Coopers Lane INSET day Monday 19 th April 2004

1. Coopers Lane INSET dayMonday 19th April 2004 “Looking ahead to the next three Years” Developing an effective School Improvement Plan

2. 7 Dreams: • Behaviour management. • Moving from good to excellent in terms of standards and attainment. • Re-claiming the curriculum so as to offer our children real cultural and creative entitlement. • Taking our children beyond Grove Park. • Re-modelling to enable great teachers to do what they do best which is teach.

3. The Dreams continued • Ensuring that we are a truly inclusive school. • Providing the very best professional development for ALL staff.

4. Some thoughts on achieving the dreams: • Behaviour • Need to address the gender differences in a variety of ways and to explore different approaches to how we teach. • Our policy needs to be clear and consistent and whilst maintaining the very positive aspects also needs clear guidance on sanctions.

5. Some thoughts on achieving the dreams: • Raising Standards • Need to be consistent in our approach to the teaching and learning we offer throughout our school. • Put in the ingredients in Early Years, bake the cake in the KS 1 and then ice and decorate at KS 2.

6. Some thoughts on achieving the dreams: • Re-claiming the Curriculum; • We need to go back to what we know is firstly effective and secondly what we do best. That is creative teaching and learning. The cultural entitlement movement is gathering momentum through the effective use of arts, sports and other academic disciplines that have been almost forgotten about in the scramble to increase positions in League tables. Need to ask what kinds of people are we creating in schools now?

7. Some thoughts on achieving the dreams: • Taking our children beyond Grove Park • This kind of fits in with previous one in that I see the education we offer as a vehicle to take children further than they would otherwise have gone. • Eg Performing songs to international audience at Avery Hill, taking children to see the opera at the Royal opera house etc.

8. Some thoughts on achieving the dreams: • Re-modelling to enable teachers to teach; • Do feel that this will be vital in coming years and we do have to think creatively about how we ease or change the way teachers have been forced to operate by successive governments who have given more and more beureucracy and less and less opportunity for us to do what we do best which is be creative. This will impact directly on all of the other things we hope to achieve.

9. Some thoughts on achieving the dreams: • Becoming a truly inclusive school: • This is going to be vital and will directly involve how we welcome and ensure that the HIU has an impact on all that we do. • We will need to focus heavily on differentiation in planning, delivery, homework, visits etc. in order to truly achieve this.

10. More thoughts on achieving the dreams: • Providing the very best PD for ALL staff: • Need to continue to build on this very strong aspect of CL and ensure that training and PD is at the forefront of all that we do. It is going to be imperative to offer all staff opportunities to develop their knowledge and skills base if the re-modelling and standards dreams are to be fulfilled. • Performance management also crucial here too.

11. Final statement to sum up my vision for CL • At the heart of all this must be the child. • Each child that attends our school is entitled to expect a creative, challenging, stimulating, inclusive and memorable experience. It should be an experience that they recall constantly as they journey on and beyond our doors. It is an experience they will be able to fall back on and use to help them on their journey. It is an experience they will remember and re-tell to friends when they are 20, 30, 40 etc years old!!!!