It never received huge levels of publicity, and in fact the event seems to have been removed from Ofsted’s own website, but back in July 2004 Ofsted actually did inspect Ofsted.

Undoubtedly this was a rigorous and demanding inspection. And in the end Ofsted concluded that Ofsted had improved schools, reinforced the national curriculum and provided effective advice to government.

In short, top marks all round.

Of course it all sounds a bit silly when put like that. But there is an important lesson to be learned here. For the fact is that people who are able to evaluate their own work and their own performance invariably become more highly motivated and more engaged in their own development.

The only problem is: how does one learn self-evaluation?

Indeed it is widely recognised that it is possible to evaluate and mislead oneself at the same time! Instead of development and improvement being a result of self-evaluation, self-deception creeps in and leads to a lack of motivation and development.

But, despite these difficulties, self-evaluation remains an incredibly powerful tool and Ofsted puts great store by the way the leadership of a school uses self-evaluation and review to improve teaching, because such self-evaluation, when used properly, really can work.

In the simplest of terms it provides a benchmark as to how much a school is improving.

One way of developing self-evaluation in your school while showing Ofsted that you are on top of this issue is to use the specially prepared video from Classwatch.

Such is the power of this video that is has led some commentators to suggest that they have learned more about their teaching in 30 minutes than in the previous decade.

With the Classwatch video system colleagues can observe a lesson remotely, and all teachers have an opportunity for self-evaluation. The lesson can then be reviewed and discussed with the teacher so that great lessons can be shared with other teachers in your school

In order to show just how effective this process can be we are currently offering the recording of a free lesson to the first 50 schools that contact us.

There is more information on our website at http://helloclasswatch.co.uk/FreeLesson

Alternatively you can call us on 0800 043 9510 or email us at info@classwatch.co.uk

I look forward to hearing from you.

Andrew Jenkins

TES Foundation now offer free tools, available to all schools, as well as our subscription-based online school management modules.

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