It is important that Ofsted responds to teachers' and schools' concerns and thoughts and updates its procedures. That is a key reason why we have been happy to draw together the thoughts of the history teaching community to the recent Ofsted public consultation. Much of what they are proposing to introduce and change makes reasonable sense but we do have a few key concerns that we have shared officially and which you may want to be aware of:

• Curriculum design should only be judged by inspectors who understand and appreciate particular subject needs.

• If teachers’ subject knowledge is to be judged by Ofsted officials then they must have and understand subject specialisms. Therefore, Ofsted should consider recruiting more subject specialist inspectors. 

• We are concerned about the lack of reference to quality of subject support at ITE stages and in schools for new teachers in the proposed framework. If Ofsted are to have confidence in the level of subject and pedagogical knowledge then there should also be concern about the quality of subject training at primary and secondary ITE, which needs to include the level of support that is provided in schools themselves. 

• The HA is concerned once again that Key Stage 1 appears to have been excluded from the need to deliver a broad curriculum. Instead the reference is on the core subjects – this can create bad practice, a distorted curriculum and a missed opportunity to engage young pupils in a number of subjects. 

To read the full HA response please download the attachment below.