LGB Training NotesMay 2017

Governor engagement with School Development Planning

A school development plan is set by the Governors as a key strategic document to focus school improvement priorities. It can sometimes be a challenge for governing bodies to be fully engaged in the development and monitoring of these plans. Some key principles and priorities are highlighted below:

Questions to consider to plan the development of the plan:

  • Do you have a clear 3-5 year strategic vision for the school (often captured as a narrative at the start of a 1 year school development plan)?
  • Do you have a clear timeline so that strategic planning for the next year’s development plan is completed in good time (i.e. completed before the end of the summer term with perhaps final tweaks in September)?
  • Do you have clear roles and responsibilities in this plan including for governors (will the full LGB review materials or will some be done by a small working group etc?)
  • Have you ensured that you have rigorous self-evaluation in-place to correctly identify priorities? To include school performance and attendance data (public and internal), quality assurance / monitoring data in school (teaching and learning, behaviouretc – ideally benchmarked with other schools) and stakeholder voice (see below)
  • Have you provided opportunities to hear to the views of parents, staff and pupils during the development of your plan?

As the Headteacher and SLT then draft the plan, below are further questions that could be asked of them:

  • Are we clear that we have got the right priorities (the SDP must be manageable and achievable – so a small number of key priorities) – how do we know?
  • What evidence have we that these are the right priorities?
  • What is the most important issue/priority for the school and Governors to hold onto?
  • What other‘priorities’ are we having to put on-hold(the ‘would be good to if we had all the time and money…etc) and what is the impact of this?
  • What are your success criteria for this priority? Can we set improving success criteria through the year to set as ‘milestones’?
  • What further training and understanding do we as governors need to be able to hold the school to account on these priorities?
  • What information will governors receive, and when, to ensure that the LGB is able to monitor the impact of the plan effectively?
  • Can we plan to look at soft data, such as speaking to individual staff and students as part of our monitoring?

Models of development plans and monitoring schedules are available. Below are some extracts:

Possible outline headings for overall development plan priorities

  1. Priority: E.g. Improve outcomes for Pupil Premium Pupils (One of these for each of the current year’s priorities)

Success Criteria / Action to be taken
(supported by detailed action plans as appropriate) / Lead Staff / Governor Committee / Additional Resources, Budget / Monitoring: Interim Evaluation points (milestones)
1.1 Raise the attainment of PP pupils to ** and progress to ** / This section is likely give key actions and link to more detailed Action Plans, rather than listing all actions on the Development Plan itself
1.1.1Refer to PP specific raising achievement plan / Which member of staff has responsibility for ensuring priority is successful? / Which committee of the Local Governing Body is monitoring, supporting and challenging? / To be included within the budget plans for the year / This section outlines what will be monitored and when – completed at the start of the process. It can inform an ‘at-a-glance’ milestones flow chart
Monitoring and evaluation summary
This section will be completed during the year, and will refer to the Interim Evaluation Point monitoring schedule outlined above right. Any evidence collected can be stored electronically or in hard-copy with references to the success criteria for each criteria. / Reported to:
To include RLT board, LGB, SLT, staff, whole community / How Reported:
Eg Action Plan report; Summary of assessment results; Minutes from meeting / Date:
Month, or exact date

Possible outline headings for more detailed action plans

Model A

Specific Actions
What we will do? / Responsibility
Who will do it? / Resource
What do we need? / Time Line
What will be done by when? / Review Points
How will we check we are making progress and when will we check - Milestones?
Actions listed in chronological order if possible / Can refer to other staff here, whilst ‘owner’ is ultimately responsible / Can include meeting time as well as other resources / Be as specific as you can to try to avoid writing ‘ongoing’ / What will you check and when will you ‘stop’ to reflect on progress – i.e. milestone

Model B

IMPLEMENTATION / MONITORING
Sub-priority / Action / When / Who / Resourceimplications / How / When / Who / Intended impact (inc KPIs, Lead measures) / Actual impact and next steps
Number. linking to a numbered priority / Actions listed in chronological order if possible / Be as specific as you can to try to avoid writing ‘ongoing’ / Can refer to other staff here, whilst ‘owner’ is ultimately responsible / Can include meeting time as well as other resources / What will you measure – qualitative and if relevant quantitative / Be as specific as you can to try to avoid writing ‘ongoing’ / Can refer to a specific link governor or another SLT member to hold ‘owner’ to account / Be specific as you can be - and can be have different KPIs at different milestone points / Highlighting any gap between intended and actual and the next steps

Key points summary regarding implementation of Plans

  • Priorities chosen for the Development Plan should support the school's Self Evaluation – they should drive improvement
  • The detailed plan should be looked at on a weekly basis; priorities should be easily identified; complexity should be removed wherever possible to ensure coherent leadership is understood by all
  • Priorities should be supported by more detailed action plans as appropriate for more complex activities
  • Middle leaders must develop their own plans to ensure action and impact – these are reviewed under agreed regular timescales with SLT
  • A schedule of actions to support the plan should be reviewed with agreed regular timescales
  • The focus must always remain on IMPACT rather than completion of a task for the sake of it
  • There must be clear ownership and accountability for the actions AND success criteria and outcomes to ensure follow-through
  • Interim evaluations must be carried out under agreed regular timescales to ensure items do not slip to where appropriate to allow the plan to flex and
  • Single page summaries of evaluation of progress and next steps should be circulated to all partners on a regular basis

Monitoring by Governors

Questions to consider:

  • Do we have a clear plan to monitor the SDP (for example through committees)?
  • Who is responsible for ensuring as governors we remain sufficiently sharply focussed on impact so that we support the identified priorities?
  • Are we confident that we will get sufficient information (that is validated) to know if actions are having an impact?

PJ, June 2016