Lessons Learned Subject Development Evidence

Deep Dive Style Forms

When building our framework for the Subject Development Toolkit forms, we spent a significant amount of time talking to our customers in England and Wales to find out more about the new approach schools are taking to quality assurance.

Schools we work with shared with us their quality assurance forms and questionnaires and we had considerable feedback from them on the questions asked by Ofsted and Estyn. Inevitably, bloggers, tweeters and others online have also shared their thoughts in this area and we have been following these updates with keen interest. After taking time to consider all this information, we have assimilated it into a range of deep dive style forms.

These forms are not definitive but they:

• are well structured and fit together into a ready to use toolkit;
• are consistent and framed around the same review areas (Intent/Curriculum Design, Implementation/Curriculum Delivery, Impact/Pupil Outcomes, Behaviour & Attitudes, Personal Development and Leadership & Management) with the 30+ key areas of focus (e.g. questioning, pupil expectation, etc);
• are assessed against a common evaluation structure (exemplary, secure, requires further development);
• are manageable in size and complexity.

The toolkit of forms includes:

• Lesson visit/learning walk/observation
• Work scrutiny
• Subject leader questionnaire
• Planning scrutiny
• Staff questionnaire
• Pupil questionnaire

The lesson visit, work scrutiny and planning scrutiny forms are supported by prompts for what exemplary, secure and requires further development might look like across the key areas of focus. This provides the perfect scaffolding to help develop practice within the teaching body.

An example of our lesson visit form (English version) in use on the online system can be seen in the three screenshots to the right.

All our toolkit forms are free when you purchase the online system.