The Book School Inspectors Told Teachers To Burn!

My best-selling book ‘The Perfect (Ofsted) Lesson’ first published in 2010, was a big hit with teachers and school leaders. However, at an Ofsted conference the speaker, an Ofsted inspector, said there was no such thing as the ‘perfect’ Ofsted lesson, showed the delegates a picture of the book and told them to burn it!

If he (or anyone at Ofsted) had actually opened the book to read it, they would have discovered the first sentence which reads: ‘There is no one, magic formula or set structure for the ‘perfect’ lesson but steps here will give you some ideas on how to develop your own version of the very best learning experiences for your class.’ The next sentence links to the fact that any observer will want to see that your students ‘’typically’ make great progress, achieve their potential and have the attitudes and behaviours of great learners’.

When I pointed this out to the Ofsted powers that be, they said that they didn’t like the title in case teachers simply performed for inspectors. Back then, teachers were judged as inadequate, good or outstanding, according to a single lesson observation! No wonder every teacher wanted a winning formula! When our complex skills were judged in an over-simplified summary on a single occasion it seemed as though we had to game the system in some way to win. A bit like our students may feel, when years of study are summed up by a single examination grade?

Is there a better way to understand the nuances of impactful teaching that delivers outstanding learning? Well, yes. Teaching was later judged on ‘typicality’ across the school and individual lessons were no longer given grades. This now links to the current debate about a one-word judgement being used to describe a school’s performance. We are now fully and painfully aware that a one-word summary of a school inspection can be destructive to reputation, community and even to life itself. I won’t be writing ‘The Perfect Ofsted School’ any time soon! The irony intended in the title was clearly lost on Ofsted, but was great for marketing and spawned a whole series that shared the very best practice across subject teaching through to leadership.

Many years later, I still get teachers telling me that following the advice in the ‘Perfect Lesson’ book and others in the series, helped them love teaching and become outstanding teachers. Not a bad thing, despite Ofsted’s view!

Buoyed by this, I later updated all the useful advice in the Perfect Lesson book and simply called this new book ‘Teaching and Learning’. (A part of the ‘Independent Thinking on’ series). It includes the latest research on learning, including Cognitive Load Theory, Assessment as Learning and more tips on behaviour management using metacognition. My passion for developing coaching in schools is explained in a chapter called The Power of Peer Coaching’. I work as a coach now and know only too well how important it is to help teachers and students understand the impact of how they think on their career and happiness. Without the catchy, controversial title, no one has been told to burn it… yet!

Here is an extract from the chapter called ‘What do I need to do next to be a Great Teacher’. It could still help you be the very best teacher you could be!

Great teaching and learning? It’s a habit!

In the famous, inspirational book ‘The 7 habits of Highly Effective People’ by Stephen Covey we are offered insights into how to question the drivers of our unconscious mind and start to recognise just how we can think on purpose – instead of by accident. This chapter recognises how important it is for teachers to do this and brings together Carol Dweck’s growth mindset thinking1, Hattie’s mindframes and the Teacher’s Standards to demonstrate how to develop the habits we need to be an excellent teacher.

Habit 1: Great self-management

Rate yourself out of ten as you read the descriptors below:

• Reframing struggle or failure as an opportunity to learn and grow.
• Use stress management strategies like mindfulness techniques.
• Develop resilient thinking so you can bounce back after being given critical feedback from a lesson observation.
• Make sure that everything you do relates to learning and progress for your students.
• Take care of your mind and body by eating healthy foods, exercising, and growing your knowledge of how learning works.
• Be professional in appearance and behaviour – and prompt with reports and deadlines.
• Switch off and relax at home. Put the stresses of the day into a box to be retrieved tomorrow and enjoy time with your partner, children, pets, TV, garden, hobbies…

Schools can promote a self-management culture through having a powerful and embedded coaching programme, internal and external training events, celebrations of individual achievements, consistent leadership, and lots of staffroom cream cakes, laughs and social events.

Habit 2: Reflective practice

• Give and, more importantly, take feedback.
• Ask your students how you are doing as their teacher. Tell your leader how they are doing as your leader (gently!).
• Use metacognition to stand back and analyse why you respond in certain ways to situations.
• Constantly review how you can improve your teaching and therefore the learning in your class.
• You can’t be curious and angry at the same time – so get curious about behaviour!

This habit means you’ll become much more flexible and more responsive to pupil’s needs.

Habit 3: Cognitive Flexibility

Adapting to a changing world and ever-changing expectations is an essential habit for pupils and teachers. How many of these have you done?

• Find new ways of working – every week.
• Teach a different subject.
• Be on the lookout for new roles and opportunities.
• Talk to new/different people in the staffroom.
• Use the internet and social media to extend your contacts and find new ideas to try in the classroom.
• Visit other schools and lessons regularly – just for fun.
• Team up with other departments or year groups to work together on a theme.
• Take part in as many extra-curricular activities as you can – especially staff pantos and karaoke!
• Draw, paint, sing, dance – at whatever level, as often as possible.
• Coach others and self-coach to push yourself out of your comfort zone.

Habit 4: Optimism

Teachers must believe that all their pupils can succeed in something. Children must believe they can improve in anything and be filled with hope and the expectation that they can make progress. Toddlers wake up every morning believing that they can and will learn new things. They show a relentless optimism and determination to learn to walk, talk and find out about the world. We, and our pupils, need to rediscover this ‘inner baby’ curiosity and confidence. and put aside comparison with others and doubt about themselves and their abilities.

There is a four-letter word that is much more important for learning than ‘exam’ and that is ‘hope’.

Try to:

• Think of your very best moment of teaching this week. Relive it over and over and enhance the good bits to make it even better.
• Reflect on a negative moment and reframe it by asking ‘What can I learn from this?’
• Make a list of all the good things about your class, job or team.
• Keep a ‘victory log’2 which tracks all the good things that happen in your class.
• Challenge negative generalisations such as ‘I never get on with Year 8’ with ‘Which lessons work well with Year 8?’
• Rehearse your dreaded lesson by imagining it going brilliantly as many times as you can.
• Use mantras that focus on success, such as ‘If you think you can or if you think you can’t you are right’ and ‘there’s no such thing as failure – only feedback’.
• Have an optimistic goal to work towards. Adapt and adjust it over time.

Habit 5: Empathy

Empathy is part of our natural ability to reflect other people’s emotions and thereby understand their perspective on the world. MRI scanning can now detect mirror neurons in our brains that light up when we respond to other people’s feelings.

Teachers who have high levels of empathy can get kids on-side and spread the culture of allies that is needed to create an ‘outstanding’ school community. They:

• Listen closely to feedback so they can connect and calibrate and adapt their communication.
• tune in to the people/pupils in front of them by listening to everything they say and understanding their map of the world.
• Don’t take bad behaviour personally but try to understand what is motivating pupils to do it.
• Go to leaders with ideas and solutions – not moans and problems.

Habit 6: Courage and resilience

We all have our comfort zones, and these mould some of our habitual behaviours – like sitting in the same seat in the staffroom, using the same coffee cup, teaching the same scheme of work and talking to the same colleagues. Being ambitious for your classes means having to try new ways of working – particularly for groups of children that don’t learn easily.

Courageous, resilient teachers:

• Feed their self-confidence through self-disclosure – are honest about struggling and seek out help.
• Do the things that scare them the most – public speaking, parachuting, taking assembly, running in the teachers’ race…
• Are brave when trying out new strategies – they know they may not work straight away so there will be some scary moments.
• Seek out feedback from leaders, pupils and parents because that’s how they know how they are doing. They regularly ask their classes ‘How am I doing – is this working for you?’
• Have high expectations of themselves but forgive themselves when things go wrong and learn from it.
• Always admit when they are wrong and work out how they will put it right.
• Never give up on the most challenging pupils or situations.

Habit 7: Collaboration and connection

Human beings were born to collaborate and learn from one another. The very best teachers love to share ideas and resources and find a synergy in the cross-fertilisation of ideas across departments and schools. Whether through informal chats, a Twitter forum or attending conferences and subject workshops, being a good collaborator will enhance your teaching.

We can never underestimate the influence of the ‘movers and shakers’ on the staff who are good collaborators who love being teachers. They:

• Network in person as often as possible – with different departments, schools, businesses and colleagues in the staffroom and at events.
• Network electronically through social media formally and informally.
• Work with different departments on INSET day, whenever possible.
• Work closely with support staff, governors, and business links.
• Mentor new teachers or coach a colleague – learning much about themselves in the process.
• Help with sports day, productions, and events for parents.
• Share resources and ideas. Support each other and are proud of the school.

Developing the seven habits is a journey. We will all still have those moments of weakness…

What happens when you wake up at 3 a.m. on August 31st thinking, ‘I don’t know if I can do this anymore’. We’ve all done it – no one is a hero at 3 a.m. The most important thing to remember if you track through your career, is that there always were (and will be) moments of crisis, of success, periods of excitement and anticipation, and long weeks of exhaustion. You have made and will continue to make mistakes and experience failure.

Remember, the best teachers constantly learn from these and support each other and see their job as a lifelong learning experience. At your best, you are an inspiration, modelling the habits of good learners. At your worst, you are still a learner, acting on feedback. You are a work in progress! No great teacher has not had moments of sheer despair!

As a trainer of teachers at all stages of their careers, I am constantly in awe of their dedication and passion, and of their determination to make a difference to the young people they work with. Beyond the next government initiative, change in curriculum or exam syllabus, what really matters is what teachers say and do in classrooms to help learners grow into creative, adaptable, industrious and caring people.

Jackie Beere is a former Headteacher and well-known author and leadership coach

This article includes ideas from: Beere, J. (2020). ‘Teaching and Learning – supporting independent thinking for teachers and learners.’ Carmarthen: Crown House Publishing.

https://www.crownhouse.co.uk/publications/independent-thinking-on-teaching-and-learning