As you’re probably already aware, a new Ofsted Education Inspection Framework will come into force in England in September 2019. You can get an overview of what the new Framework means for primary schools in our series of blog posts, where we’ve taken a closer look at the Framework, alongside the new School Inspection Handbook that Ofsted inspectors will be using.
In this post, we’ve pulled out some of the key points inspectors will be focusing on in relation to how you teach handwriting in your school and all the ways Nelson Handwriting can help.
1) The new Framework states that schools need to ‘be efficient and effective’ in their use of resources. Nelson Handwriting helps you achieve this by providing all the essential resources and tools you need to teach handwriting from Reception to Year 6/P1-P7.
2) The new Framework makes clear that any resources used should not create extra workload for teachers. Nelson Handwriting has lots of handy features to save you time, like the Nelson Handwriting font that’s easy to install in Microsoft Word so that you can use it to make whole-school resources and models of good handwriting. There are also Extension and Focus photocopiable sheets, so differentiation is taken care of. The online subscription also provides exciting digital support, easily accessible and perfectly matched to the teaching programme.
3) The School Inspection Handbook explicitly states that assessing how well pupils are taught to read will be prioritised as a main inspection activity, with a particular focus on phonics teaching. This focus is all about ensuring that children are equipped with the skills they need to access the curriculum as a whole. Nelson Handwriting introduces letters in line with Letters and Sounds so that it fits in with children’s growing phonics knowledge, helping to ensure the consistent approach across the curriculum that inspectors are looking for.
4) Inspectors will evaluate how well your school’s curriculum is helping pupils build a deep web of knowledge that they can recall and draw on to make connections. Nelson Handwriting is a whole-school approach and provides guidance on developing a whole-school handwriting policy, which means that children will be taught handwriting consistently across your whole school from year to year, enabling them to draw on their prior knowledge.
5) One of the main headlines in the new Framework is that Ofsted do not want to see ‘teaching to the test’. This means that inspectors will be looking for meaningful assessment, not meaningless data. Assessment should be used to find out how well pupils are doing in relation to the point they have reached in the curriculum and to inform teaching, and moreover, effective assessment should not place unnecessary burdens on teachers by substantially increasing workloads. In line with this, Nelson Handwriting offers simple integrated assessments, including placement and progress tests, to help assess and monitor each child’s progress.
Find out more about Nelson Handwriting: The definitive handwriting scheme
Nelson Handwriting is a consistent whole-school handwriting scheme for Reception–Year 6/P1–7. It introduces cursive handwriting in step-by-step stages in line with the latest UK curricula.
Head to the Oxford Primary website to read more and to try a FREE Nelson Handwriting lesson!
Want more details on the new Ofsted Education Inspection Framework?
The Ofsted Education Inspection Framework and School Inspection Handbook are available in full on the gov.uk website.
Download the Ofsted Education Inspection Framework
Download the Ofsted School Inspection Handbook
We’re here to support your high ambitions for all your pupils. Take a look at the Primary Ofsted Framework page to see how we can help you ensure your school is Ofted-ready.