstanding

   Teaching consistently produces high-quality learning. Teachers are precise about misconceptions, and their practice is shared because it works, not because it was nominated.

Practical actions

• Weak: Agree what a lesson must make visible

  For the next month, every core-subject lesson plan names the task students will do by minute twenty and how the teacher will know who cannot do it. Leaders look at that, not at the decoration of the plan.

  Department toolkit

• Acceptable: Coach the five lessons that stall

  Identify five teachers or classes where learning stalls. Give each a two-week focus, such as checking understanding before moving on, and watch the same class again. Keep the note short and specific.

  Department toolkit

• Good: Spread one precise technique

  Film or co-plan one technique that already works in the school, such as a hinge question, and ask every department to use it for two weeks. Collect what students answered, not a reflection form.

  Department toolkit

Evidence to prepare

• Lesson visits with a focus. Notes from ordinary days that record what students did, dated, and followed up.
• Planning sample. Plans that show the task and the check, from more than one teacher.
• Work match. Books from the visited class that match what the lesson claimed to teach.
• Coaching log. The focus, the second visit, and whether the student work changed.

3.2

Assessment

What good looks like

Assessment is good when it is accurate, understood by students, and used to change teaching. Marks are not inflated to please a report. Students know the next step in language they can use.

Stages

1. Weak

   Assessment is irregular, unclear, or not believed. Students do not know how they are doing, and data sits in a system nobody opens.

2. Acceptable

   Teachers assess and record. Feedback is sometimes useful and sometimes a tick. Moderation is occasional, so grades differ between classes for the same work.

3. Good

   Assessment is planned, moderated in key tasks, and used to regroup or reteach. Students can say what to improve and most then do it.

4. Very Good

   Assessment is sharp and trusted. Teachers adjust lessons from it quickly, and students assess their own work against a standard that means something.

5. Outstanding

   Assessment is precise across the school and directly tied to high achievement. Students and parents receive an honest picture, including when the news is mixed.

Practical actions

• Weak: Moderate one task before the next report

  Pick one writing or mathematics task. Teachers mark three scripts together and agree what each grade looks like. Use that agreement in the next report. Do not add a new assessment platform this term.

  Department toolkit

• Acceptable: Make feedback demand a response

  Change the routine so feedback names one change and students do that change in the next lesson. Sample ten books a fortnight to see whether the change happened.