Wakefield City Academy

&

The IRIS Connection

A Disclaimer Or two

Not an agent for IRIS

But I am an agent for school improvement based on:o Support and development

o Sharing good practice

o Effective coaching and mentoring

o Building confidence and self esteem

o Unobtrusive and threatening lesson observations

That’s where IRIS comes in

Key To School Improvement

leadership at all levels especially:

o Senior and classroom level

quality of teaching and learning

high quality and cost effective CPD/JPD for all staff

That’s where IRIS comes in again

Scope of IRIS Usage

Used by:

Wakefield City Academy

Wakefield City High National teaching School Alliance

[40+ primary and secondary schools across 4 counties]

across Wakefield City Academies Trust

[currently 13 primary and secondary academies and a number of affiliated schools]

Leadership provides a supportive and development tool to improve

quality of teaching

reduces the negativity around formal lesson observations

provides an alternative to the ‘three strikes and capability’ model- can be used for appraisal

allows leaders to take CPD/JPD to scale

helps to support the creation/work of learning communities

avoids expenditure on expensive exemplar lessons

reduces the need to travel between schools-saving money-more effective use of time

cross phase use allows students to observe lessons they will experience at the next stage

Teaching & Learning

provides for self reflection

opportunities for peer mentoring

gives a view of teaching without ‘significant others’ distorting the classroom environment

enables staff to view classroom behaviour

opportunity for remote feedback during the lesson

opportunity for overlay comments from mentors, consultants ofsted inspectors

opportunity to view good and outstanding practice

High Quality CPD/JPD observing good and outstanding practice

linking schools across a wide area to share good practice without travelling

whole school INSET provided for our primary pyramid by SLEs working in school and using IRIS during the normal school day with:

o No removal of staff from their class to attend an expensive course

o Therefore no discontinuity of teaching and learning- a major problem for primary schools