Across the UK, successful school development programmes have been shown to possess several factors in common. Momentum for improvement, adequate monitoring and motivation and a focus on bolstering teaching quality are notable as the levers for change most commonly cited[1] by headteachers interviewed by the Education Development Trust, and a good deal has been written on how each might be achieved.
Research by David Hopkins[2] into the dynamics of strategic school improvement indicates that there are nine components which must be worked on simultaneously to effect consistently positive change. In no particular order, these are: committed leadership, high-quality teaching and learning, a balanced and interesting curriculum, consistent rules for student conduct, a strong student attitude towards learning, a robust professional learning community, a system of internal accountability, partnerships beyond the school itself and student-focused resources and environmental management.
While this may seem like a tall order when presented as a list, the main concern of school improvement is not in hitting every one of these targets at once, but in finding how they grow out from and build upon one another.
This knowledge bank contains a wealth of resources for tackling each of these components. Its primary focus, however, is on the practical steps surrounding the delivery of these improvements: the planning, budgeting and reviewing of school-wide development. The first step, of course, is finding a good place to start.
The Planning Phase
No school is going to improve its prospects overnight. As a long-term project, the school development plan should be tied to a single coherent vision, which is best set down in a document to which the leadership team can refer going forward. This school improvement plan (SIP), as Maddie Kilminster explains[3], should set forth concrete and objectively measurable targets for improvement in whatever fields are being targeted, whether that be attainment, attendance or a range of other factors.
Improvement targets should be achievable based on the school’s current situation. To gain a better sense of where your school currently is and what goals may be achievable, refer to the sources cited in the ‘Auditing Improvement’ section.
A useful framework can be found by compartmentalising the SIP into stages, beginning from the foundation, which is staff morale and motivation to enact change. Showing attentiveness to staff needs (and, crucially, their input during the development process) will ensure that you have a capable team on-side while delivering your school improvement project.
Time and space must be allowed for staff’s professional development, as well as ‘permission’ to be critical of the process where they feel improvement could be made – Judy Durrant stresses[4] that this is key to assuring that the process is truly inclusive and capable of achieving school-wide change. Ensure that allowances for professional development are written into the SIP timetable and that staff are informed explicitly that their opinion on the arrangements is sought.
Staff are human; they can be reached by demonstrating that their leaders are attentive to their needs and willing to engage with them as trusted colleagues rather than subordinates. As illustrated in Chris Dyson’s account of delivering a successful improvement initiative at Parklands Primary School[5], team meals out or (non-tedious) team-building exercises during inset days are all worthwhile examples of this in action.
Above all else, simply acknowledging individual staff members’ efforts and the results they have yielded, especially in the presence of their colleagues, is imperative. Martin Beedle[6] stresses that such recognition is important for nurturing a ‘professional learning community’ within your school and providing incentives for further improvement that is not directed from the top. Once staff are on board with the programme, they will provide the momentum for change that is integral to its success.
While putting together the bones of your SIP, it is also worthwhile to consider the value of outside input. Other schools that have enacted similar development initiatives are in a strong position to share best practices, which can inform your own planning. The London Schools Gold Club[7] is a prime example of collaboration between leadership teams achieving lasting change across multiple underachieving schools. However, Trevor Folley notes that it is all too easy for these collaborations to lose their impact if they are poorly structured; observatory sit-ins by staff visiting the improved school, for instance, will be of limited value unless that time is spent absorbing relevant knowledge.
There is no substitute for practical advice from teachers and staff who have actually delivered the school improvement measures – so these staff members should be placed at the heart of any collaboration, ideally in the form of brief but formal seminars where they can share their experiences. Professional school development providers like Best Practice Network are adept at arranging these, but their value will need to be weighed against another factor informing your SIP: funding.
Budgeting For Success
A healthy, realistic budget is necessary to deliver on improvement, and so will form a key pillar of your SIP. Only you can know how much your school can afford to direct towards your improvement project, but as Barbara Bakewell emphasises[8], it is crucial to base your most impactful decisions on consultation with staff, with investments parcelled out throughout the year to avoid making the initiative unwieldy through front-loading.
It is also wise to reach out to additional sources of funding wherever possible. Depending on the nature of the improvement, any number of grants may be available to be tapped into, and some organisations may be willing to sponsor the development if it is likely to return tangible results. In Bakewell’s case, when seeking to build a new community sports centre, the needed funding was acquired by building contacts among local businesses, a local regeneration trust and a large national firm, all of whom were convinced of the benefits of the school’s plan and the goodwill to be gained through supporting it.
Justin Smith at The Headteacher[9] provides an excellent resource on obtaining funding for new initiatives, specifically by finding new sources of sponsorship. He points out that due diligence must be applied to any partnerships and encourages leaning on existing trading relationships with the school’s suppliers. Introducing multi-tiered bronze, silver and gold ‘packages’ for potential sponsor buy-ins, with different levels of promotional and advertising opportunities presented for each, may be another effective means of enticing business sponsorships.
Finally, Malcolm Trobe’s discussion[10] of the benefits of comparator schools offers further insights on budgeting for school improvement. He relates how, by reviewing the expenditure of a sufficiently large number of its peer schools, Outoftown Comprehensive was able to discover where its budget was inflated In comparison and what areas could be reorganised in order to remain competitive. Having this data to hand can be invaluable in creating a more streamlined budget with room for the further expense warranted by an SIP.
Auditing Improvement
Thorough self-evaluation must be undertaken both prior to and during the improvement process to ensure that the correct areas are being targeted for improvement. John MacBeath has produced a comprehensive guide for taking stock of a school’s greatest challenges[11], though Roger Gilbert also provides a more concise set of principles to work by.[12]
Once an SIP is put into action, it is imperative to continually review the school’s progress towards meeting its aims. ‘The school improvement partner checklist’[13] provides a useful set of criteria by which this can be judged, looking at observable improvements in attainment across various demographics of pupils, what the school is doing to aid in staff development and whether best use is being made of its resources.
As discussed in the ‘Rapid School Improvement’ report[14], monitoring progress in both teachers and pupils is essential to ensuring the improvement of teaching quality, but it requires a careful approach. The act of monitoring is often demoralising by its nature, so motivation in the form of positive reinforcement (and, if all has gone well, a gradually improving school environment) must be used to keep recipients on-side throughout the process.
The usefulness of comparator schools becomes apparent once again during this stage. The input of other schools (raised under ‘The Planning Phase’) can give you an idea of the improvements that your peers observed at various stages of their development journey. Scheduling collaborative review sessions at these points along the improvement timeline can keep you apprised of where your efforts are finding success and what areas of concern may require further attention.
- https://www.teachingtimes.com/rapid-improvement_031016/
- https://www.teachingtimes.com/slt-differential-stategies-school-improvement/
- https://arbor-education.com/blog-effective-school-improvement-plan/
- https://www.teachingtimes.com/schoolimprovementiseverybodybusiness/
- https://www.teachingtimes.com/making-wellbeing-the-core-strategy-for-school-improvement/
- https://www.teachingtimes.com/self-improvement-professional-development/
- https://www.teachingtimes.com/london-school-improvement/
- https://www.teachingtimes.com/funding-roller-coaster21cs-3-1/
- https://www.theheadteacher.com/school-procurement/revenue-generation/how-to-attract-sponsors-and-partners-for-your-school
- https://www.teachingtimes.com/slt83-budgetcrisis/
- https://dera.ioe.ac.uk/id/eprint/5951/
- https://www.tribalgroup.com/blog/five-practical-tips-using-school-self-evaluation-to-drive-improvement
- https://www.teachingtimes.com/briefcase-51-the-school-improvement-partner-checklist/
- https://www.teachingtimes.com/rapid-improvement_031016/