School Priorities, Self Evaluation and Action Plans

School Priorities and projects, Kaizen, Governor Monitoring and Self Evaluation

School Improvement is an ongoing iterative cycle of monitoring, evaluation, review and reporting. We call this our MERR cycle.

The school is a reflective learning community that appreciates its achievements but also looks to what further improvements can be made. "Kaizen" (Good and continuous improvement) is an important principle that underpins our work. As a forward thinking and outward reaching problem solving organisation we are keen to ensure that our practice is leading edge and exceptional. We do not rest on our laurels, we keep innovating, adapting and moving forward. 

At the end of the academic year, we look at all available data, including National test results, pupil & parent surveys and staff feedback, we take stock of our achievements and look ahead to what needs to be done next.

School priorities are drafted and presented at the first meeting of the Governors' Teaching and Learning Committee. The school priorities are ratified at the first Full Governing Body Meeting of the academic year. The Headteacher presents a written report at every FGB that includes a description of how the priorities are being monitored by leaders across the school who are working on the key projects for school improvement. A named governor is assigned to work alongside each project team and it is the assigned governor who is able to provide the evaluation of the success of each priority. This is done through governor monitoring and their evaluation reports which are presented to the Full Governing Body. 

There are many aspects to our ongoing school improvement work and these are scheduled across the year in the MERR framework which is monitored by the senior leaders' Curriculum and Standards team. Quality assurance and monitoring includes learning walks, lesson observations, book looks, standardised assessment and other activities including annual surveys with parents, staff and children. This monitoring schedule ensure that ongoing school improvement is a regular and daily activity. The draft school improvement priorities are listed below, however the final priorities and associated budget costs can be seen in the document.

Key School Improvement Priorities 

• Safeguarding (Safeguarding is always paramount)
• Reading/Phonics
• Greater Depth in Maths
• Progress of Pupils with Special Educational Needs
• Subject Leadership and Monitoring
• Personal Development
• Oracy

School Priorities April 2023 - April 2024

1. Quality of Education:

• Ensure Reading continues to be a priority so that children can access the full curriculum. Appoint a new Literacy/English Leader.
• Monitor the quality of the school's systematic approach to teaching phonics - through Little Wandle Phonics including updating training and training for new staff. Monitor phonics and Catch up programmes in Key Stage 2.
• Continue to monitor and review provision for the lowest 20% of readers supported with vocabulary acquisition, fluency and comprehension.   
• Continue to promote Reading for Pleasure through stories, poems, rhymes, non-fiction and a well-stocked library. 
• Through a school wide Oracy project pupils’ speaking,debating,discussing and presenting  skills are developed. 
• Skills Builder is used to track progress in transferrable skills and this links with the school's Careers Education. 
• Teachers ensure that their own speaking, listening, writing and reading of English support pupils in developing their language and vocabulary well.
• Strengthen the quality of provision, curriculum and teaching in Science including through achieving the PSQM

2. Behaviour and Attitudes to Learning: 

• Continue to ensure all children have the opportunity to learn in neat, calm, purposeful, positive and productive environments including cloakrooms, corridors, the courtyard and pod areas. 
• Ensure there are clear routines and expectations for children's behaviour around school and attitude to learning. "Ready To Learn"
• Further embed cognitive science and other pedagogies to develop pupils understanding of expectations and attitudes to learning through a well-embedded learning sequence RIPEN. 
• Staff teach children the language of feelings, helping them to appropriately develop their emotional literacy. Displays throughout the school ensure that this is consistent. 

3. Personal Development: 

• The curriculum design and map show how the curriculum offer extends beyond the academic and develops pupils personal, social, spiritual and moral education to ensure they to become responsible, respectful, active citizens. Maps will be provided for each year group.
• Assemblies, PHSE, RE, RSE, wider opportunities, educational visits and other activities such as being a member of CitizensUk will be planned to ensure our children are prepared for life in modern Britain including learning about the Five Fundamental British Values so all pupils can learn and thrive together.
• Children will learn more about the Equalities Duties, through Literature, special events and the No Outsiders programme, so that they understand that difference is positive and that individual characteristics make people precious and unique. 
• Continue to embed CREW time and the four values; Courage, Responsibility, Excellence and Wisdom so that pupils develop a strong sense of belonging and community which positively contributes to resilience and well-being. 
• Continue to offer opportunities for the children to experience a wide range of cultural opportunities such as sports and music and arts to develop their imagination and design and making skills to produce long-lasting high quality works of art or artifacts that become treasured items. 
• Develop pupils’ understanding of how to keep physically and mentally healthy (Through Mind Up), eat healthily and maintain an active lifestyle.
• Continue to strengthen partnerships that will enhance the social and cultural capital of pupils and staff as well as their academic and personal development, e.g. Citizens UK, Galleries, Museums. PTA events

• Through visitors in school and educational visits offer good-quality, meaningful opportunities for pupils to encounter the world of work (e.g. through Launch Pad and Form The Future) and align with three of the Gatsby Benchmarks

4. Leadership and Management:

• Continue to embed the pedagogy and curriculum design of the compass with an emphasis on CREW as a dialogic means to secure other priorities such as pupil well-being, academic knowledge, improved attitudes to learning and achievement.  
• Continue to secure a strong safeguarding culture across ALL aspects of the school's work
• Ensure coherence and consistency across the school so that pupils benefit from effective teaching and consistent high expectations, wherever they are in the school
• Ensure that there is a well developed approach to teaching, learning and assessment for all subjects. This includes a well-mapped ambitious knowledge-rich programme of study and an ambitious vocabulary continuum that is followed with fidelity for each subject.
• Ensure all teachers are aware of how to implement Ordinary Adapted Provision to ensure all children including SEND pupils access and engage with an ambitious curriculum and that there is challenge and extension opportunities for all pupils. 
• Ensure that leaders have received training and are confident in monitoring, reviewing and reporting the quality of the educational offer for their subject. Subject leaders document the way in which their subject will be assessed and the ways their subject will be monitored, evaluated, reviewed and reported on. 
• Introduce a school wide programme such as Nautilus to implement the MERR (Monitoring, evaluation, review and reporting) schedule to celebrate success, identify areas for improvement and report to Governors on impact. 

5. Early Years Foundation Stage:

• The content of the EYFS curriculum is taught in a logical progression, systematically and in a way that is explained effectively, so that it gives children the necessary foundations for the rest of their schooling. Good practice in EYFS is continued through the school e.g. Use of SeeSaw.

• Introduce Continuous Provision and focused high quality teacher led inputs into Year 1 to develop children's self-management, creativity, play, confidence and positive attitudes to learning.

• Oracy: staff develop children’s communication and language through singing songs, nursery rhymes and playing games. Staff listen to children and respond and encourage their verbal and non-verbal communication and reasoning. "Serve and Return"

• EYFS Team are confident and feel supported in their role as a Good Practice setting for the Local Authority.

6. Business and Operations:

• Ensure the continuing professional development for teachers and staff is aligned with the curriculum, and develops teachers’ content knowledge and teaching content knowledge over time, so that they are able to deliver better teaching for pupils
• Workload and well-being of staff is prioritised, while also developing and strengthening the quality of the workforce and provision for pupils. 
• Continue to strengthen the culture of distributed leadership through high quality evidence based CPD and JPD opportunities including national professional Qualifications.

Milton Road Primary School is confidently in Phase 3 of this model; in the school improving space. Aligning with the expectations in the OfSTED Handbook and our own self-evaluation our performance remains in the "Good" category, retaining this judgement from the previous inspection in May 2019.

A huge amount of dedicated work has taken place over the last four years to ensure that our provision in Leadership, Behaviour and Attitudes, Personal Development and Quality of Education is mapped against Inspection Criteria and remains Good. As a school we know "Excellence Does Not Happen by Chance" (Christine Gilbert former HMCI); we are never complacent and we never take our foot of the gas. We seek to keep improving through professional dialogic practice, the use of research informed approaches. a knowledge and skills rich curriculum and powerful pedagogies. 

Subject Action Plans