Primary School Improvement Framework

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Primary Vision

We want children to be part of a dynamic learning society in which autonomous schools work in partnership to engage, inspire, enable and include all learners;

• encouraging a love of learning,
• establishing strong partnerships,
• reinforcing that every child matters,
• creating confident, effective leaders,
• developing learning communities,
• promoting the highest aspirations.

This vision has been translated into three main foci for this year’s Schools Branch Strategic Plan (SBSP).

We want Wiltshire to be known as an Authority:

• with the highest aspirations for all our learners with assessment for learning at the heart of raising achievement;
• where high quality partnership support is provided to enable all leaders to be successful and fulfilled;
• where importance is placed on the ethos and culture that is established in schools, with collaborative leadership to enable and empower all to succeed.

Values

In seeking to achieve these aspirations, the following values will mark how the LA relates and works with schools.

• Each school’s self evaluation will be used to identify school’s strengths, areas for improvement and targets.
• School autonomy is respected, encouraged and enabled by appropriate LA strategies, rooted in transparent, open and honest conversations.
• The service is matched to the needs of individual schools with partnership working balanced to ensure that any concerns raised with schools are never a surprise.

Keys for School Improvement

Headteachers clearly have the responsibility for school improvement and will use the ‘keys’ to school improvement outlined below, to help to focus the areas which need development. Headteachers, in professional dialogue with SIPs, would use these to support their school self evaluation. The LA will seek to work in partnership with all schools to establish an effective school improvement cycle using these keys for school improvement.

School Improvement Cycle	Robust and rigorous self evaluation Identifying and prioritising key areas for improvement Securing effective school improvement planning, identifying the most effective actions to address areas for development Ensuring that actions build capacity and sustainability for further improvement Monitoring and evaluating the impact of actions to bring about improvement Reviewing the school improvement plan, and re-aligning the plan as appropriate Ensuring actions have been taken to address the previous Ofsted key issues Raising awareness with the governing body of the school improvement priorities Ensuring that the SEF/MSSE reflects the right school improvement priorities
Plan for Improvement Achievement	Using a single plan on focused activity for improving achievement Identifying key actions to address identified areas for improvement with clear timelines Evaluating on a regular basis (3 times per year), informed by pupil progress Ensuring that there are clear lines of accountability for actions and outcomes
Focus on improving teaching and learning	Placing teaching and learning at the heart of school improvement Exploring CPD needs against areas for development in the plan for improving achievement Identifying effective use of curricular targets to raise expectations and focus on a key area of learning Focusing on quality first teaching for all children as an entitlement Providing context for increasing children’s involvement and ownership of their learning Improving teachers’ understanding of progression in learning Valuing and supporting the learning of the whole school community Supporting change in classroom practice to impact on children’s progress Embedding the principles of assessment for and of learning and Assessing Pupil Progress (APP) Ensuring that curricular targets are used to raise expectations and focus on a key area of learning Wide range of opportunities to develop skills
Tracking children	Securing clear understanding of progression in learning Embedding accurate, reliable and consistent teacher assessment throughout the year to inform planning and teaching Capturing this assessment on a regular basis (3 times per year) Building a picture of individual children’s progress Identifying children who are not progressing thereby ‘actioning’ intervention to be considered (not necessarily out-of-class) Providing a means of measuring the impact of intervention Spreading teacher responsibility for children’s progress Supporting pupil conferencing, enabling children to reflect on, control and improve their learning
Pupil progress meetings	Enabling regular discussion of all the key players (teacher, TA, SLT) of each child’s progress Sharing evidence of pupils’ progress Establishing that there is a shared responsibility for children’s progress Celebrating success and learning from what works well Identifying the next steps for children’s learning

School Improvement Partners (SIPs)

The Headteacher will continue to take a lead in establishing a good professional relationship with the SIP to jointly carry out the following core functions within a time allocation of 5 days per school (3 days in school):-

• explore with the headteacher, the school’s self evaluation so that they can accurately evaluate how well it is serving its children and what it needs to do to improve;
• provide professional support, working alongside the headteacher to provide guidance and challenge in school improvement including the setting of suitably ambitious targets;
• ensure that school performance data is used to evaluate progress of all children including those vulnerable to under-achievement;
• headteacher performance management;
• where appropriate, validating the school’s judgements through joint lesson observations, work scrutiny, discussions with children, staff, senior leadership team and governors;
• agreeing with the headteacher and governors if partnership working with the LA is required.

The precise detail of how the SIP works with the school on each of the scheduled visits will remain flexible.

The areas for discussion throughout the year between the headteacher and SIP will be recorded in the SIP note of visit. The accumulation of information from these notes of visit will help to form the basis of the SIP’s annual report focusing on school self evaluation. The notes of visit will provide an ongoing record of the SIP’s engagement with the school, responding to the school’s individual needs focusing on different sections so that this builds up a shared picture of the school self evaluation in the annual report.

Local Authority Contact

As part of the ‘New Relationship with Schools’ there is a revised role for the LA contact, which will be a named person for every school. This colleague can provide:-

• the first ‘port of call’ for the school for any queries and professional advice beyond the role of the SIP, including ‘signposting’ to access further support and advice;
• support and advice to the group of schools in a cluster;
• support and advice in an Ofsted inspection;
• support for the school with headteacher appointments;
• oversee and ‘line management’ of the work of a group of SIPs ideally in a geographical area.

‘Improving Schools’ Strategy

At some point, as an outcome of school self evaluation, schools might identify the need for support for school improvement. There is an expectation that schools will initially seek to find a solution to address their school improvement priorities using their own capacity to improve. Further partnership working between the school and the LA can be requested by the headteacher in discussion with the SIP, through the ‘Improving Schools’ Strategy. This is the generic term used to describe how the LA can partner with schools beyond support provided by the SIP.

1. Who is the ‘Improving Schools’ Strategy aimed at?

This is open to all schools, providing a broad spectrum of partnership working from schools facing challenging circumstances to those whose self evaluation is ‘good’ and want to become ‘outstanding’.

2. What will ‘partnership’ working look like?

• There is an expectation that the school will lead the priorities identified for school improvement.
• A LA lead will be identified to lead the partnership work and will act as a ‘gatekeeper’ to ensure support is streamlined and focused on addressing the areas for improvement, through monitoring and evaluating the quality of LA support. This could be an Advisory Headteacher, Consultant, National Leader of Education, Local Leader of Education (Wiltshire), Consultant Headteacher or Consultant Governor.
• There will be an initial whole day visit for the LA colleague(s) to visit the school to explore in greater depth with the school’s leadership team, how we can work together to secure improvement. The ‘Keys to School Improvement’ can be used to spotlight areas for partnership work.
• The school will generate an improvement plan (part of the school’s existing school improvement plan) identifying the areas for improvement, how it will be secured, success criteria and a timescale.
• Partnership working will seek to build on strengths and successes that are already established within the school.

3. Why would a school wish to access the ‘Improving Schools’ Strategy?

To access partnership working to improve in areas identified in school self evaluation, for example:

• challenging standards e.g. CVA places the school in the lowest quartile, below floor targets in any area, disappointing standards at L5 (KS2), disappointing standards at KS1, wide achievement gaps for vulnerable groups etc;
• quality of teaching and learning inconsistent across the school;
• school self evaluation not as accurate as it could be in knowing school strengths and areas for improvement, addressing these with clear focus and determination (an external audit could be agreed to bring clarity);
• school would welcome further support in the process of self evaluation and completion of the SEF;
• low capacity for improvement e.g. deputy head on long term absence.
• See triggers for partnership working

4. How can a school access the ‘Improving Schools’ Strategy?

• This will be accessed through discussion with SIPs.
• There will be two main opportunities to access partnership working.

1. In term 6, when the SIP moderates the school self evaluation and the school identifies improvement priorities for the coming year.
2. In term 1 when the SIP will be exploring with the school the data hypotheses provided for each school on the basis of the latest standards at Foundation Stage, Key Stages 1 and 2.

• Request for partnership working will be recorded on the note of visit in each case. All requests will be responded to by the Primary Leadership Team
• Partnership working can be accessed at any time during the year through discussion with the SIP.

5. How will the partnership work be evaluated to ensure that it is having an impact on improving outcomes?

• If partnership work is in place, the school will lead a review of the improvement plan every ‘old term’ with the LA lead. This review will focus on the impact of actions put in place to address the school improvement priorities.
• Impact of partnership work will be judged by the school’s leadership team, working closely with the LA lead representative and the SIP through part of their ongoing support and professional dialogue with the school, by measuring children’s progress e.g. through pupil tracking, work scrutiny, talking to children
• If children’s progress is below expectations, then this potentially puts the school in a vulnerable position. An external audit could be commissioned, agreed through discussion, to ascertain barriers to children’s learning. Whenever possible, an audit will be conducted with the senior leadership team to form a shared judgement of provision in the school.
• Where there are serious concerns over the quality of school provision, the LA will continue to be able to commission an external audit, and lead the school improvement agenda.
• Schools in a LA category of ‘Notice to Improve’ or ‘Special Measures’ will receive LA evaluations following the initial audit on agreed timescales.

6. How does this work if my school is in an Ofsted category (Special Measures/Notice to Improve) or the LA categorisation of Special Measures/Notice to Improve?

• The school improvement plan will be jointly written by the school and LA and approved by the LA.
• External LA evaluations can be undertaken if appropriate.
• There is an expectation that schools will have improved so that they are no longer in this categorisation within 12 months. Schools would then move into the ‘Exit Strategy’ to ensure that improvements are thoroughly embedded.

Last updated: 2 December 2010