Jesus' Ofsted report
R.E. adviser Lat Blaylock and Christian Aid's Daniel Sinclair's talk at this years Greenbelt brought up lots of questions for teachers and learners alike. This extract has been requested by many who went to the talk.

We have obtained an unusual OFSTED report through virtual archaeology – it is clearly the inspector who watched the Sermon on the Mount. If OFSTED marked Jesus, for the Sermon on the Mount it would be like this:Mr Christ's lesson planning is unsatisfactory. Objectives were not shared with learners at the start of the lesson. Classroom organisation was chaotic – some learners arrived up the mountain late, after the lesson had started, and were not dealt with according to school policy. SEN learners (the disciples) form a large part of this group, but the higher level concepts and language - of righteousness, meekness, persecution and injustice - was not simplified to meet their needs. No Individual Education Plans had been filled in, and differentiation of learning was not evident. Despite the clarity of the 'three part lesson' structure, this teaching session went on for too long, and there was neither a starter activity nor a plenary session.Regarding literacy and numeracy, the lesson was poor. Almost all the time was spent in teacher-talk, with no written work set. Evidence of prior learning is non-existent (the disciples tell me they have no exercise books or folders, and little work is set – or marked). The use of stories devised by the teacher (parables) about wise and foolish builders, or lamps under buckets were not clear and are unlikely to prove memorable. Some gifted and talented Pharisees, sat at the back of the group and were whispering throughout the lesson, clearly not engaged by the learning. There was no computer assisted learning.While the materials and content might have provided for spiritual and moral development, these potentialities were not developed by the teaching, which also ignored the contribution of this material to citizenship studies.In terms of assessment, this class have been with this teacher for three years, but no records of their attainment were available. He is unfamiliar with the 8 level scale.Attitudes and behaviour are poor. Many of them behave badly (James and John were seen bullying other disciples in between lessons; a boy called Thomas doubts whether anything his teacher says is true). Overall, methods, content and delivery of this lesson was of an unacceptably poor standard.For any Christian who teaches, in church or school, the teaching of God and of Jesus represents an alternative inspiration to that offered by the secular structures of schooling.When God was on earth in the person of Jesus, it was as a teacher, and Jesus was brilliant at it. The fact that OFSTED might not have liked his lesson plans only tells me that OFSTED haven't got a monopoly on teaching quality.Lat Blaylock, RE today, 2003©lat@retoday.org.ukTuesday 9th September 2003