Quality of teaching, learning and assessment

 How an Ofsted Inspector will make their judgement on the Quality of teaching, learning and assessment in your setting

During an Ofsted inspection, the inspector will make a judgement against the section Quality of teaching, learning and assessment, this grade will contribute to the settings overall grade. It is important that settings meet all the good grade descriptors in this section in order to achieve the outstanding grade for Quality of teaching, learning and assessment.

Here are a few pointers to help you achieve the outstanding grade;

• Does all staff in your setting have strong knowledge of how children learn and develop?
• Are staff fully aware of what the children in their care can achieve, including the most able and the most disadvantaged children? – How is this documented?
• Do all staff have a secure understanding of the age group they are working with?
• How does your setting involve parents in contributing to their child’s learning?
• What assessments are in place to show what children already know, understand and can do?
• How do you share information with child’s other setting? How is this documented?
• What assessments are put into place to identify children falling behind and what strategies are put into place to support these children?
• How often do you share information with parents about their child’s learning and development?
• Do you have regular meetings in your room to talk about the progress of the children and talk about how the team can contribute to all children making significant progress?
• Does your setting have information accessible for parents to help them understand about how their child is doing in relation to their age and what they can be doing to support them at home.
• How is the recognition of diversity promoted through your teaching and learning? How can this be evidenced?
• How is practitioners practice monitored to ensure they are providing high quality teaching?

Throughout the Ofsted inspection the inspector will gather their evidence to make their judgement against this section. Here are few ways they may gather their evidence

• The majority of the evidence will be gathered from direct observations, the inspector will be looking to see how children demonstrate the characteristics of effective learning, Therefore ensure practitioners are fully aware of how to identify them in children’s play.
  • Playing and Exploring
  • Active Learning
  • Creating and Thinking Critically
• The inspector will be observing how practitioner’s teaching supports the learning of children of different ages.
• Along with the observations other supporting evidence will be required to enable the inspector to evaluate the impact that practitioners teaching has on children’s progress. The other type of supporting evidence include
  • On entry assessments – this needs to show parental contributions
  • Two year progress checks
  • Formative assessments – including parental contributions
  • Any summative assessments that are completed when children leave

• The inspector will also analysis settings planning to identify children’s next stages of learning, they will want to see the link between assessments made and staffs knowledge of the EYFS. Inspectors will also consider staffs knowledge, qualifications and expertise on how this impacts on their practice and on children’s learning and development. Whilst observing inspectors will also look at the quality of activities and choices on offer for babies and toddlers.

• Evidence from observations are
  • The children’s responses to the range of activities they participate in
  • How communication and language are developed and how literacy is taught
  • Joint observations with the inspector and manager – Evidence from these observations are also used to contribute to the Leadership and Management grade
  • Practitioner observations
  • The quality of adult’s interventions and how well children’s learning is built on by the adult.

• The inspector will ask to see selected children’s tracking documents, these will include different ages of children, funded two years and other children that may need particular support.
• The inspector will talk to practitioners, key persons and managers to establish
  • How well everyone knows the learning development requirements of the EYFS
  • How they plan for reviewing children’s progress at two
  • How observations have an impact on how changes are made to activities, resources, routine and/ or the environment, they will also want to see how the impact of these changes are evaluated.

• Evidence showing how practitioners identify children who need additional support and what systems are in place to obtain this level of support.
• Evidence showing the involvement of the SENCO and other professionals involved in supporting a child’s learning and development.
• The inspector will gather evidence on how the setting shares good quality observations with children’s parents and how often parents are asked to contribute information from home about their children’s development

As you can see from the evidence, maybe it is worth carrying out some observations in your setting and see what your judgements are as this will give you a picture as to what the inspector will see. Also look closely at your children’s assessments records and ensure they can show the evidence that is required.

Grade descriptors for teaching, learning and assessment

Outstanding (1)

All practitioners have very high expectations of what each child can achieve, including the most able and the most disadvantaged.

Teaching is consistently of a very high quality, inspirational and worthy of dissemination to others; it is highly responsive to children’s needs.

Practitioners use their expert knowledge of the areas of learning and deep understanding of how children learn to provide rich, varied and imaginative experiences that enthuse, engage and motivate children to learn.

Accurate assessment, including through high quality observations, is rigorous and sharply focused and includes all those involved in the child’s learning and development. Where appropriate, children are involved in the process. Information from assessment is used to secure timely interventions and support, based on a comprehensive knowledge of the child and their family.

Provision across all areas of learning is planned meticulously and based on regular and precise assessments of children’s achievement so that every child undertakes highly challenging activities.

Highly successful strategies engage parents, including those from different groups, in their children’s learning, both in the setting and at home.

Practitioners provide an exceptional range of resources and activities that reflect and value the diversity of children’s experiences. They actively challenge gender, cultural and racial stereotyping and help children gain an understanding of people, families and communities beyond their immediate experience.

The extremely sharp focus on helping children to acquire communication and language skills, and on supporting their physical, personal, social and emotional development, gives children the foundations for future learning.