The London OBC: Consulting on the Consultation

Ofsted has a strategic objective to be a force for improvement through intelligent, responsible and focused inspection and regulation. To do this we must ensure we understand what we mean by this so their views and ours align neatly. They are keen to be accountable, so we need to understand what accountability looks like and to whom are they are accountable. If their accountability is only to themselves then that won’t work for us.

Therefore, its important we keep up our OBC meetings.

The main focus of the meeting will be on the EiF consultation. We attended a late Friday evening session (1 February 2019) at County Hall Hotel, London to hear Penny and Wendy take us through this pack of slides.Try and read it before you come so you have questions to the ready. Also check out Gill Jones’ Mythbusting blog for any other snippets of information.

Remember, Ofsted drove some of the things they are now complaining about such as the obsessive need for data and assessment records, so we need to shape this new inspection so when they say you can choose the pedagogy you want, we all understand and agree what that could look like. This is important because they will continue to inspect in line with principles and requirements of statutory of framework for the EY Foundation Stage which is being revised by the DfE as we speak. Has anyone heard any more about the pilots or the emerging picture?

Some of the key changes include:
* Industry arises around data – Unnecessary workload
* The focus of the revised inspection will be on the quality of education children receive

Some new language includes:
* Pedagogy
* Cultural capital

To get us in the mood we will have a brief introduction on pedagogy. The EY sector needs to understand what is meant by this so we can articulate how we teach and children learn in a confident way. That way we can lead the inspection and give any inspector confidence that we know what we are doing. Remember it’s a two-way track.

Given the new inspection is focusing on the communication skills of staff, I have invited Ronke Kokoruwe from iVerbalize to give us a talk about the power of supporting staff verbal skills. Ronke has been leading sessions for our apprentices and room leaders to help build their speaking skills and the impact on their conversations with staff and parents has been helpful. If we want staff to lead Ofsted inspections, then having confident speaking skills will benefit.

“Listen with curiosity. Speak with honesty. Act with integrity. The greatest problem with communication is we don’t listen to understand. We listen to reply. When we listen with curiosity, we don’t listen with the intent to reply. We listen for what’s behind the words.”
– Roy T. Bennett The Light in the Heart

Places for the London Open OBC are limited, please register here.