Inspectors will seek to understand how a subject has been planned across the school, one of the ways they will do this is by speaking to the curriculum and subject leads of the deep dive subjects. Wherever possible the inspector will try to avoid deep diving into subjects that have the same leader.

Individual lessons will not be judged; however, inspectors will be looking to see if a lesson matches the outline given by the subject and senior leaders. The inspector is likely to visit a number of lessons for each of the deep dive subjects, and then meet with the subject lead to discuss the sequencing and the curriculum plan.

The inspector will want to speak to teachers about how they plan and deliver a sequence of lessons over time to help students learn the curriculum content in class. The inspector will want to know how the subject content, knowledge and skills delivered to a specific year group will be essential for students’ progression in later years of school. Although lessons are not graded in the new framework, inspectors may also talk to the teachers about the lesson they have observed.

A work scrutiny may take place alongside the subject or curriculum leader, this will include looking at students’ work to get a fuller picture of their learning throughout the curriculum. Inspectors will take a selection of books from different classes and look at students’ learning.

Inspectors will also speak to students about their learning, this is to get a deeper understanding of how well curriculum content is learned and retained in school. Inspectors will meet a range of students, including those they have seen in lessons and whose work they have scrutinised. The purpose of this is to provide evidence of progression and sequencing, so they will also ask the students about their learning in previous years. It is useful to note that this is only one of the ways that Ofsted are making a conclusion; it will not solely be based on student conversations.