In praise of drop-ins

Drop-ins are portions of lessons that senior or middle managers visit in order to form judgements about the standard of learning that is taking place.  In the most recent school I visited, they last for 15/20 minutes.  No notice is given, but teachers know that they will be visited on a regular basis. 

Why do I like these?

Because the feedback I heard from staff was that they preferred having quite a few of these drop-ins (several each term) rather than a formal lesson observation where they spend extra time preparing (once or twice a year).  In the school I visited, they actually had both, but were questioning whether they might abandon the latter. 

How do they work?

All members of the senior management team have to guarantee that they will dedicate a half day per week dropping in to a pre-arranged number of lessons.  One of the senior management team produces a chart to ensure that all teachers get equal numbers of drop ins.

The visit is recorded on a short simple form, with headings of WWW - what worked well, EBI - even better if and CPD - any training that might aid development.  One copy goes into the register and another to the teacher, who uses these forms to gather evidence on the standard of their professional practice throughout the year.


We have to get away from the pre-prepared show that all teachers at some stage in their careers have produced to impress senior managers, inspectors and others.  There is a limited amount of time to prepare effective lessons, and teachers need to make a professional call as to how they allocate this.  It's crazy if they spend five hours putting together a brilliant lesson for an observation, if it means they have to dilute their focus on other lessons. 

Drop-ins - unannounced and fairly informal - acknowledge the reality of a teacher's working life.  Let's see if they become standard practice around the country.  It's interesting that two of the teaching schools I've been in contact with in the past few weeks both use them.