This is an updated version of an article I wrote in 2019.
You know those awful television documentaries in which the presenters (it’s usually a double act) continually display their inability to ask interesting questions and probe beneath the surface? While they exclaim “Wow!” at the start of every sentence, we learn the what, but never the why or the how.
I thought it might be fun to imagine an inspection of a Computing department conducted as one of those documentaries. What might it look like?
Hi there! Amanda and I are here at the Gasworks Lane Academy, looking at their Computing.
Yes, we’ll be interviewing kids as well as teachers, and we’ll both be in different parts of the school. Right, Hugh?
That’s right, Amanda! So, I’ll just slope off and see if I can find the Computing teacher, and leave you to it.
Great! Well I’m going to talk to Janice here. So Janice, you’re in Year 8, right?
Yes.
Fantastic! So what are you doing here Janice? It all looks very complicated.
I’m writing the code for this Arduino-connected walking stick so that if the person using it falls down the stick will call an ambulance and send the ambulance crew the precise co-ordinates of the person’s location.
Wow! Let’s go over to Hugh now.
Wow! That’s amazing! I can’t even program my microwave. Now, I’m talking to the Head of Computing. So, James, tell us about the computing set-up at Gasworks Lane Academy.
Well, we have 500desktop computers, an interactive whiteboard in every room, 27 laptop trolleys, plus Arduinos and other devices.
Wow!
We teach the kids coding from their very first day at school, and we teach them two programming languages and HTML.
Wow! Now I believe that Amanda is going to try out that walking stick. Amanda?
Wow! That’s amazing!
etc.
Fortunately, such an inability to explore interesting and sensible questions would not be found in a real inspection. Would it?? From reading various Twitter threads, I suspect inspectors would, these days, ask such searching and insightful questions as “How come not much staff training went on during lockdown?”, and “How come the school has prioritised children’s wellbeing rather than their education?”
If you don’t think my conjectures have any basis in fact, read Inspection reports: Scratching the Surface. The author, Julie Price Grimshaw, has scrutinised many recent Ofsted reports, and notes:
“These issues [such as teachers not having enough subject knowledge] were often blamed on school leaders for not ensuring that staff had been properly trained. I couldn’t help wondering when this training was supposed to have happened, given the disruption caused by Covid. One of the schools where this was identified as a key issue was inspected on September 21, just weeks after returning following the summer break. ”
Many years ago, Ofsted inspectors used to be impressed at kids’ ICT skills if their work looked nice, apparently unaware that by using templates or wizards even the most computer-illiterate person could produce a decent-looking document or PowerPoint presentation in no seconds flat. I suppose things have moved beyond that now, but I can’t help thinking that, given some inspectors’ seeming lack of common sense, it might be a good idea for a subject leader to produce a massive, impressive-looking staff training manual just for the purpose of showing inspectors. Put plenty of charts and tables in it, populated with teachers’ names, along with an outline syllabus. Why would I not be surprised were I to learn that an inspector’s reaction on first seeing such a tome would be “Wow!”?
I’m not offering that as a piece of advice by the way! But I can’t help wondering….
If you found this article interesting or useful (or both), why not subscribe to my free newsletter, Digital Education? It’s been going since the year 2000, and has slow news, informed views and honest reviews for Computing and ed tech teachers — and useful experience-based tips.