School Improvement leadership

In maintained schools, academies and free schools, governing boards have a statutory duty to appoint an external adviser for the Headteacher or Principal appraisal process. Our advisers have the skills, experience and objectivity to provide the level of support and advice required to ensure a robust Headteacher Appraisal process.

The three-and-a-half-hour session provides:

• pre-visit preparation
• on site meetings with the headteacher and appointed governors to facilitate a review meeting and setting objectives
• agreed monitoring arrangements
• post-visit drafting of review statement and agreed objectives

Benefits

• support governors and head teachers in undertaking the appraisal process
• to support the setting of clear and measurable objectives
• provide impartial guidance and support

Our team can provide support and professional challenge for your middle leaders to secure whole school improvement.

The needs of schools vary significantly so our team of advisers can create tailored packages according to your individual requirements.

Support can include:

• analysis and evaluation of subject outcomes to review the impact of provision, help identify gaps and next steps
• review of the curriculum, planning and assessment
• joint monitoring activities, such as learning walks, lesson observations, work scrutiny and learner discussions
• modelling strategies to make the most of your pupil progress meetings
• review of systems to hold others to account
• developing others within your team
• support for writing a subject development action plan
• bespoke workshops to support middle leaders in their role

This SLA can be offered to individual schools or across a cluster of schools.

Benefits

• develop the skills and knowledge of school leadership
• gain a clear understanding of the crucial role middle leaders play in supporting whole school improvement
• have clear strategies to review and evaluate the effectiveness of teaching and learning
• be more confident in implementing and evaluating change to bring about improvement

This service is designed to support senior/middle leaders with responsibility for leading and/or undertaking teacher appraisal. This support will enable colleagues to review the key principles of appraisal in supporting teacher development.

This service can be offered to individual schools or across a cluster of schools.

It will cover:

• the appraisal process
• the role of the appraiser/appraisee
• setting objectives
• collating evidence and undertaking review meetings
• identifying next steps and CPD

Further sessions can be purchased to support managing capability procedures, managing difficult conversations, setting teacher action plans, being an effective appraiser.

Aligned with the September 2019 Ofsted Framework, supported peer reviews are not an inspection but a process which results in a key judgement about the extent to which the team can uphold a school’s own self-evaluation. The process ends with a collaborative report which covers strengths and areas for development.

This sustainable approach to school improvement is for all schools, designed to support self-evaluation and build leadership capacity.

A School Improvement Adviser supports schools to work in partnership within a small group to self-evaluate, celebrate, challenge, support and learn together. They provide training to the review team to guide them through the process, help them use and apply ‘tools’, plan the review, facilitate meetings and deal with unforeseen issues that may arise. We offer two levels of support:

Level 1: Peer review training and documentation (12hrs)

Level 2: Documentation, peer review training and consultant at one peer review to model/support the process (18hrs)

Maximise your school's capacity to raise standards and improve outcomes for learners, working in partnership with us to understand the context of your school, its specific challenges and needs, and establish coherent development strategies at all levels of the organisation to bring about sustainable improvement.

Our school improvement service offers a comprehensive menu of bespoke consultancy (delivered through SIAs, LTAs and external associates) and professional development to support whole school improvement and help you achieve your goals.

With changes in inspection and external accountability, our tailored consultancy visits will provide the challenge and insight that headteachers and senior leaders value, but offer you the opportunity to set the agenda, ensuring that the focus will be supporting your school to achieve your goals.

Schools and settings across all phases can ensure excellent value from consultancy tailored to your school’s needs. Activities might include:

• joint monitoring activities such as lesson observations, learning walks, work scrutinies, learner discussions to validate school judgements
• staff professional development
• support with strategic planning and self-evaluation processes
• planning to raise standards
• coaching support for aspiring new leaders or to support improvements in teaching and learning

With changes in inspection and external accountability, our visits will provide the challenge and insight that headteachers and senior leaders value but offer the opportunity to set the agenda, ensuring the focus will be on supporting your school to achieve your goals.

Our School Improvement Advisers will provide a truly objective perspective of your school, in partnership with your senior leadership team. Review package will include:

• pre-review meeting/conversation to agree focus
• joint observations of lessons
• feedback with senior leaders
• desk-top risk assessment data analysis
• PowerPoint presentation which clearly identifies strengths and areas for development as agreed with SLT

The focus of review is negotiated with school leaders to best meet the school’s needs.

Package 1:

Eighteen hours of consultancy, suitable for schools with less than 200 pupils on roll.

Package 2:

Twenty-four hours of consultancy, suitable for schools with 200 or more pupils on roll.

Are you ready for your inspection?

Ofsted Readiness is designed to support all schools in preparing for their Ofsted visit. It is a package of support that can be tailored to address your needs, to ensure you are Ofsted ready!

Support may include all or some of the following:

• external quality assurance of the school self-evaluation and improvement plan
• guidance on how to prepare for the conversation with the Lead Inspector providing a coherent narrative of the school and considering potential key lines of enquiry
• preparing the monitoring and evaluation evidence base and analysis
• school website and policy compliance review
• managing communications for parents and carers
• preparing staff and governors for interviews with Ofsted inspectors
• (further support for governors including the chair or vice chair and committee chairs involved in the process can be accessed through governor CPD training programme or through governor consultancy)
• coaching support for middle leaders to review evidence base and analysis and prepare for deep dive conversations

Package 1 includes:

• consultancy support to include external quality assurance of the school self-evaluation and improvement plan
• preparing the monitoring and evaluation evidence base and analysis
• preparing staff and Governors for leadership interviews

Package 2 includes:

As package 1 plus 6 hours of consultancy time. Additional support can be purchased to undertake:

• safeguarding audit
• send audit
• pupil premium review

A bespoke review and external validation of your school’s policies and key strategies to support school improvement. Your school/setting can request a focus on specific policies and/or strategies, whole school evaluation or with a specific focus on core subjects.

Support can include:

• reviewing the quality of self-evaluation documentation and action planning (whole school, department and subject level)
• evaluating the quality of monitoring, evaluation and training schedule
• providing an external view and recommendations
• providing exemplar materials
• a review of your school website to ensure that it meets statutory requirements