OFSTED AND THE THINKING TOOLKIT

Using our Thinking Toolkit will help the learner to ‘Think Better, Do better, Feel better’. It is designed to be straightforward, flexible, and easy to combine with teachers’ current curriculum.

Teachers and school leaders coming across Got-A-Head®? for the first time may well ask how our products can help them do their job more effectively. We thought that an easy way to show that is to relate what we do to OFSTED’s inspection framework document.

We’ve taken the section that looks at what inspectors will consider when making judgements and responded to each of their points with what Got-A-Head®?’s Thinking Toolkit offers. The text from the original OFSTED document is reproduced in green, while our response to each point is in blue.

We’ve removed a handful of paragraphs from the OFSTED framework document that aren’t directly relevant to what we do, but you’ll see that using our Thinking Toolkit can be of huge benefit to the school in the vast majority of elements the inspectors consider.

What inspectors will consider when making judgements

Quality of education

Inspectors will make a judgement on the quality of education by evaluating the extent to which:

Intent

leaders take on or construct a curriculum that is ambitious

Got-A-Head®? is offering something that will up the learner’s game. Namely, our Thinking Toolkit and the wide variety of tools, techniques, and strategies it contains.

It enables the learner to reach for more ambitious goals.
It allows the teacher to present a more ambitious curriculum because the Thinking Toolkit gives the learner the tools they need to cope. Not just cope, but flourish!

and designed to give all learners, particularly the most disadvantaged and those with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) or high needs, the knowledge and cultural capital they need to succeed in life

The straightforward nature of our Thinking Toolkit lends itself to easy differentiation, offering

support to those that need a well-developed framework
easy ways to challenge those at the other end of the spectrum
an extremely flexible and scalable learning system that can be used from the simplest, easy-to-grasp concepts up to sophisticated and complex ways of working.

the provider’s curriculum is coherently planned and sequenced towards cumulatively sufficient knowledge and skills for future learning and employment

We have specific tools such as Chain Reaction and Wrap & Remember that are created with the aim of maximising learning and linking it to future work. We continue to develop techniques and strategies to add to our Thinking Toolkit, in particular, to help learners with an understanding of new concepts, long-term memorisation and demonstrating knowledge. All our strategies have a virtuous circle for continuous improvement built in.

the provider has the same academic, technical or vocational ambitions for almost all learners. Where this is not practical – for example, for some learners with high levels of SEND – its curriculum is designed to be ambitious and to meet their needs

Our tools are cross-curricular and are useful to all pupils regardless of their ability or interests or culture.

Forget-Me-Nots can help all pupils, but can be used to differentiate the depth of analysis of a problem by different pupils.

We encourage the personalisation of knowledge, validating what the individual learner can do, whatever their level of ability or need.

Implementation

teachers present subject matter clearly, promoting appropriate discussion about the subject matter they are teaching. They check learners’ understanding systematically, identify misconceptions accurately and provide clear, direct feedback

QWERTY® and the Forget-Me-Nots improve the teacher’s insight into the thinking of their pupils, and do so from the very earliest stages of a task. They improve the communications between teacher and pupil by providing a common language to explore each other’s thinking.

In doing so, they respond and adapt their teaching as necessary, without unnecessarily elaborate or differentiated approaches

The contents of the Thinking Toolkit are straightforward and easy to grasp, yet can be used in combination to give increasingly complex and sophisticated approaches. They lend themselves to self-differentiation, so the learners can decide for themselves the level at which they want to use them. This saves the teacher having to provide unnecessarily elaborate or differentiated approaches.

In future, our software support for these systems will allow teachers to quickly appreciate different levels of understanding of concepts within their class and provide lesson plan ‘templates’ that allow for easy differentiation of tasks, where necessary.

over the course of study, teaching is designed to help learners to remember in the long term the content they have been taught and to integrate new knowledge into larger concepts

QWERTY® is specifically designed to promote an upward spiral in achievement, allowing new ideas and tasks to be built upon previous learning and experience. Our Forget-Me-Nots Wrap and Remember and Chain Reaction are specifically designed to make the learner consider how learning can be built upon or reused in different contexts.

Our Thinking Toolkit lends itself to a cross-curricular approach, which allows common representations of thinking, irrespective of subject. The Thinking Toolkit’s contents are designed to simplify the communication of ideas and methodologies, aiding the absorption of knowledge and its transfer between subjects and concepts.

Encouraging learners to evaluate their work, so they can enhance and build upon it is part of the virtuous cycle of learning and improvement that is at the heart of Got-A-Head®?’s approach. Teachers and leaders can use the same tools to evaluate learners on an ongoing basis, without any unnecessary burden.

teachers and leaders use assessment well, for example to help learners embed and use knowledge fluently or to check understanding and inform teaching. Leaders understand the limitations of assessment and do not use it in a way that creates unnecessary burdens for staff or learners

We are currently developing a further tool that will aid with long-term memorisation.

teachers create an environment that allows the learner to focus on learning. The resources and materials that teachers select – in a way that does not create unnecessary workload for staff – reflect the provider’s ambitious intentions for the course of study and clearly support the intent of a coherently planned curriculum, sequenced towards cumulatively sufficient knowledge and skills for future learning and employment

Got-A-Head®?’s products are designed to minimise the effort required by the teacher to embed them in the curriculum they are teaching. The techniques are scalable both in the amount of the products that are used and the depth of sophistication with which they are used. The Thinking Toolkit is designed to maximise the benefit learners reap from the resources and materials that teachers select, reinvesting it in their future learning so that the benefits continue to grow and flourish.

Impact

learners develop detailed knowledge and skills across the curriculum and, as a result, achieve well. Where relevant, this is reflected in results from national tests and examinations that meet government expectations, or in the qualifications obtained

The Got-A-Head®? tools, techniques and strategies are designed to lend themselves easily to a cross-curricular methodology. They increase the transferability of knowledge, skills and learning to ensure learners do the very best they can. The Thinking Toolkit provides a ready vocabulary for learners and teachers to share concepts and ways of thinking.

Got-A-Head®?’s ethos is to promote incremental learning. This is done by gradually introducing new techniques on an ongoing basis, while taking those already mastered to a higher level. This applies not just to items from our Thinking Toolkit, but to the subject matter they are being taught. The idea of continuous incremental improvement and regular practice ensures the lessons learned are learned for life.

The Thinking Toolkit contains a number of techniques that are designed to help the learner maximise their performance in a test environment, from REaLLY? that helps them analyse each question fully, so they can plan an appropriate answer, to TOPAZ that guides their time management.

learners are ready for the next stage of education, employment or training. Where relevant, they gain qualifications that allow them to go on to destinations that meet their interests, aspirations and the intention of their course of study. They read widely and often, with fluency and comprehension.

Got-A-Head®?’s techniques are not limited to the school environment. They are designed to be used throughout a person’s life. In particular, QWERTY® is scalable to a workplace creativity and design system, emphasising cooperation and teamwork with management and project-planning tools built-in.

Behaviour and attitudes

Inspectors will make a judgement on behaviour and attitudes by evaluating the extent to which:

learners’ attitudes to their education or training are positive. They are committed to their learning, know how to study effectively and do so, are resilient to setbacks and take pride in their achievements

Got-A-Head®?’s mantra “Think Better, Do Better, Feel Better” is based on our desire to create a positive feedback loop for learners. Our tools and techniques are designed to get people to see how improvements in their thinking and learning improve their ability to achieve and perform for themselves, in their peer groups and in society at large. We believe this will make them feel better about themselves and their ability to shape their future.

leaders, teachers and learners create an environment where bullying, peer-on-peer abuse or discrimination are not tolerated. If they do occur, staff deal with issues quickly and effectively, and do not allow them to spread

While Got-A-Head®? is not primarily designed with this problem in mind, there are several aspects to our system that promotes positive attitudes in the workplace.

Got-A-Head®? emphasises that each person’s unique experiences are used to generate ideas.
In its group work, it puts a premium on allowing all members of the group to be heard and listened to.
Ideas put forward are not censored, but are actively examined, strengthened and combined to form options to go forward to the final design.
Ideas are evaluated on rigorous objective criteria by the group. All ideas are evaluated equally no matter who came up with them.
Got-A-Head®? actively encourages good conduct both in terms of personal bravery in pursuing the novel and original and in terms of orchestrating the peer group to obtain the best results for shared endeavours.
The related Forget-Me-Nots Give-it-a-WhiRL! and Gave-it-a-WhiRL! are used for ranking and evaluating ideas, designs and solutions. Ethical considerations – ‘is it right?’ – is a core element of them.

Personal development

Inspectors will make a judgement on the personal development of learners by evaluating the extent to which:

the curriculum extends beyond the academic, technical or vocational. It provides for learners’ broader development, enabling them to develop and discover their interests and talents

Got-A-Head®?’s aim is to provide skills for life, to be used in all aspects of their life, whether personal, professional, educational or domestic. QWERTY®, in particular, encourages utilising the pupils’ own personal experiences to generate ideas from the unique perspective of their individual life experiences.

the curriculum and the provider’s wider work support learners to develop their character – including their resilience, confidence and independence – and help them know how to keep physically and mentally healthy

Got-A-Head®?’s mantra “Think Better, Do Better, Feel Better” is based on our desire to foster growing confidence in a person’s abilities. Our tools and techniques, particularly QWERTY®, are structured to allow people to produce their best, learn all the hard-earned lessons that experience gives, then reuse those lessons on the next appropriate project.

Knowing they can rely on the contents of the Thinking Toolkit is vastly reassuring for a learner experiencing a ‘blank page’ moment. They can be confident that those tools and techniques will help them generate high-quality work, knowing they give a solid foundation they can build on while providing a robust framework to organise their thoughts. They understand that those strategies enable them to personalise their learning to a much higher degree – putting themselves and their own experiences into everything they do, validating their unique perspective.

at each stage of education, the provider prepares learners for future success in their next steps

The Got-A-Head®? Thinking Toolkit is designed to support learners throughout their time in education and beyond. Our tools and techniques are completely scalable, allowing pupils to add further complexity and sophistication to their learning based upon the solid foundations created by using them in the early stages of their education.

the provider prepares learners for life in modern Britain by: equipping them to be responsible, respectful, active citizens who contribute positively to society; developing their understanding of fundamental British values; developing their understanding and appreciation of diversity; celebrating what we have in common and promoting respect for the different protected characteristics as defined in law

At Got-A-Head®?, we believe passionately that everyone can contribute to making our world a better place. Our tools and techniques, particularly QWERTY®, are built around this concept and respect for others’ ideas. In fact, the more diverse the experiences of the human minds involved in the creative process, the more original and useful we believe the designs and creations are likely to be. At the same time, QWERTY® stresses having high common standards against which all ideas are judged equally to maximise the quality of what is produced, whether it be in school, in work or at home.

Leadership and management

Inspectors will make a judgement on the effectiveness of leadership and management by evaluating the extent to which:

leaders have a clear and ambitious vision for providing high-quality, inclusive education and training to all. This is realised through strong, shared values, policies and practice

QWERTY® and the Forget-Me-Nots put a premium on the egalitarian sharing of ideas. Ethical considerations are encouraged, as standard, and the Thinking Toolkit provides a robust and accessible offering that enhances the learning of all, regardless of ability or need. The terminology they use give an easy way for learners, teachers and leaders to communicate effectively about the learning that is taking place, and help it continuously improve.

leaders focus on improving staff’s subject, pedagogical and pedagogical content knowledge to enhance the teaching of the curriculum and the appropriate use of assessment. The practice and subject knowledge of staff are built up and improve over time

Got-A-Head®? plans to enhance our current offering by producing software versions of our tools and techniques to allow them to be used on phones, tablets and laptops. These systems are currently in development. A key part of this strategy is to allow co-operative sharing and management of teaching “templates”. These virtual lesson plans could be shared among staff, within a department, with the school, within an academy and among educationalists at large. The idea is to promote communities of users, while allowing departmental heads and principals to monitor and improve the teaching environment.

Our company policy is to make it as easy as possible for teachers to use our products, minimizing the amount of time they need to get up and running, while maximizing the impact that our products have in the classroom. To do this we intend to provide teachers with easy ‘how to’ kits and readily available examples of using our products in their specific subject domains. We have already generated these for English and Mathematics at KS2 level and, as our company develops, we are committed to continuing this for the much wider subject options in KS3 and beyond. The aim throughout is to provide the best possible support for teachers to help them maximise the positive impact on their pupils.

leaders engage effectively with learners and others in their community, including – where relevant – parents, carers, employers and local services

Our medium-term aim at Got-A-Head®? is to provide full software support for use of our techniques in the classroom. Our plans are that our software systems will integrate into common learning information systems used within schools. Our systems are designed to capture the processes by which pupils think about, construct, understand and memorise what they do in class. When used in a software setting, these data can be stored and analysed and made available to those authorised to see them. In this way, a teacher, department head or school principal can see the academic strengths and weaknesses of pupils giving the leader a more rounded understanding of the pupils in their care. This should support a leader’s engagement with the pupils, their parents and others with whom leaders need to consult.

those responsible for governance understand their role and carry this out effectively. They ensure that the provider has a clear vision and strategy and that resources are managed well. They hold leaders to account for the quality of education or training

Governance and higher management most often boils down to deciding policy and then allocating resources and delegating authority to those executing that policy. Information is key to formulating policy in the first place and then judging its effectiveness. Got-A-Head®?’s software systems and the insight it gives will shine a light on the effects of policy and its execution that are likely to have been hidden before. Got-A-Head®?’s software system’s provision of shared templates, and anonymised analysis of their use in one or multiple schools can provide consistent benchmarks against which effectiveness of policy and its implementation can be compared.