AREA FOR DEVELOPMENT

REASONS FOR IDENTIFICATION

Subject Leadership (Focus on Science, History and Geography 2019/20)

Ensure leaders can articulate the intent, implementation and impact of the school’s curriculum.

Ensure clarity in the end points  the curriculum is building towards and what pupils need to know and be able to do to reach those end points.

Review the curriculum three year plans to ensure it is sequenced so that new knowledge and skills build on what has been taught before.

Ensure clarity in teacher assessments within each subject.

• Our current curriculum was designed and implemented in September 2015.We are are now revisiting and reviewing the effectiveness of various units within our three-year curriculum cycle.
• Self-evaluation against the Ofsted Framework September 2019

Intent– do we have clarity in what we are trying to achieve through our curriculum?

Does our curriculum statement/policy clearly articulate how our curriculum reflects the aims, values and context of our school?

How does it communicate the school’s distinctive context and character?

Does it capture our school’s individual personality?

How do we consider e.g. pupil’s background, deprivation, gaps in learning, pupil  feedback?

Implementation– how is our curriculum being delivered?

Do we have clear objectives/aims for what we want the curriculum to deliver for our children?

Does curriculum planning include careful sequencing and progression of subjects- building and deepening children’s learning?

Do all staff understand the key concepts to be taught within a subject…and what progression in learning looks like for all curriculum subjects?

What have we done/got in place to support this? How do we ensure teachers are making accurate assessment judgements?

Impact– what difference is our curriculum making?

How do we monitor and evaluate the impact of our curriculum on children’s learning?

•       Good Results

•       Pupil Progress- knowing more, remembering more, doing more

•       Knowledge and Cultural Capital

•       Preparation for next stage of education

•       Reading ability and fluency

How do we ensure the most able pupils deepen their knowledge, understanding and skills?

Improve levels of progress in writing for children with low starting points, including pupils with SEND and pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds (Cohort of 40 children across school).

• Outstanding recommendation from Cycle 1 of SPP
  ‘Whilst there are many tools available to support children with their writing, which are routinely flagged up by teachers, there is a huge range of approaches across school, which could be developed into a whole school cohesive approach. Data shows that low attainers are making slower than expected progress. Do the tools that the rest of school access also support their learning and what else could be put in place to develop their independence and support progress? How are teachers and teaching assistants used to support this particular group of children?’

• End of KS2 progress data improved in 2019 for all prior attainment groups in writing with the exception of low prior attainers

AREA FOR DEVELOPMENT

REASONS FOR IDENTIFICATION

Improve study skills and confidence towards writing with our ‘Focus 40’ pupils!

‘Good grade descriptor for Behaviour and Attitudes’ Ofsted Framework 2019

Pupils attitiudes towards their education is positive. They are committed to their learning, know how to study effectively and do so, are resilient to setbacks and take pride in their achievements.

When considering areas of relative weakness and potential barriers to progress in writing, staff perception was that 24 of our ‘Focus 40’ group experienced behaviour for learning barriers. Key areas of concern include:-

• Focus, pace and attention span (14 pupils)
• Anxiety impacting on independence and resilience (8 pupils)
• Reluctance (4 pupils)

AREA FOR DEVELOPMENT

REASONS FOR IDENTIFICATION

Prepare for new relationships and sex education and health education curriculum

Schools will be required by law to follow this from September 2020

AREA FOR DEVELOPMENT

REASONS FOR IDENTIFICATION

School Partnership Programme (Year 2- ‘deep dive’ for our focus 40 group!)

• Improve levels of progress in writing for children with low starting points, including pupils with SEND and pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds (Cohort of 40 children across school).

• See Priority 1 Quality of Education

To continue to develop a sector-led, collaborative approach to MAT improvement and our own school improvement through:-

• engagement in the Education Development Trust’s School Partnership Programme.
• development of MAT wide improvement processes and systems which are transparent, open and have impact.

Our commitment to and collective responsibility for improving outcomes for all pupils across the newly formed South York multi-academy trust.

Whilst, historically, we have attempted to share good practice and support each other with aspects of school improvement, in reality:-

• Our commitment, as a cluster of schools, to working together on school improvement hasn’t always been prioritised.
• This has scratched the surface – little depth. Events have tended to be one-off with occasional or no review/ follow up.
• We talk about priorities but identify them ourselves and tell others what they are – we share headlines but don’t go deeper.
• Our priorities can be too reactive on one year’s results.
• We focus on improving results in our own schools but not in others.

Year 1 of the programme has begun to address these points. We now want to involve more staff across the cluster in the development process