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Content: Why do Ofsted inspectors observe individual lessons and how do they evaluate teaching in schools? Anyone guilty of offering post lesson feedback which goes along the lines of, “I wouldn’t have done that, I’d have [insert latest faddish nonsense]” needs stringing up by their thumbs. I really don’t care what someone who is less expert than me might have done. Regardless of how vaunted their pedagogical content knowledge might be no oneknows my kids in my classroom like I do. I’m happy to discuss the choices I made but please don’t tell me what youmight hypothetically have done! Worse still is the observer who says, “It was great but I can’t give you a 1 because [insert stupid reason here].” There is a special hell reserved for such people. Lesson observation, if it is to be productive and actually help teachers improve, needs to focus less on making judgements and more on teasing out teachers’ expertise. To that end the observer needs to adjust their stance and assume that the teacher knows far more about their class than they are likely to pick up in the 20 minutes or so that they hang around. Instead of making silly comments like, “That boy made no progress.”