ofsted logoOFSTED’s focus on all foundation subjects not just the core is to be welcomed. Less welcome are the unrealistic expectations being placed on often very inexperienced history leaders in primary schools. We need to get a sense of proportion here.

There’s nothing wrong with OFSTED shining a light on important aspects of the curriculum-indeed, I welcome this- but there needs to be a better balance between growing and weighing. Its all very well to critically appraise provision but how are subject leaders being supported both before and after the inspection. That is where this site comes into its own.

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OFSTED’s focus on history deep dives 2024

From time to time, its worth reminding ourselves of what OFSTED chooses to comment on when reporting its findings from…

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7 don’ts when it comes to OFSTED deep dives in primary history

1. DON’T assume that OFSTED has an expectation of what constitutes schemes of work: they don’t I mention this because…

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EYFS and History in OFSTED deep dives

According to OFSTED (January 2023), inspectors will want to know how key stage 1 builds on the knowledge that children…

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Key points from OFSTED’s briefing on 2nd February 2022

Do leaders of a subject need to be specialists? In primary schools, particularly small ones, we know that staff wear…

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OFSTED’s view of deep dives in history

Recently Matthew Purves , the Deputy Director for Schools, set out OFSTED’s latest thinking on deep dives in primary schools….

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Deep dive issues: progression and assessment in primary history

One of the features of deep dive subject inspections is that the two hardest areas of a primary history leader’s…

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OFSTED’s early EIF (2019) primary history deep dives

What do the first 3 months’ of reports tell us? Although there is even less detail in the new shorter…

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What do deep dive OFSTED inspections look like for history?

What does a new deep dive 2019 inspection look like for history? Basically, there are 6 areas that the history…

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More thoughts on primary history OFSTED deep dives

Recently Matthew Purves, the Deputy Director for Schools, set out OFSTED latest thinking on deep dives in primary schools. He…

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