Leadership of Self-evaluation for Self-Improvement George Cooper HT Bearsden Academy.

Leadership of Self-evaluation for Self-Improvement George Cooper HT Bearsden Academy Leadership of Self-evaluation for Self- improvement HGIOS 4 Themes: Collaborative approaches to self-evaluation Analysis and evaluation of intelligence and data Impact on learners successes and achievements Highly Effective Practice (HGIOS4) For example: Self-evaluation is integral to how we work within our community and is an ongoing feature of school life. All staff, pupils, parents and partners are fully involved in improving the life And work of the school. Highly Effective Practice (HGIOS4) The whole school community has a shared understanding of the strengths and improvement needs of the school. A range of stakeholders take lead roles in aspects of school improvement. This includes children and young people, parents and partners. The Challenge of Leading... Strategies for/Culture of Self-improvement (GTCS Standards) model good practice... promote an open, honest and critical stance... lead and influence/ encourage and support others to critically analyse and evaluate their own practice... Strategies for/Culture of Self-improvement (GTCS Standards) systematically use established self-evaluation practices... develop colleagues skills and confidence... develop a culture of evidence-informed practice; Strategies for/Culture of Self-improvement (GTCS Standards) ensure systematic evidence collection and analysis against national and international benchmarks; use collated evidence to inform decision-making. Our Self-evaluation Journey Maureen Daniel DHT Bearsden Academy Committed to Excellence by Working Together to Be All We Can Be Our journey We have been on an active and reflective journey particularly over the past three years, using the findings of our Local Authority Review as a benchmark to assist in identifying our next steps. Our path has had many twists and turns we have let our changes get messy! Self-evaluation in our school is a participative process. It is active. We live it and breathe it. It is not a paper exercise it involves many people. People are excited by it. It reflects our values of respect, enthusiasm and FUN! When Pupil Leadership is Effective Participation of the whole school community We have worked very hard to engage the whole school community. Well-planned and systematic leadership opportunities for reflection, professional dialogue and delivering actions that have a positive impact upon learners have been delivered with frequency. All of our actions are evaluated and benchmarked against the Quality Indicators. Feedback directs our vision. We aim to be transparent and courageous. The Self-evaluation Team Our vision has been formed by the school community at all levels. Initially, we established a working group of staff who were passionate about self- evaluation and they have determined our journey. The group meets about once a fortnight, sometimes weekly. Membership of the group consists of middle leaders and teaching staff. Each member of the team has taken leadership responsibility for one or more of the actions in our SIP under Quality Indicator 5.9. Together we are stronger! The team began by looking inwards, then outwards, then forwards. Looking inwards In looking inwards, we used existing processes and data to gauge staff, support staff, parents and pupils. We analysed and compared their responses to benchmark our progress. Where majority views were not secured, we adapted communication systems and have now secured the participation of nearly all of our community. The impact of this is that we now have a very accurate vision of where we are. Where we identified gaps or difficult feedback we explored it and incorporated this into our improvement planning agenda. We observed each other and shared best practice. The team has taken a collegiate approach using a model of distributed leadership. Looking outwards Triangulation of evidence from external scrutiny. What were the key messages we were hearing? Visits to other centres to explore alternative and complementary approaches across a range of themes. PT Conference invited guests and speakers to foster ambition. Effective CPD. New staff sharing experience. Importance of appointments for context. Next steps for the team Engaging the whole school community in DELIVERING school improvement: Parental Improvement Plan, Pupil Improvement Plan, Support Staff Improvement Plan. HMIE Survey Action Plan based on critical feedback. Principal Teachers Conference led by peers. Provide opportunities for professional dialogue. Consistent approach to jotter sampling. Learner journeys for website. Peer observations and associated collegiate dialogue. Sharing Best Practice. Securing staff participation For staff, we involved all staff in HMIE Action Planning during one of Inset days using co-operative learning techniques. We then created an action plan. The identified sections have been distributed across the school to secure progress in areas of concern to staff. Bottom up approach to improvement planning. Stretched our very able middle managers. Support Staff gathering opinion and encouraging accountability For support staff, due to the disproportionately small number of respondents to our survey, we were unable to make any accurate judgements on next steps for our plan. In response to this, we created planned opportunities for eliciting feedback through professional dialogue and evaluative tasks. This has led us to the production of a Support Staff Improvement Plan which reflects the views of all support staff and provides them with leadership opportunities to take forward school improvement. Placed pupils needs firmly at the centre of objectives. Shared responsibility for delivery of actions. Parents taking responsibility For parents, we used the e-resource of Google Surveys to reach out to all parents, significantly increasing the number of recipients and providing more accurate feedback. We follow up on comments of concern or requiring action. Working in close partnership with our Parent Council, we have now produced a Parental Improvement Plan and look forward to delivering on their agreed priorities. Communication to be developed in an improved, parent led Parentzone. Pupils at the Centre Most significantly, our pupils are reflective agents of change and guide our planning with their insightful feedback and creative solutions. We use the tools of Three Horizons, Implemento and SMART Targets to deliver their bright ideas for school improvement within the context of our Pupil Improvement Team, the Bearsden Aspirational team. Welcome to members of our Bearsden Aspirational Team Pupil Led School Improvement We formed a Pupil Improvement Team. Following discussion, it was agreed that the Learner Voice Committee would merge with this group to take forward the pupil improvement agenda together. We, the BGE Pupils planned and ran a launch event for our Senior Phase peers in June, We voted for our name and decided to call ourselves the Bearsden Aspirational Team (BATs). Since then, we have been working on delivering our bright ideas using Three Horizons and Implemento as a vehicle for strategic planning. The full film of our event is featured on the school website. Here is a little snippet of our work Next steps for the BATs We have completed our Pupil Improvement Plan and a Standards and Quality Report that reflects what we feel about our school, in our own words. Our Improvement plan focuses on three main areas, linked to Quality Indicators. They are: Learning in Class, Relationships and Ethos and the School Environment. We have begun to share with our teachers how they can use Implemento and Three Horizons as a strategic planning tool. We are about to lead and conduct focus groups for departments using the Learner Conversations tool to seek our peers opinions. We are also going to make BAT badges Learner Conversations 2015 Conducted in June 2015 using a Google Survey and an established agreed text. Had been conducted previously in June Representatives across a full range of subjects and ages and stages. Pupils from Study Skills and LCR represented inclusive sample. Purpose to provide pupils with an opportunity to reflect on their learning and to provide rich feedback to their teachers. The sample Comparators Professional Dialogue and Feedback Task Departments selected ONE (or more) area of the feedback that was particularly interesting or relevant to their department. Decided on an action to be taken forward to address the feedback and effect an improvement. This was written this on a You said, We did board. Staff responses to pupils feedback was shared with all pupils at assemblies. Looking forwards We now look forward on our journey to empowering our whole community to deliver their action plans using a model of distributed leadership at all levels, This includes pupils, parents and support staff. The plans are guided by systematically planned structures to scaffold our actions. The impact of our self-evaluation journey will continue to involve our whole school community in the delivery of our objectives to produce a positive impact on learners arising from our activities. We now look forward to delivering the recommendations of HGIOS 4 across our school community. Our Visit from Education Scotland Took place week beginning 26 th October Used the established format, not HGIOS 4. Was an opportunity to reflect on our existing processes and validate our school journey. Preparation for Inspection Anticipation timescale. Preparing folders of evidence and displays that communicate your vision. Detail in preparation required for scoping meeting and self-evaluation paper. High level messages - what does this mean? Empowering the school community to talk confidently to inspectors - speaking the language of HGIOS. Thinking on the spot - knowing your school. The importance of team preparation for inspection through professional dialogue. The experience Supporting staff, parents and pupils. The self evaluation meeting. Substantiation of claims - what might you need to evidence through the week? Helpfulness of historical evidence and data in addressing queries. Collegiate triangulation - supporting staff at all levels to communicate consistent messages about improvement. Having their say - supporting colleagues to showcase their own work. Working through the week - continuous evidence gathering to address queries through the process. Collegiality - the need for a critical friend! Physical and mental endurance The aftermath Surprises? Validation. Reflection. Affirmation. Prioritising. Action planning. Continue on your journey to improvement!