Preparing for a Deep-Dive

Preparing for a Deep Dive in P.E

All teachers will know the feeling of having THE CALL! PE subject co-ordinators may well fear being told by their head teacher that “PE will be subject to a DEEP DIVE!”

Firstly, it’s important to remember that if your subject has been put forward for a deep dive then the head teacher is sufficiently satisfied that your curriculum area is doing well.

We have spoken to some subject co-ordinators who have been subjected to an Ofsted deep dive, which consists of a short interview (30 or so minutes) with subject lead, observations of PE going on in school with the PE lead, conversation with a small group of children (PP, SEN, boy/girl mix - from lessons being observed) and discussion with teachers who were observed. Here are some of the questions that they have been asked by inspectors:

· Can you describe PE provision in your school?

· Share your long-term plan

· Do you have a long-term vision you could share with the inspector? (Use this as a focus tool.)

· We haven’t heard yet of a request for any sort of action plan. Plans for PE and Sport Premium should be on your school website so the inspectors will have already looked at this prior to your visit.

· What is your vision of outcomes for pupils in PE and have these been produced in collaboration with stakeholders including staff, children, parents and governors?

· What is the progression of skills like in PE?

· Share your long-term plan be prepared to talk about how it was designed.

· Share your medium-term planning and assessment documents (e.g. I-PEP) and have examples to explain your discussions. Be prepared to discuss how specific skills are built upon over the key stages and year groups. (Make sure your discussion focuses on core movement skills and isn’t sport specific.) Eg- Give information about invasion games- Y1 children were initially exposed to playground games to develop skills of tactical decision making; Y2 begin to look at sending and receiving during multi-skills units; Y3/4 cover units of work based around throwing and catching games (netball,

basketball, handball, tag rugby) in a general sense of the transferable skills; then Y5/6 are exposed to the traditional sports and competition now skills are fully secured.

· How do know children have made progress in PE? Share your assessment documents- such as I-PEP.

· How do you identify gaps in the areas of PE? You could begin to discuss a unit-specific example such as gymnastics. You could refer to the year groups who will be observed by the inspector.

Staff Skills

You need to have good knowledge of the skills and capabilities of both staff and

children within your school in order to be confident when talking about progression, be

prepared to say if you have a year group who are below age related expectations,

for example, in gymnastics and why and state what you intend to do or are doing to

address this.

What support do you give to members of staff who need a bit extra within PE?

Things to consider:

· What CPD have all staff received with regard to INSET or staff meetings?

· Have your staff been going out for CPD opportunities and what impact has this had?

· How have you decided what CPD is required?

If you have audited staff needs and subject knowledge be prepared to share anecdotal evidence of what you have put in place as a result. For example, each year new staff complete a survey about subject knowledge. Existing staff complete surveys about their curriculum coverages and CPD needs. Make sure you have used this to plan CPD opportunities. Share your strategies of training more staff across key stages and using staff to disseminate knowledge from training across their phases.

Ensure that any CPD undertaken meets the requirements of the DfE standards for teacher professional development, which are:

1. Professional development should have a focus on improving and evaluating pupil outcomes.

Professional development should be underpinned by robust evidence and expertise. Professional development should include collaboration and expert challenge.

Professional development programmes should be sustained over time. And all this is underpinned by, and requires that: Professional development must be prioritised by school leadership.

If you are considering which CPD programme to implement you should also look for courses and specialisms which are associated with National PHYSICAL EDUCATION organisations such as the PECS course which is licensed by AfPE.

These weren’t asked specifically but which may come up in conversation.

· What makes your PE curriculum different?

· Do you have new units that your children specifically chose to include?

· Was your curriculum created by the children?

· What events are different? Eg Paralympic activities, parachute games

· Levels of physical activity within the school day. Talk about active learning in the curriculum and give anecdotal evidence of this and its impact upon learning.

· Share information about any initiatives you use in school to promote physical

activity, for example:

· Rewarding active travel to school

· Initiatives to deliver healthy eating and lifestyles

· Walking bus programmes

· Active playtimes with play leaders

· Creation of active zones in your playground

· Brain breaks and wake and shake

· Daily mile

· Bikeability

PE and the WHOLE child

· Try to talk about what impact your curriculum has upon the child.

· Consider what PE can offer your children that other subject areas cannot.

· How does your PE offer link to your school values?

· What are you proud of achieving in your PE offer in recent years?

· Emotional health and wellbeing

· Charity events based upon sport

· Play leaders, sports council

· Mindfulness, relaxation

· Links to other subjects

o What links does PE have?

o Have there been any whole school projects that is PE based linking with other

subjects?

· How does PE bring your community together?

· What sporting events are held over the school year?

· Santa dash, Race for Life, Sport Relief, National School Sports Week, May Day celebrations, Sports Days, sponsored events

· Have you had any athletes in school?

· What club links do you have?

· Do you support other community groups (nursery, brownies, cubs, sea scouts etc)

· Parents spectating events

· Parent workshops in school

Finally remember to be proud of what your subject has achieved and ensure that if there are any things that you are especially pleased with, which has had a positive impact on learning in PE, TELL the inspector. Remember, he or she is just as keen to learn about PE in your school as you should be of telling them about it.