What I Learnt This Week from Judgeless Observations

I have had a week in which I feel rather bruised and battered because I decided to stand up for something I felt strongly about in the wrong forum (Everyone felt differently to me) and about something that gets passions rising – school uniform. Sometimes, I wish I did not go with my instincts. That has not been the case with judgeless lesson observations though. The nicest thing ever said about me in a 360 was, “Brian (Yep – being open and honest after being ‘outed’ this week) has never forgotten what it is like to be in the classroom – as a child or a teacher.” I love the person who wrote that! I think it is something that sticks with me and it was with this in mind that I went into lessons this week.

Following the in vogue format I started lesson observations this week purposely avoiding the judgement grade. In fact, it was far more than this. I purposely avoided the now accepted way of doing a lesson observation. I did none of the following:

Look in books to see either progress, marking or challenge.

Talk to children about learning intentions or targets.

Look for a WALHT.

Look at planning.

Focus on PP children, or children with concerning APP data.

And it was the most refreshing time I have had in the classroom for years.

This is what I did do.

Make each visit as focussed upon the teachers Performance Management as possible.

Look for the positives.

Look at the challenges the teacher and children faced in the lesson. For example, questioning in a reception class where pace could be killed because of so many questions (due to the fact that the teacher had such an exciting and inspired idea) that it is almost impossible for the teacher NOT to respond to them – worse still challenging ideas (“Men cannot have a cream bag”) without just telling them.

Have open and honest conversations about what I saw, heard and observed based on trying to give GOOD advice. This was based on another great challenging conversation with my deputy who basically said – if you give them nothing then what is the point in doing the lesson observation?

Try to be a LEARNER again. I had an epiphany in lesson two. Recorders, I just sat there and thought lets be in the lesson and see what I CAN learn. Firstly, the children were amazing. They were offering all sorts of advice before I started. Hold it like this, make sure you fully cover the holes, A is like this etc. I then hit the difficultly of keeping up because the others had already had three lessons from a brilliant teacher who really knew her stuff. I was left behind so I reverted back to my 7 year old self and began to play the class clown, making children laugh playing imaginary jazz recorder. One withering look from the teacher, I was meant to be observing, refocused me. As the lesson went on I felt great with each little success – a clean note, keeping in time and remembering some pretty complex routines. At the end of the lesson we were doing mini compositions and I felt excited that I could do it but also proud for the children in class. It was like we belonged because we were in it together.

I left the lesson thinking THAT’s IT! For next year’s performance management targets everyone should have to learn a NEW instrument. BE a learner and our staff meetings should be based on sharing our experiences. Then everyone should have to perform to the children and talk about what they learnt and had to overcome. By NOT doing the classic Ofsted lesson observation I had left the lesson with a little more insight and a much better understanding of learning.

Finally I observed a P4C (Philosophy for Children) lesson with a reflective and brilliant teacher doing it for the first time. We have talked a lot about P4C and if this had been a typical grading lesson I think they would have not been as open in their teaching. It felt much more real than typical observed lessons, much more honest – by that I mean it went where it took us rather than the teacher taking it where they think the observer wants it to go. With this teacher (the only one who has left me emotional after a lesson – for good reasons) being able to feel the judgement was not about set criteria, but far more about developing her craft, seemed liberating. We spoke via email after and they came up with suggestions for next time and how they could involve the quieter children and develop the session.

So what have I learnt?

My teachers are suddenly much more impressive because I am not narrowing the criteria for what a lesson looks like. I am not seeing them as grades I am seeing them as professionals.

I am thinking about lessons and learning differently because I am not looking at the bleeding obvious, (books, marking, targets and planning).

The discussion afterwards is not a “Am I safe? Did I get through? Only good?” type conversation but a LEARNING one – in which we talk about the future and how we develop our practice. That’s not to say those conversations did not exist before but now they seem less of a problem to have because they do not upgrade or degrade the teacher.

It is very early days and I still believe in aspects of the rigorous observation (but they are much easier to separate from the in class observation) but I do feel that I have learnt something very valuable this week about how to take the art of lesson observations forward.