School Improvement leadership

In maintained schools, governing boards have a statutory duty to appoint an external adviser for the Headteacher appraisal process. Our advisers have the skills, experience and objectivity to provide the level of support and advice required to ensure a robust Headteacher Appraisal process.

The three-and-a-half-hour session provides:

• pre-visit preparation
• meetings with the headteacher and appointed governors to facilitate a review meeting and setting objectives
• agreed monitoring arrangements
• post-visit drafting of review statement and agreed objectives

Benefits

• support governors and head teachers in undertaking the appraisal process
• to support the setting of clear and measurable objectives
• provide impartial guidance and support

Our team can provide support and professional challenge for your middle leaders to secure whole school improvement.

The needs of schools vary significantly so our team of advisers can create tailored packages according to your individual requirements.

Support can include:

• analysis and evaluation of subject outcomes to review the impact of provision, help identify gaps and next steps
• review of the curriculum, planning and assessment
• joint monitoring activities, such as learning walks, lesson observations, work scrutiny and learner discussions
• modelling strategies to make the most of your pupil progress meetings
• review of systems to hold others to account
• developing others within your team
• support for writing a subject development action plan
• bespoke workshops to support middle leaders in their role

This SLA can be offered to individual schools or across a cluster of schools.

Benefits

• develop the skills and knowledge of school leadership
• gain a clear understanding of the crucial role middle leaders play in supporting whole school improvement
• have clear strategies to review and evaluate the effectiveness of teaching and learning
• be more confident in implementing and evaluating change to bring about improvement

This service is designed to support seniorn or middle leaders with responsibility for leading and/or undertaking teacher appraisal. This support will enable colleagues to review the key principles of appraisal in supporting teacher development.

This service can be offered to individual schools or across a cluster of schools.

It will cover:

• the appraisal process
• the role of the appraiser and appraisee
• setting objectives
• collating evidence and undertaking review meetings
• identifying next steps and CPD

Further sessions can be purchased to support managing capability procedures, managing difficult conversations, setting teacher action plans, being an effective appraiser.

Our school improvement service offers a comprehensive menu of bespoke consultancy (delivered through SIAs, LTAs and external associates) and professional development to support whole school improvement and help you achieve your goals. These services are available to maintained and academies and can be access individually or in clusters.

With changes in inspection and external accountability, our tailored consultancy visits will provide the challenge and insight that headteachers and senior leaders value, and offer you the opportunity to set the agenda, ensuring that the focus will be supporting your school to achieve your goals.

Activities might include:

• full learning and teaching review
• joint monitoring activities such as lesson observations, learning walks, work scrutiny, learner discussions to validate school judgements
• staff professional development
• support with strategic planning and self-evaluation processes
• planning to raise standards
• coaching support for aspiring new leaders or to support improvements in teaching and learning
• desk-top risk assessment data analysis
• Governor support

Are you ready for your inspection?

Ofsted Readiness is designed to support all schools in preparing for their Ofsted visit. 

Support may include all or some of the following:

• external quality assurance of the school self-evaluation and improvement plan
• guidance on how to prepare for the conversation with the Lead Inspector providing a coherent narrative of the school and considering potential key lines of enquiry
• preparing the monitoring and evaluation evidence base and analysis
• school website and policy compliance review
• preparing staff and governors for interviews with Ofsted inspectors
• further support for governors including the chair or vice chair and committee chairs involved in the process can be accessed through governor CPD training programme or through governor consultancy
• coaching support for middle leaders to review evidence base and analysis and prepare for deep dive conversations