if OFSTED were in.....

[Leonafj]

I was just wondering.......

If there had been a known network problem since the start of term, work arounds for the problems had been provided but were not ideal and network issues were being looked into and resolved at the time, would OFSTED take this into consideration when observing an IT teacher?

[nephilim]

In my experience, no they wouldnt. They would look at how the teacher delivers the lesson. If the work around involves a flagrant breach of conduct or something of that nature, then they would take that into account. Otherwise it should be ok. Although try to fix the problem as soon as you can.

[FN-GM]

What problem is it?

[apoth0r]

However inhumane teachers make OFSTED out to be, problems do arise with technology and OFSTED, if one occurs, would be looking for that teacher to have a backup lesson plan to work around the problem. A properly thought out lesson plan would cover all "known" instances of problems and clearly state the problem in the plan. P*** poor planning leads to p*** poor performance. Word.

[Gatt]

However inhumane teachers make OFSTED out to be, problems do arise with technology and OFSTED, if one occurs, would be looking for that teacher to have a backup lesson plan to work around the problem. A properly thought out lesson plan would cover all "known" instances of problems and clearly state the problem in the plan. Piss poor planning leads to piss poor performance. Word.

Except for our last lot who rubbished the use of a backup lesson plan and still marked the teacher in question down - despite the fact that the PCs at the time were a bag of brown sludgy stuff despite my efforts to make them run..

We did get 60 new PCs as a result..

[Leonafj]

well during summer we were meant to get CC4, it went wrong and we rolled back to CC3 but this didn't fully work either and we spent about 6 weeks after summer getting the network to a decent state again. The main problems were short cuts not being delivered, we'd reset profiles which then caused the shortcut menu to be empty.

In the end we put shortcuts in Shared docs and said if its not in the start menu run it from there.

For every slight problem we had the Head of IT threw us the line "If OFSTED were in...blah, blah!"

Anyway after a number of other issues im leaving and the head has asked for a list of issues i experienced and i feel the lack of support from the Head of IT at this time should go on this list. Just thought i'd better check that his If OFSTED were in comments were valid!

[apoth0r]

Unfortunately it depends on the people too, bit like driving test instructors really.

[teejay]

Yes they will take it into account, but they may also comment on the quality of the ICT provision within the school.
This can be a good thing, as if you are banging your head against a brick wall with lack of funding or support from SLT you will probably find the situation changes. However, SLT may also use the falls down approach and blame it all on the Network Manager!
Documentation of the problems and conversations etc are key for things like this.

[matt40k]

OFSTED do not check anything in school apart from the teaching, not sure if this might change in the future. Teachers should have a back up places if the IT system failes, or anything else for that matter. OFSTED might comment, but nothing more, they are more likely to comment on communication within the school tho.

You will prob get some slack if there is an IT problem whilst OFSTED are in, more so then normal, this is generally because the teacher themselves are at fault as you have shown a "hole in there armour".

[Sylv3r]

OFSTED are generally more interested in are the students learning, do they understand what the lesson is about. The teachers obvioussly get graded but its not the individual they are grading its the quality of the lesson they are looking at.

As long as the students understand what is been said and that the students are learning OfSTED are happpy.

However, I would want any technical problems like this resolved ASAP. At the end of the day, teacher confidence in ICT will severely be lacking and I imagine if the school is looking to get CC4 installed then they have spent quite a bit of money, when OfSTED ask the question are you value for money..... not at the moment I would think.

[Sylv3r]

OFSTED do not check anything in school apart from the teaching,

I don't think I agree with this, OfSTED look at the much bigger picture now whether this is Safeguarding, FMIS (Financial Management), CRB Checks, Healthy Eating, impact of specialism on the community, extra curricular activies etc etc.