How to evaluate and approve the school improvement plan
Your governing board should approve the school improvement plan (SIP) every year. Understand the process for doing that, what to look out for and what questions to ask. The SIP is sometimes called a school development plan or strategic plan.
Contents
How the draft SIP was created
First, let's cast our minds back to the summer term. As a board, you should've met with the headteacher and the senior leadership team to go over:
- Pupil performance data
- Financial data
- Results of staff, parent and pupil surveys
- Previous school improvement plans (SIPs) and their outcomes
- The self-evaluation form (SEF)
- Your last Ofsted inspection report
Your board should've set the objectives for the SIP at that meeting. For more on that process, read this article.
Since that meeting, the headteacher and the SLT have drafted the actual SIP. This should be a detailed plan of:
- What specific actions to take to meet the objectives
- When those actions will be carried out
- Who is responsible for carrying out each action
- How progress will be monitored
- How you'll measure success
See the article linked above for examples of SIPs from other schools.
Though there's no formal requirement that your board approves the SIP, this should be
Also in 'School improvement planning'
- Coronavirus: how to set your school improvement plan (SIP)
- Coronavirus: setting your school on the road to recovery
- COVID-19 retrospective: how to help your school learn lessons from the past year
- Key performance indicators (KPIs): requirements and guidance for academy trusts
- Know your school: a checklist
- School improvement plans: template and examples