School Improvement Plan - How Are We Improving?
The School Improvement Plan enables the school’s vision to be shared and understood by the whole school community.
Our aim is to work and learn together as a community in order to improve and be the best that we can be. The School
Improvement Plan should give everyone an understanding of where the school is going and what actions will be taken
to ensure we get there. We set clear timescales for implementation and determine how to effectively use both human
and material resources to support specific goals. It also helps us plan and prioritise our budget and guides how we
plan and organise staff training. The School Improvement Plan is designed to give a sharp, clear focus to those
aspects of our work which we believe are most in need of improvement.
Everyone has the chance to contribute ideas as to how the school can improve. Staff and Governors meet annually to
review how successful our improvements have been and agree priorities for the coming year. We ask parents and children
to share their ideas through questionnaires and the school and parent councils. We want everyone to support us and help
us improve and this can only happen if we are all involved.
Once we have agreed the priorities, the senior leadership team sets targets for improvement by writing the school
improvement plan. This is then shared with everyone.
There are three core targets for the plan and each one relates to one of our eight school aims. We wish to achieve
each target as fully as possible; therefore they will drive our training, resources, teaching and learning, monitoring,
evaluation and review over the next year.
Professional development INSET days are an important part of this process. In addition to this, all staff are keen to
keep up to date with new initiatives. Therefore, individual teachers and support staff have undertaken training throughout
the year in order to further their own professional development and to strengthen the subject expertise on the staff.
This is the summary of the school improvement plan for 2011/2012.Please click the tabs below to
view our Aims:
SCHOOL IMPROVEMENT PLAN AIM 1, 2011-2012 - TO IMPROVE INDEPENDENT ENQUIRY AND CREATIVE THINKING
The Staff and Governors will:
| Improve independent enquiry and creative thinking by: |
| • | Develop and agree a set of learning behaviours that can be used for teaching and assessment of these. |
| • | Develop open ended questioning which gives children the opportunity to think creatively and critically. |
| • | Review the curriculum and embed the opportunities for children to lead their learning through own learning topic days, topic launches (beginning with questions and exploration of what children already know) and a TASC based approach to topics. |
| • | Develop and agree a set of expectations regarding independence with resources. These will be adopted throughout the school and used to encourage children’s independence. |
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We will know we have succeeded when::
| • | Children are aware of, taught and assessed against key learning behaviours. The curriculum and teaching will support and develop effective learning behaviours. |
| • | Children have the opportunity to ask their own questions and think creatively and critically as a result of strategies used by teachers. |
| • | At least two topics in each year group over the year that children have autonomy over. Children are able to lead their own learning and apply their skills. Outcomes are of high quality and have been personalised by the children. |
| • | There is consistency across the school with expectations of how independent the children can be. Children will be more independent and access resources appropriately. Classroom and activities facilitate independence. |
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Why do we want to do this?
To improve independence and creativity and enable children to have more input into and lead their own learning. To give children opportunities to contribute to the development of topics. To enable the children to choose and access their resources more independently.
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SCHOOL IMPROVEMENT PLAN AIM 2, 2011-2012 - TO ENABLE CHILDREN TO BE REFLECTIVE LEARNERS.
The Staff and Governors will:
| Develop children’s ability to reflect on their learning by: learning by:: |
| • | Ensuring there is a clear and appropriate development of skills in each foundation subject area, linked to each topic. |
| • | Developing assessment and exemplification materials that support staff in making judgements and identifying next steps for pupils. |
| • | Sharing learning objectives and differentiated success criteria succinctly with pupils – use WALT and WILF consistently across the school. |
| • | Supporting subject leaders to develop their role to support and assist teachers in accurately assessing, identifying next steps and teaching the subject effectively. This to be done through a programme of staff training, masterclasses/team teaching, monitoring and work sampling. |
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We will know we have succeeded when::
| • | Subject leader monitoring/portfolios show a clear progression of skills and children working at age appropriate expectations (or better). Appropriate WALT and WILF statements are visible in each class. Children are clear of what they are learning and can share/recall their WALT/WILF statements. |
| • | Staff will have a secure understanding of children’s levels in foundation subjects. Children make good progress in foundation subjects as shown in work sampling and monitoring of attainment across the year (% at AA, A, BA). |
| • | Appropriate WALT and WILF statements are visible in each class. Children are clear of what they are learning and can share/recall their WALT/WILF statements. Planning and drop ins/monitoring shows activities are appropriately matched to need and enable children to make good progress. |
| • | A high number of peer observations, masterclasses, team teaching and coaching opportunities have been identified and taken up. Staff confidence questionnaire shows that staff are more confident in teaching these subjects. Evaluations of these activities show that they have been beneficial to staff. Children make good progress in foundation subjects as shown in work sampling and monitoring of attainment across the year (% at AA, A, BA). End of year reports to govs/SLT show that subject leaders have had significant impact in improving outcomes for their subject area. |
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Why do we want to do this?
We want children to be clear about their abilities in all curriculum areas – teachers need to clearly articulate what pupils are learning and what they need to do to improve in each subject area, using their subject knowledge to assist this. There are some good examples of high quality teaching, work and good progress in subject areas but this needs to be consistent across all subjects and year groups.
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SCHOOL IMPROVEMENT PLAN AIM 3, 2011-2012 - TO DEVELOP INDEPENDENT ENQUIRERS AND REFLECTIVE LEARNERS IN MATHS
The Staff and Governors will:
| Improve enquiry and reflection in maths by:: |
| • | Supporting staff to use recently developed school assessment materials to aid assessment for learning and holding surgery sessions that would assist teachers to identify and overcome the core barriers to learning. |
| • | Ensuring children have the opportunity to show what they are capable of within the level that they are working at and a picture of evidence over time is collected. This will be supported by subject leader monitoring. |
| • | Ensuring planning is effectively differentiated (assessment for learning is used effectively to identify next steps and barriers) and the main teaching input facilitates guided/independent group work and independent working. |
| • | Developing rich mathematical tasks and using these to lead learning in maths rather than as standalone activities. (e.g., 1 rich mathematical task can be more than 1 week). |
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We will know we have succeeded when::
| • | Staff can accurately assess and identify next steps using the target booklet. Children use target books to make their own self assessment judgements. Children are making good progress through the target booklets. |
| • | Children are able to apply their mathematical skills consistently in teacher directed, independent and problem solving tasks. Children are able to self assess what they’ve achieved as well as their next steps. Staff have a broad picture of evidence for progress and attainment. |
| • | Staff can accurately diagnose a child’s next steps including when and how they need to close the gap. Planning meets the pupils’ needs and enables them to make good progress. Staff have a range of AFL strategies that they can use. |
| • | Children are effective problem solvers. Planning meets the pupils’ needs and enables them to make good progress. |
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Why do we want to do this?
To involve children in their learning and help them recognise their successes and what else they can do to improve and be even more successful. To help parents better understand and support their child’s learning as we want to work together to improve standards and achievement. To provide more opportunities for children to identify and solve open ended problems independently rather than having problems presented to them.
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