What are 'Ofsted crib sheets?'
In October 2022 a storm broke out across the Educational Twitter landscape around a set of 'crib sheets' that Ofsted inspectors reportedly use as a form of 'checklist' for school inspections. Each sheet related to a different curriculum area and appears to shows how Ofsted assess each individual area of the curriculum.
For Secondary English, the sheet shared online reads: This document has been created to support Inspectors undertaking a deep dive in English
and includes assessment questions such as Is the importance of standard English explained and understood. Including its origins?
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How can I get a copy?
The majority of the Ofsted cribsheets were sourced and were shared by Paul Garvey, another advocate for pupil voice, on Twitter. You can access them in his tweet below:
Update Thursday INSPECTOR CRIB SHEETS.
— Sir Talk for Teaching (@PaulGarvey4) October 6, 2022
There are old links around. I'm still getting email requests to share files from Dropbox! The files aren't there. Same from an old link to Google Drive.
All files I have are here, it's open access, Please use this:https://t.co/djt4yqDYh2"
Where is the Personal Development/PSHE Ofsted crib sheet?
The Ofsted crib sheet for Personal Development (PSHE, SMSC & British Values) was only ever shared in image form and not as a printable document. You can find the image here. However, the text was extremely blurry and many teachers could not use to to help them prepare for an Ofsted visit. To combat this, we've played around with photoshop to clear up the image, and have re-written the Personal Development Cribsheet as a PDF file that you can download below.
What are teachers saying?
Across Twitter, teachers reacted to the existence of these crib sheets. Many teachers stated that the system was unfair, as schools that have members of staff who are also part of Ofsted would have an unfair advantage compared to others.
Why is it fair @dan_ofsted that some get this advice and others, by nature of not having an ofsted link don't? pic.twitter.com/UfYrGOfN1H
— Slt (@SLTknows) October 2, 2022
Teachers were also suprised at how ‘prescriptive’ the crib sheets seemed to be, noting that this would be more difficult to prove for smaller schools where one staff member is likely to lead multiple subjects.
Blimey. Those Ofsted sheets are pretty intense. Is it just me, or do they feel very prescriptive? Feeling particularly sorry for smaller primaries where teachers lead multiple subjects whilst teaching significant percentages of the week
— Christopher Harrison (@MrHtheteacher) October 5, 2022
Others were not so surprised by the content of the crib sheets, and said that they contain the questions a teacher would expect Ofsted to be asking during an inspection.
I'm slightly surprised by the performative outrage about the Ofsted knowledge organisers. Just looking at the one in English, are these not the questions we'd expect them to be answering? Are these not questions we'd be confidently able to answer?
— Daniel Bundred
Some educationalists urged schools not to use the Ofsted crib sheets, as they worried that they would lead to increased teacher workload.
You know those Ofsted cribsheets that everyone is dying to get their hands on?
— Adrian Bethune MCCT (@AdrianBethune) October 4, 2022
PLEASE DON'T USE THEM IN YOUR SCHOOLS AND MAKE TEACHERS DO POINTLESS STUFF BECAUSE OFSTED CRIBSHEETS SAY YOU SHOULD!!!!!!!!!
What are Ofsted saying?
At the time of publication, Ofsted has not officially commented on the crib sheets circulating the internet, however Schools Week reported that The Confederation of School Trusts (CST) and Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL) have now written to the inspectorate to demand their publication.