Dawlish Learning Partnership

The Role of School Governors in supporting school improvement

1. To understand your accountability for school improvement

2. To recognise the levers of school improvement

3. To learn from each other: local best practice

4. To consider priorities for action back in school

Aims of the workshop

The governing body has responsibility for the conduct of the school with a view to promoting high standards of educational achievement

The governing body must fulfill a largely strategic role in the running of the school. It should establish the strategic framework by:

setting aims and objectives for the school adopting policies for achieving those aims and objectives setting targets for achieving those aims and objectives.

The governing body should monitor and evaluate progress of its strategy and regularly review the framework for the school in the light of that progress.

A Guide to the Law for School Governors 2010

Your accountability for school improvement

Effectiveness: School performance Taking account of: Self-evaluation (inc governing body) School’s own data Value added data: RAISEonline, Headteacher performance management Stakeholder feedback including

complaints and compliments Policies, plans, improvement strategies School environment Reports to governing body from

headteacher

Governing bodies are accountable for…

Efficiency: Value for money Taking account of: Schools Financial Value Standard

(SFVS) Financial reports to GB Finance committee minutes Financial benchmarking Value for Money tools

What is our vision? What are we trying to achieve? Strategic improvement planWhat are our values? Policies

What is the evidence?School self-evaluation etc

What information?RAISEonlineFischer Family Trust DfE school comparisons

What are our new priorities?Narrowing the gap?Pupil progress?

How do we contribute to planning for improvement?School development plan and headteacher performance management

How do we know it’s happening?Head’s reports;our monitoring

How do we give an account?

What Ofsted inspectors do

How good are we?

Data analysisValidation of self-evaluationAsk pupils, parents, teachers, governors – triangulationLesson observationComparisonWork samplingDiscussion between inspectors

What we can do

Data analysisSelf-evaluationAsk pupils, parents, teachers, governors – triangulationVisit school and classroomsComparisonDiscussion between governors and staff

1. Focus on learning and teaching2. Generate positive relationships3. Provide a clear vision and high expectations4. Improve the environment5. Provide time and opportunities for collaboration6. Distribute leadership: build teams7. Engage the community8. Evaluate and innovate

Levers of school improvement

Key characteristics of effective governing

bodies

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.

Outstanding governors are able to take and support hard decisions in the interests of pupils: to back the head teacher when they need to change staff, or to change the head teacher when absolutely necessary.

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

Governors in the schools visited, use the skills they bring, and the information they have about the school, to ask challenging questions, which are focused on improvement, and hold leaders to account for pupils’ outcomes.

School governance: Learning from the best

Ofsted 2011

Full governing body

Matters arising Headteacher’s report School development plan School self-evaluation Committee reports Subject leaders’ reports

Governing Body meetings:

Spot the school improvement agenda items

Committees

Curriculum, assessment, teaching and learning

Finance Staffing Premises

What might it look like in practice?

Problem: poor maths GCSE results

Solution: Governors requested that the chosen faculty report for that year focused on the maths faculty

Governors were pushing at an open door. SLT were as worried as anyone and were keen to have governors’ support for action

Governors, through the curriculum committee, got regular reports on progress

SLT were willing to take on governors’ ideas – eg “A” half of year taught in mixed gender groups; “B” half taught as single sex groups

Major staffing changes took place; and “overstaffing” of maths gave small teaching groups

Outcome – over 3 years maths results went from approx. 30% A*-C to 60%+ A*-C

Governors did not manage the changes that brought about the improvement but they did challenge and support the changes

Another example

Problem: The headteacher provided the chair with performance data when it was fresh and relevant. The head’s view was that it was not relevant to share RAISEonline data because it was out of date by the time it was published. However, this meant that the governing body could not see a consistent overview for the school.

Solution: The chair of governors encouraged fellow governors to undertake training on RAISEonline, which they did. They also asked to see the data and the head then agreed to share it.

Outcome: When the governing body and headteacher looked at RAISEonline together, areas for improvement were identified that not been previously revealed by all the other data that had been shared.

RAISEonline is now shared regularly and its usefulness understood by the all.

RAISEonline is a secure web-based system that provides schools, local

authorities and inspectors with a range of analyses including:

• Attainment at the end of Key Stages 1,2 and 4;

• Progress from Key Stage 1 to 2; Key Stage 2 to 4

• Absence and exclusions; and

• The characteristics (often referred to as ‘context’) of pupils.

For each type of analysis, your school is compared to national averages

for primary/secondary schools. Some analyses also show you where

your school sits in the national distribution of schools (e.g. top 20%,

bottom 5% etc.).

National Comparative Data

The purpose of RAISEonline is twofold.

1. It is an important (but by no means the only) source of data for schools to use in retrospective self-evaluation and development planning, to be used alongside other sources such as the schools’ own pupil tracking data.

2. The analyses are used by Ofsted inspectors in their pre-inspection preparation. It is therefore critical that you are able to interpret your school’s data from an inspector’s perspective and can identify apparent areas of under-performance in order to:

• explain why they occurred; or

• demonstrate that you recognise them and have set out the action you are taking to address them

The top pages

Raiseonline

Improvement Planning - process

Identify precisely the priority for improvementSchool improvement priorities, which specifically relate to improving rates ofprogress and attainment, are agreed by the leadership team and governors

Establish the overarching success criteria based on

qualitative and quantitative measures

 The plan has clear success criteria/ intended outcomes relating to improvingattainment and rates of progress and raising the quality of teaching and

learning. Set termly milestonesDated milestones are set out in a way that facilitates systematic and rigorousmonitoring and evaluation each term

Write actions for the term to meet milestones.

 The plan has an appropriate balance of tactical short term and longer termactivity that all build the school’s capacity and ensure maximum impact for all pupils. Actions are time limited. For each action defined in the plan there is anamed person identified as responsible and a different person accountable foractivity relating to the monitoring and evaluation of the action(s)

Write key questions to ask to help evaluate the impact

of actionsImpact on progress and attainment is reviewed and adjusted at least halftermly and termly by the headteacher, senior leaders and representatives ofthe governing body.

Priorities: based on the outcomes of rigorous self

evaluation; precisely identify the area (s) for improvement

Success Criteria: demanding, measurable and

time limited

Actions: focused on achieving the success criteria

Monitoring: what, who, when, how

Evaluation: against success criteria - who, when, how

Effective school improvement plans

To raise attainment in boys’ writing across Key

Stage 2….

What might be over-arching success criteria be?

If the priority was…

Working with a colleague:

Consider the extent to which the success criteria in

your improvement plan are:• Outcomes not actions• Measurable (Quantitative and Qualitative)• Sufficiently challenging

What are the sources of evidence governors might

gather to support evaluating school performance?

Gathering evidence

• Reports from headteacher, senior leaders, subject leaders

• School level pupil performance data• National comparative data• Inspection reports• Governors’ focussed visits• Discussions with pupils• External reports• Auditors’ report• Parent/carer survey

Through highly effective, rigorous planning and controls, governors

ensure financial stability, including the effective and efficient management

of financial resources such as the pupil premium funding. This leads to

the excellent deployment of staff and resources to the benefit of all

groups of pupils. (grade 1)

Governors, or those in a similar position, systematically challenge senior

leaders. As a result, the quality of teaching and pupils’ achievement have

improved, or previous good performance in these areas have been

consolidated. (grade 2)

Governors are not sufficiently robust in holding the school to account for

pupils’ achievement, the quality of teaching and the effective and efficient

deployment of resources. (grade 4)

Ofsted and governance

Learning from each other

Think of an example of how one or more governors in your school have influenced an improvement in school.

The example may be small scale, the result of a “nudge” or something bigger, resulting from a concerted team effort – or somewhere in between.

Tell a colleague:• The problem• The solution• The outcome

Agree the key learning points from the example.

Priorities for action

Use the action planning sheet provided to record:

• Three things your governing body does well in improving school performance

• Three things your governing body needs to do better in improving school performance

What you will do next:• Actions• When?• Who else will it involve?• How will it benefit my school?• What evidence will I seek to prove impact?