The Perfect (Ofsted) Lesson: Revised and Updated (The Perfect Series) - Hardcover

Beere, Jackie

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1781350884 ISBN 13: 9781781350881

Publisher: Independent Thinking Press, 2013

Synopsis

Bestseller The Perfect (Ofsted) Lesson is revised and updated. Jackie Beere, with years of experience in helping schools become "outstanding" in inspections, shows you how to create outstanding schools all year round. Although referenced to Ofsted, this is still an extremely practical guide to teaching The Perfect Lesson.

The Perfect Ofsted Lesson is designed to help teachers deliver great
learning in the classroom, every lesson, every day, whether they are being observed or not.

“Wow. What a book! Normally I put educational reading at the bottom of my to-do list but this held my attention from the front through to the back. … the content really does deliver what it says on the cover.”
Glen Alexander, Deputy Headteacher,
Archbishop Ilsley Catholic Technology College

“A concise, practical approach to delivering the perfect Ofsted lesson.”
Julie Summerfield, Headteacher of Horndean School

“The Perfect Ofsted Lesson picks up all the key Ofsted related
points needed to deliver an outstanding lesson.”
Gulshan Kayembe, Education Consultant
and Section 5 Lead School Inspector

“Jackie demystifies what makes that elusive outstanding lesson for Ofsted
into a really positive experience for both students and teachers.”
Ranjit Samra, Head of Southam College

Jackie Beere is a consultant trainer and School Improvement Partner, having been Headteacher at Campion School, Northants. She spent three years as an Advanced Skills Teacher leading and implementing innovative Teaching and Learning initiatives including KS3 and 4 Learning to Learn and Thinking Skills programmes. In November 2002 Jackie was awarded an OBE for her services to education.

About this title

About the Author

Jackie Beere, Head teacher at Campion School, Northants until 2006, is now a consultant, trainer and School Improvement Partner. She spent three years as an Advanced Skills Teacher leading and implementing innovative teaching and learning initiatives including KS3 and 4 Learning to Learn and Thinking Skills programmes. She was awarded the OBE in November 2002 for services to education, having trained many teachers and school leaders in the latest theory and practice of learning to learn and emotional intelligence.

Ian Gilbert is one of the UK's leading educational innovators, speakers and writers with twenty years experience working with young people and educationalists around the world. He is the founder of Independent Thinking Ltd, the editor of the Independent Thinking Press and the author of a number of titles including Why Do I Need a Teacher When I've Got Google?. His book The Little Book of Thunks won the first education book award from the Society of Authors for 'an outstanding example of traditionally published non-fiction that enhances teaching and learning'.

From the Back Cover

The Perfect Ofsted Lesson is designed to help teachers deliver great
learning in the classroom, every lesson, every day, whether they are being observed or not.

“Wow. What a book! Normally I put educational reading at the bottom of my to-do list but this held my attention from the front through to the back. … the content really does deliver what it says on the cover.”
Glen Alexander, Deputy Headteacher,
Archbishop Ilsley Catholic Technology College

“A concise, practical approach to delivering the perfect Ofsted lesson.”
Julie Summerfield, Headteacher of Horndean School

“The Perfect Ofsted Lesson picks up all the key Ofsted related
points needed to deliver an outstanding lesson.”
Gulshan Kayembe, Education Consultant and Section 5 Lead School Inspector

“Jackie demystifies what makes that elusive outstanding lesson for Ofsted
into a really positive experience for both students and teachers.”
Ranjit Samra, Head of Southam College

Jackie Beere is a consultant trainer and School Improvement Partner, having been Headteacher at Campion School, Northants. She spent three years as an Advanced Skills Teacher leading and implementing innovative Teaching and Learning initiatives including KS3 and 4 Learning to Learn and Thinking Skills programmes. In November 2002 Jackie was awarded an OBE for her services to education.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Excerpt from The Perfect Ofsted Lesson.

Introduction:

Most of the very best teachers have experienced an unsatisfactory judgement at some time in their careers. Learn from it, and it will work as a positive force in your development. Dwell on it, beat yourself up about it, argue about it, and it could be destructive and very demoralising.

Remember, an observation is only a snapshot of your teaching.

The aim of this book is to make that snapshot look not only outstanding but for it to truly reflect your everyday outstanding teaching.

We all want to do well and impress observers in our lessons. This book is written to help you achieve the very best results you can when an official observer or inspector pays a call. However, the guidance will also help you to develop your teaching techniques and to become the great career teacher
you want to be.

The advice is not a prescriptive set of rules, but suggests a model around which you can build your own ideas. Its purpose is to help you deliver a lesson that will demonstrate to any observer that the students in your class are making great progress in their learning, under your supervision. ‘Progress’
is the magic ingredient required for ‘outstanding’ lessons.

The advice is easy to apply – no matter what subject you teach or what sort of teacher you are. Many different teachers have successfully implemented the strategies offered here and adapted them to suit their different styles, personalities and classes.

The book begins by offering seven simple steps towards creating the ‘perfect’ lesson. The following chapters then elaborate on these steps, explaining the key ideas within them in more detail. You can read these straightaway or look
them up at a later date if needed.

You don’t need the ‘wow’ factor to deliver an excellent lesson but you do need engaged, enthusiastic and determined students who are driven to make progress because they want to learn. You need to be able to nurture this ethos through having very high expectations for all of your students and by using your expertise to enthuse them about new learning.

You also need to be able to accurately measure and respond to the progress they make in your lesson in order to plan the next phase. Your classes have to make a contribution to the value-added results of your school. Therefore your students need to make progress in their lessons. They must move forward with their learning – and know they have. And know how they did it – so that they can do it again next time. Equally, if they haven’t made enough progress, they need to know why and how to fix it. In my experience, students and teachers who understand the theory of ‘learning to learn’ and have nurtured the habits of
PLTs (Personal, Learning and Thinking skills) find it is far easier to achieve success. This is because such an understanding requires developing a language with which to discuss and reflect on learning and how it works. With the right vocabulary, students and teachers can talk about how learning has worked and, perhaps more importantly, how it has stalled or floundered and what they have learned from that outcome.

An observer or inspector needs to see a learning environment that is challenging learners to exceed beyond their expectations and feel the tangible excitement of brains making connections to new learning. This will only develop and be evident to observers if the advice offered in this book becomes part of your everyday practice and is demonstrated in the students’ books and class discussions and in the classroom dynamics, all of which take time to develop. You will know when you get this right because you will actually wish every day for someone official to walk through the door and see the fantastic learning going on in your classroom!


‘When inspectors observe teaching, they observe pupils’ learning. Good teaching, which includes high levels of expertise and subject knowledge, with the expectation that pupils will achieve well, enables pupils to acquire knowledge, deepen their understanding, and develop and consolidate skills.’
Ofsted, School inspection handbook (2012a): 33

Edition details

• Publisher: Independent Thinking Press
• Publication date: 2013
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1781350884
• ISBN 13: 9781781350881
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 144