What do governors really need to know about school development and progress?

SELF-EVALUATION AFTER THE SEF

IF…

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September 2010 Education Secretary Gove announces the death of the SEF, with effect from 22nd July 2011:

“The SEF asks teachers and heads to collect and verify facts and figures about their school in preparation for their Ofsted inspection…the process takes days out of heads’ time and can cost schools tens of thousands of pounds. The Secretary of State has asked Ofsted to ditch it.”

THE SEF IS DEAD…

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“Of course, inspectors will continue to take account of schools’ self-evaluation…Completion of the SEF has never been an Ofsted requirement.

Of course, it will be critical that schools continue to evaluate their performance.

We expect that schools should always be able to provide some summative evidence of self-evaluation, which might include an assessment of performance against the key inspection judgements, but there will not be a common way for schools to present this evidence.”

Ofsted consultation on current framework

…LONG LIVE THE SEF

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What is the relationship between school self-evaluation and inspection?

Self-evaluation is now well established in schools, providing the basis for planning for development and improvement.

Inspection takes account of, and contributes to, a school’s self-evaluation.

Schools may present a written summary of their self-evaluation to inspectors.

OFSTED FRAMEWORK 2012

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Outstanding governance supports honest, insightful self-evaluation by the school, recognising problems and supporting the steps needed to address them.

Effective governing bodies systematically monitor their school’s progress towards meeting agreed development targets. Information about what is going well and why, and what is not going well and why, is shared.

Governors are well informed and knowledgeable because they are given high- quality, accurate information that is concise and focused on pupil achievement.

School governance: Learning from the best Ofsted 2011

OUTSTANDING GOVERNANCE

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Overall effectiveness Inspectors evaluate the quality of the education provided in the school. In

doing this, they consider the evidence gathered to support their evaluations of the four key judgements:

achievement of pupils at the school � quality of teaching in the school � quality of leadership in and management of the school� behaviour and safety of pupils at the school. �

They also consider:

the extent to which the education provided meets the needs of the range of pupils at the school

how well the school promotes all pupils’ spiritual, moral, social and cultural development

INSPECTION FOCUSES ON..

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“We need clear and demanding criteria for a school to be judged ‘good’ or ‘outstanding’.  A good school should have at least good teaching, and an outstanding school should have outstanding teaching. Good and outstanding leadership of teaching and learning drives improvement and knows that the culture of the school and the progress of pupils depend on it.”

Sir Michael WilshawHMCI9 Feb 2012

OFSTED: SEPTEMBER 2012

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schools cannot be judged ‘outstanding’ unless their teaching is ‘outstanding’

schools will only be deemed to be providing an acceptable standard of education where they are judged to be ‘good’ or ‘outstanding’ 

a single judgement of ‘requires improvement’ will replace the current  ‘satisfactory’ judgement and ‘notice to improve’ category

schools judged as ‘requires improvement’ will be subject to a full re-inspection earlier than is currently the case

a school can only be judged as ‘requires improvement’ on two consecutive inspections before it is deemed to require ‘special measures’

inspections will be undertaken without notice being provided to the school

inspectors should undertake an analysis of an anonymised summary, provided by the school, of the outcomes of the most recent performance management of all teachers within the school, as part of the evidence for a judgement on Leadership and Management.

SEPTEMBER 2012

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Ofsted's focus has narrowed. Should ours narrow?What else might we look at?As well as current Ofsted foci the old SEF included:

Every Child Matters themesSchool’s engagement with parents and carersEffectiveness of partnershipsThe effectiveness with which the school deploys

resources to achieve value for money

What else would you include?

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IS THERE MORE TO LIFE THAN OFSTED?

achievement of pupils at the school quality of teaching in the school � quality of leadership in and management of the �

school behaviour and safety of pupils at the school�

Every Child Matters themes? School’s engagement with parents and carers? Effectiveness of partnerships? Value for money?

Your suggestions here………

CORE ELEMENTS OF SELF EVALUATION

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WHAT DO YOU MEAN – TOO OPERATIONAL?

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WHERE DOES YOUR GOVERNING BODY SIT?

High support

Low support

High challengeLow challenge

Partners or critical friends

‘We share everything –good or bad’.

Supporters Club

‘We’re here to support the head’.

Abdicators

‘We leave it to the professionals’.

Adversaries

‘We keep a very close eye on the staff!’.

Doing…in what areas?

How well should it be doing?

How do we know?What should we be

looking for?Where might we

find it?

What questions should we ask?

Who can we ask?How do we know if

the answers are reliable and honest?

What do we do if we find they’re not?

HOW DO YOU KNOW HOW WELL YOUR SCHOOL IS DOING?

InspectorsData analysisValidation of self-evaluationTriangulationAsking questions -

teachers, parents, youngsters, governors, head…

ObservationComparisonWork samplingDiscussion between

inspectors

Governors

Which techniques are appropriate for us?

GATHERING EVIDENCE

Self-evaluation Raw data and league

tablesValue Added (VA)

data – RAISEonline Pupil tracking data

(anonymised)Ofsted reportHeadteacher’s report

Subject leader reportLink governor reportSchool Improvement

or Development Plan (and related progress reports)

School AwardsGB and committee

minutesFeedback from

stakeholders

SOURCES OF INFORMATION

It seems preposterous that we have no organised supply of expert advisors to support improvement.

Recommendation: a new nationwide support system to facilitate advice, support and collegiate school-to-school learning.

Support needs to be provided to ‘satisfactory’ schools, as well as those with NtI.

RSA 2011

"It is no good just relying on Ofsted to give the judgment. By that time, it is too late. We need some sort of intermediary bodies which can detect when things aren't going well, look at the data and have their ear very close to the ground to determine when there is a certain issue.“

Michael Wilshaw HMCI Guardian Dec 2011

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CALLS FOR AN EXTERNAL PERSPECTIVE

Who we’ve lost:School

Improvement Partner

Local authority adviser/inspector

We still have:Ofsted inspection

Who else is there?

LA traded services personnel

Independent consultants

Colleagues in our collaborative

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THE EXTERNAL, EXPERT PERSPECTIVE

What’s happened to self-evaluation in my school?How do we keep track of how the school is doing?What performance indicators tell us best what we need to

know?How do we know if our head and colleagues are giving us the

unvarnished truth?What external perspectives do (and could) we access?

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REFLECTION

THE GOVERNORS WERE IN COMPLETE AGREEMENT – EVERYTHING WAS BLOOMIN’ MARVELLOUS!

THEY MUST BE DOING A GREAT JOB!

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“The (outstanding) governing bodies constantly reflect on their own effectiveness and readily make changes to improve. They consider their own training needs, as well as how they organise their work.”

How well are we doing – as a governing body?

What IMPACT do we have?

When did we last evaluate ourselves as a GB?

What process did we use?

What did we do about what we found out?

WHAT ABOUT US?

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SPOT THE OPPORTUNITIES FOR SELF-EVALUATION

Full governing body

Matters arisingHeadteacher’s reportSchool development

planSchool self-

evaluationCommittee reportsSubject leaders’

reports

Committees

Curriculum, assessment, teaching and learningFinance StaffingPremises

Poole Governor Services self-evaluation toolOther self-evaluation tools on the webDescriptors of governance – previous

Ofsted frameworkOfsted’s characteristics of outstanding GBsGovernor Mark – including supporting and

validating partner GB’s self-evaluation

POSSIBLE APPROACHES

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GB DEVELOPMENT PLAN

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Goal Actions Outcomes Who? Deadline Evaluator

Retain eff ective governors

1. I ntroduce an induction policy f or new governors

New governors report that induction was helpful

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2. Make meetings more eff ective and effi cient

A Meetings do not overrun B Governors report improved satisf action

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