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Template · Education · 6 sections

Classroom observation record for school staff

When a referral asks what is happening in class, this record keeps one lesson’s evidence in a shape the next meeting can use: the lesson and seating, what the student did and for how long, engagement rated three ways, and recommendations the educator can act on.

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Built for

  • School Counsellor
  • Educational Psychologist

Find it on the templates page

How schools use it

In private practice? The same template is on Grounded Scribe's Classroom Observation page (Grounded Scribe site).

6 sections

Template structure

The classroom observation template captures these sections automatically from your recording when your school has added AI. With AI off, staff fill in the sections themselves.

  1. 1 Student Details
  2. 2 Observation Context
  3. 3 Behaviour Observed
  4. 4 Engagement
  5. 5 Peer Interactions
  6. 6 Recommendations

The Classroom Observation template

CLASSROOM OBSERVATION RECORD

STUDENT DETAILS:

Name:

Year/Grade:

Date:

Time: From ___ To ___

Observer:

OBSERVATION CONTEXT:

Subject/Activity:

Teacher:

Class Size:

Seating Position:

BEHAVIOUR OBSERVED:

On-Task Behaviour:

[Frequency, duration, and quality of engagement with learning tasks]

Off-Task Behaviour:

[Specific behaviours, triggers, frequency]

Attention and Concentration:

[Ability to sustain focus, distractibility, transitions]

Compliance with Instructions:

[Following teacher directions, response to redirection]

ENGAGEMENT:

Academic Engagement: ( ) High ( ) Moderate ( ) Low

Behavioural Engagement: ( ) High ( ) Moderate ( ) Low

Emotional Engagement: ( ) High ( ) Moderate ( ) Low

PEER INTERACTIONS:

[Quality and nature of social interactions]

Cooperative Play/Work:

Conflict:

Social Initiations:

Response to Peers:

TEACHER INTERACTIONS:

[How the student responds to and engages with the teacher]

ENVIRONMENTAL FACTORS:

The opening of the template: its headings and fields.

How it works

  1. 1

    Record or dictate the meeting

    In the room or over a video call. Audio is deleted once transcribed. If a recording can't upload or be transcribed, it stays on your device so you can try again.

  2. 2

    Pick the Classroom Observation template

    When you record, dictate or upload, press the Note template button, search by name or section, and open Sections to preview it. Make it your default at this school so it is ready next time. You can switch templates until you submit the recording.

  3. 3

    Review and finalise

    Your note is generated in the structure above. Edit anything you want — in your school’s words — then save to the student’s record.

Quick guide

Which template should I use?

Start from what just happened. You can switch templates until you submit the recording.

More education templates

Functional Behaviour Assessment Structured Functional Behaviour Assessment (FBA) documenting behaviour patterns, antecedents, and functions. Read → NCCD Evidence Record Evidence record for the Nationally Consistent Collection of Data on School Students with Disability (NCCD). Captures the adjustments provided across categories (curriculum, environment, communication, personal care) and the evidence base sustaining each, with the disability category and level of adjustment left for the school team to decide — built for census-time review and audit. Read → IEP/ILP Progress Note Individual Education/Learning Plan progress note documenting goal achievement and adjustments. Read → Curriculum Differentiation Documentation of how curriculum has been adjusted for an individual student — content, process, product, or environment differentiation — with the rationale, the strategies in place, and how their effectiveness will be reviewed. Useful evidence for NCCD, IEPs, and learning support team meetings. Read → Intervention Session Note Session note for literacy, numeracy, or other targeted learning interventions (1:1 or small group). Read → Learning Support Referral Note Documentation for referring a student into learning support programs with background and evidence. Read →
Browse all education templates

Guides for this kind of note

What Counts as NCCD Evidence: The Four Evidence Areas Read → Documenting Attention & Executive Function Needs for the NCCD Read → Quality Differentiated Teaching Practice (QDTP): A Documentation Guide Read →
All guides on Disability Inclusion / NCCD

Try the Classroom Observation template free

Tell us a little about your school and we'll show you how it would work for your team.

  • A made-up school like yours to explore for 14 days
  • We check each request by hand and reply within two school days
  • Made-up students only: no real student information needed

Prefer email? Write to [email protected].

(03) 4422 2284: answered any time by Descant's AI receptionist, which keeps a written record of the call. Please don't share student details. Our team replies within two school days.

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