Powerpoint presentation in support of this Dawlish Learning Partnership workshop for School Governors. Kindly provided by Andrew Riley.

1. Dawlish Learning Partnership
Andrew Riley

2. Aims of the workshop
To know and understand the Ofsted key evaluation areas
To consider strategies to help governors evaluate the
strengths and weaknesses of their schools, including how
to be an effective critical friend
To consider the focus and content of the next workshop

3. Some initial questions…
What contribution has the governing body made to
improving provision, especially teaching and outcomes for
pupils?
To what extent are you involved in the school’s processes
for self-evaluation and improvement planning?
What are the main barriers to learning in your school and
what action has been taken to overcome them? How
successful have the actions been?
How do you monitor and evaluate the effectiveness of the
school improvement plan?
Can you give examples of how you have supported
and challenged the school?

4. In order to ensure your contribution to school improvement,
governors need to know their school well and be aware of
the key questions to ask in order to acquire this knowledge.
The fundamental purpose of any school improvement
activity is to improve outcomes for all pupils.
Self-evaluation should therefore focus specifically on the
impact provision makes on these outcomes, and
understanding what the school‘s attainment and progress
data indicates about the quality of this provision is
fundamental to this process for governors.

5. High support
Supporters club Partners or critical friends
Low challenge High challenge
Abdicators Adversaries
Low support

6. How schools improve
A key driver for improvement
Well informed governors who challenge leaders
vigorously on the school’s performance
A barrier to change
Absence of self-critical approach and lack of
recognition of the need for change by governors
and senior leaders.

8. Governors can support through
• Getting to know the school’s plan and finding out how key
elements are being implemented in the school
• Getting a detailed picture of the progress pupils are making in
the school
• Having standing items at governing body meetings linked to
pupils’ progress and the impact of the school’s plans
• Making sure that allocated funding is used to support
improvement in the school
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9. The school improvement cycle
Possible questions for governors to consider
• How do we use the improvement cycle to set our priorities?
• What is the focus for monitoring/scrutiny and how will it be
done?
• What are the systems for reporting and evaluating progress?
• How do reports to the governing body reflect the priorities
and progress against them?
• How does the governor’s role fit into the cycle?
• What happens if we don’t meet the expectations of progress?
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10. Ofsted four key areas
In judging the quality of the school, inspectors will make four key
judgements:
achievement
the quality of teaching
behaviour and safety
leadership and management
In judging the school’s overall effectiveness, inspectors will take
account of the four key judgements and how well the school
promotes pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural
development.
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11. • There is an even greater focus on:
narrowing gaps in performance for groups of pupils
the quality of teaching and its impact on learning and
progress
reading and literacy
behaviour and safety
• Focusing on pupils’ outcomes, including outcomes for
different groups of pupils and how well the school promotes
these outcomes
• Promoting improvement through making specific and detailed
recommendations based on the diagnosis of the school’s
strengths and weaknesses
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12. Achievement
Progress + learning + attainment = achievement
• Inspectors will take account of standards of attainment and
progress in recent years and the learning and progress of
pupils currently in the school.
• Achievement of different groups of pupils, including those
with SEND, remains at the heart of the judgement.
• Learning and progress are key drivers of achievement, and will
be considered together with attainment.
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13. Achievement
What sources of information are available to
governors?
What are the key questions you need to ask?
What action does the school take when it has
analysed pupil performance data?

14. The quality of teaching
• The most important role of teaching is to raise pupils’
achievement. It is also important in promoting their spiritual,
moral social and cultural development.
• Teaching includes planning and implementing learning
activities across the whole curriculum, as well as marking and
feedback. It comprises activities within and outside the
classroom, such as support and intervention.
• Inspectors gathering evidence in addition to lesson
observations to provide information about what impact
teaching has on learning over time, such as:
discussions with pupils about their work
analysis of school records
scrutiny and analysis of pupils’ work
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15. The quality of teaching
• Teaching is evaluated in terms of its impact on learning and
progress.
• The prime source of evidence is through lesson observations.
• Inspectors will continue to take account of the school’s own
evaluation of the quality of teaching.
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16. Triangulating evidence
Lessons observations
Secure
judgements
Performance data talking with pupils/
planning/work scrutiny etc

17. The quality of teaching
Questions for the headteacher
•What percentage of teaching and learning is good or better?
How do we know this?
•What are we doing about teaching and learning that is not
consistently good?

18. Questions for teachers
•How does your classroom environment help children to learn?
•What did your children learn in this lesson? How do you know?
Questions for children
•What are you learning today/ How do you know?
•Tell me about your target in mathematics/writing. What will you
need to do to achieve it?

19. When several sources say the same thing
it’s a basis for action
When several sources give conflicting messages
it’s a cause for investigation

20. Behaviour and safety
This judgement takes account of a range of evidence on
behaviour and inspectors have more time to look at these issues
in more depth:
• behaviour in the classroom and attitudes to learning
• behaviour around the school
• attendance and punctuality
• a focus on freedom from bullying
Central to the judgement is the collection of evidence that
provides a picture of what behaviour is typically like, not just
that observed during the inspection.
The views of parents, pupils and staff are important sources of
evidence to consider when assessing pupils’ behaviour over
time.
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21. Behaviour and Safety

22. Leadership and management
The focus is on how effectively leaders and managers at all
levels, in the context of the individual school:
• lead on and improve teaching
• promote improvements for all pupils and groups of pupils
• enable pupils to overcome specific barriers to learning
• self-evaluation
• capacity for improvement
The requirement to evaluate the school’s compliance with
statutory requirements on safeguarding remains.
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23. Leadership and management
• One single judgement on leadership and management
• No separate judgement for capacity to improve
• An evaluation of the provision of a broad, balanced
curriculum that meets the needs of all pupils
• A greater emphasis on engaging with parents and carers in
supporting outcomes for pupils
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24. The implications for leadership
Demonstrating a deep and accurate understanding
of the school’s performance
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25. The implications for leadership
(Achievement)
To what extent does the school’s evidence:
• Show monitoring and evaluation of pupil performance data
supports school leaders to prioritise actions?
• Demonstrate school self-evaluation systems inform leadership
about the quality of learning?
• Demonstrate pupil tracking provides a clear indication of
progress and attainment in phonics and in reading across the
school?
• Demonstrate clarity about the difference between attainment
and progress in reading, writing, mathematics other subjects?
• Show the school is aware of the comparative achievement of
different groups of pupils?
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26. The implications for leadership
(quality of teaching)
There is a relentless focus on improving teaching
and learning
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27. The implications for leadership
To what extent does the school’s evidence:
• Demonstrate a broad evidence base to support the school’s
judgement about the quality of teaching and learning over
time?
• Provide an evaluation of the impact of teaching on pupil
progress over time?
• Show teaching stimulates, interests and engages pupils in
learning?
• Indicate there is a shared understanding of good teaching and
learning?
• Show assessment for learning impacts on the quality of
provision and rates of progress?
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28. The implications for leadership
(behaviour and safety)
The school’s curriculum promotes positive
behaviour and safety.
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29. The implications for leadership
To what extent does the school’s evidence:
• Demonstrate the culture of the school supports and enables positive
behaviour, safety and good behaviour for learning?
• Show understanding of the school’s culture and how widely that is shared
and understood across the school community (including parents)?
• Indicate how effectively and consistently school policies to underpin
positive behaviour and safety are implemented
• Show a focus on improving positive behaviour for learning is embedded in
the school culture?
• Demonstrate the effectiveness of systems to enable pupils to recognise
and address issues around bullying and safety?
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30. The implications for leadership
(leadership)
An uncompromising and highly successful drive
to strongly improve or maintain achievement.
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31. The implications for leadership
To what extent does the school’s evidence:
• Show that leaders consistently promote high expectations
across the whole school community?
• Demonstrate the school improvement cycle has impacted
positively on the achievement of all pupils?
• Demonstrate the work of leaders at all levels has impacted
positively on the:
achievement of all pupils
quality of teaching and learning
quality of the curriculum?
• Indicate the school’s culture supports the engagement of
parents/carers in their children’s learning and good
behaviour?
• Indicate that the work of the GB acts as a critical friend and
holds leaders to account for all aspects of the school’s
performance?
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32. Overall effectiveness
• This takes account of the four judgements and how the school
promotes the pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural
development (SMSC).
• A key aspect of judging overall effectiveness will be weighing
the four judgements together with the evidence for the
school’s promotion of the pupils’ SMSC development.
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33. And finally…
• What steps do you need to take back in
school?
• Next workshop

34. Nolan - 7 principles of public life
1. Integrity – do not allow the influence of bodies outside the
school to affect your duties
2. Objectivity – make choices on merit
3. Accountability – submit to appropriate scrutiny
4. Openness – only restrict information when the public interest
clearly demands this e.g. Data Protection
5. Honesty – declare any private interest and remove yourself
from discussion and decision making where this applies.
6. Leadership – promote and support the principles of leadership
by example e.g. confidentiality
7. Selflessness – act always in the public interest, not for
personal gain