Quality Assurance through School Self-Evaluation: the role of External Review and Inspection

1. Quality Assurance through School Self-Evaluation: the role of External Review and Inspection David Taylor Formerly Director of Inspection, Ofsted

2. Structure of presentation • Quality Assurance and Self-Evaluation • Working with schools on self-evaluation

3. Quality Assurance (QA) and School Self-Evaluation (SSE) • Quality • Assurance and control • The place of SSE in a QA system

4. What is school self-evaluation? • Self-evaluation is the process by which a school is able to look critically at itself in order to improve further the quality of its provision and its performance.

5. SCHOOL SELF-EVALUATION: the 3-step process

6. Promoting School Improvement (1) • Self-evaluation aims to promote school improvement by seeking: • To inform improvement planning • all staff are, or should be, involved in improvement planning • improvement planning must have standards of achievement, quality of teaching and quality of learning as high priorities; • monitoring and evaluation are indispensable parts of the improvement planning cycle; • schools need to integrate a programme of self-evaluation into their improvement planning.

7. Promoting School Improvement (2) • Self-evaluation aims to promote school improvement by seeking: - To promote effective learning and raise standards • all pupils are learners and should take part in self-evaluation; • good teachers are good learners; they continually ask questions of their own practice to improve provision; • different people learn best in different ways; • teachers need to know how their pupils learn best; • school managers need to know what makes members of staff effective learners and therefore effective professionals; • parents/carers and governors have a key role in supporting learning

8. Promoting School Improvement (3) • Self-evaluation aims to promote school improvement by seeking: - To encourage a climate of professional trust • self-evaluation is most effective when the process is transparent; • everyone is part of the self-evaluation process; no-one hides behind status; • positive outcomes for teachers and pupils are evident and people have faith in the process; • good practice is celebrated in more than one way.

9. The Improvement Cycle

10. Improving schools’ self-evaluation • Improved training in leadership and management • More available data • Growing use of external performance indicators • Effective use of classroom observation • Understanding how to carry out self-evaluation

11. Involving all staff in planning and self-evaluation Staff should: • Understand the planning and evaluation process • Have ownership of it • Focus on pupils’ attainments and experiences • Engage in appropriate professional development • Review their approaches to teaching and learning

12. Internal and external: complementary roles • SSE: event or process? • Which comes first? • Frameworks and criteria • Training and development

13. Working with schools on self-evaluation • Preparing for self-evaluation • Data collection and data analysis • Understanding how to evaluate • Collecting evidence • Securing trust • Self-evaluation and staff appraisal

14. Six ‘acid tests’ for effective SSE • Is the SSE based on a good range of convincing evidence? • Does the SSE identify the most important questions about how well the school serves its pupils? • How well does the school compare with similar schools and use such comparative data? • Does the SSE include the views of key groups, especially parents, pupils and wider community? • Is SSE integrally linked to key management systems? • Does SSE lead to action to achieve he school’s longer-term improvement goals?

15. A focus on learning outcomes (1) • Taking responsibility for learning Good features: Learners • Know their most effective ways of learning • Can apply themselves to learning effectively • Sustain concentration • Appreciate what they need to do to make progress

16. A focus on learning outcomes (2) Learners • Plan sensibly how they will achieve their learning goals • Seek appropriate help in working towards their goals • Show initiative and take responsibility • Work well without supervision • Review their progress and adjust their learning as necessary

17. A focus on learning outcomes (3) • Taking responsibility for learning Shortcomings: Learners: • Have limited awareness of how they learn best • Plan inadequately to address deficiencies • Rely too much on others for assurance and support • Are easily distracted

18. A focus on learning outcomes (4) Learners: • Do not work well without direct supervision • Are too compliant and passive • Work too slowly • Seek the direction of the teacher too readily • Are uncertain about their own progress.

19. A focus on effective leadership action (1) Leadership has consistently been shown as the key factor in determining the success of a school. Leaders who seek to transform their schools tend to: • Have self-knowledge and clarity about values and commitment • Focus on developing people, and empowering them to bring about a shared vision which produces good learning outcomes for pupils • Be found operating at all levels in the school, not just the senior management team

20. A focus on effective leadership action (2) Leaders who seek to transform their schools tend to: • Encourage, manage and sustain school improvement • Manage the organisation well, respond to change effectively and welcome greater school autonomy and innovation • Ensure that there is an unvarying focus on improving teaching and learning

21. A focus on effective leadership action (3): • Take early, firm intervention to secure effective leadership and management • Establish and implement systems to identify key priorities for improvement through effective data management, ie: • Gathering, analysing and presenting data on pupils’ achievement • Using the data to identify good practice • Surveying the opinions of staff and students • Gaining the commitment of staff

22. A focus on effective leadership action (4): • Focus on dealing with issues in a staged manner, with measures to ensure early success, eg: • Developing pride and self-esteem • Targeting specific under-performance, while developing long-term improvement strategies • Improving attendance, punctuality, uniform-wearing

23. A focus on effective leadership action (5): • Focus on teaching and learning: • Establishing a set of core behaviours • Re-skilling teachers in their repertoire of teaching methods • Implementing a firm and consistent policy on behaviour (around the site as well as in classrooms) • Supporting and building on models of excellent teaching • Establishing collaborative working as a way of improving teachers’ practice

24. A focus on effective leadership action (6) • Introduce models of leadership and teaching quality: • Building effective leadership teams throughout the school • Bringing in new staff with developing teaching skills (eg Advanced skills teachers) • Coaching staff to develop their teaching skills

25. 1. Characteristics of the School • Context of school and learners • School aims

26. 2. Views of Learners, Parents/Carers and other Stakeholders • How are views gathered? • What do they say about provision? • How are findings shared? • What action is taken?

27. 3. Achievement and Standards • What are the standards achieved? Are there significant trends? • Are there any underachieving groups? • How do you know? • What action do you intend to take?

28. 4. Personal development and well-being(‘Every Child Matters’ outcomes) Learners should : • Be healthy • Be safe • Enjoy their learning and achieve • Make a positive contribution to the community • Be prepared for the future and for their economic well-being

29. 5. Quality of provision • How effective are teaching and learning? • Do the curriculum and other activities meet the needs and interests of learners? • How well are learners cared for, guided and supported?

30. Example: Teaching and Learning

31. 6. Leadership and Management • How effectively do leaders and managers set a clear direction? • How effective is performance monitoring? • How well are equal opportunities and inclusion promoted? • What is the adequacy of staffing, resources and accommodation? • How effective are links with other providers and agencies? • How effective are Governors?

32. 7. Overall effectiveness and efficiency • The extent of improvement since the previous inspection? • Is there sufficient capacity for further improvement? • What steps are being taken to improve provision?

33. Some key questions for discussion • Suppose you were a person such as a ‘school improvement partner’, how would you set about working with a school on SSE? • How does a school inspection/review gain evidence of the effectiveness of SSE? • What should happen if the inspection/review disagrees strongly with the results of the SSE? • How far should SSE go in incorporating the views of students, parents and the wider community? • How should schools develop the skills of evaluating lessons and outcomes for students?

34. Some conclusions • Inspection/review and SSE should complement each other and dovetail closely, using related: • Frameworks • Criteria • Data sources • Effective SSE has clear goals, clear evaluation of teaching and learning and of leadership and management • The whole school community should be involved in SSE • Inspection has much to offer in developing and improving the quality of SSE.