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School improvement plans: guidance and templates

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Are there support materials for school improvement planning? We link to sample templates and guidance for school improvement or development plans. We also include a report on using strategic planning for school improvement.

Improvement planning guidance with templates

There is no official template for school improvement plans (also called school development plans), but a variety of examples are published.

There is no official template for school improvement plans

The Financial Management Standard in Schools (FMSiS) provides guidelines and examples of what to include in the school improvement plan.

The FMSiS Example School Development/Improvement Plan document includes examples of action plans for governor committees on pages 28-34.

On pages 50-58, it features examples of school improvement plans for several development areas, including:

  • Improving the use of the recent assessment data
  • Helping students realise their social and personal potential
  • Developing the school’s resources
  • Developing the use of ICT in the curriculum

Example school development/improvement plan, FMSiS (Adobe pdf file)
http://www.fmsis.info/uploads/r17.pdf

Example school development plan, FMSiS (Word doc file)
http://www.fmsis.info/uploads/R17.doc

The Schools and Children’s Services Directorate at Calderdale Council has a guide to producing a school improvement plan. The guidance covers what should be included in the plan, how it should be audited and possible success criteria.

It includes a school improvement plan template on page 6 and a sample spreadsheet for allocating and monitoring funds on page 13.

Guide to producing a school improvement plan: Calderdale Council (Adobe pdf file)
http://www.calderdale.gov.uk/learning/4schools/education/guid-sip.pdf

Russell Educational Consultancy and Productions (RECAP) has a school improvement plan proforma that can be accessed free of charge.

Example school development/ improvement plans, see pages 4-7, RECAP (Word doc file)
http://recap.ltd.uk/files/SIP-proforma.docImprovement planning guidance and templates

Devon County Council's guide is less comprehensive and does not contain a specific proforma, but it uses bullet points to detail the contents that a school improvement plan is expected to include. It may prove useful as a quick reference guide when producing your own plan.

Guide to school development plans: Devon County Council (Adobe pdf file)
http://www.devon.gov.uk/contrast/school_development_plans.pdf

Improvement planning tools and frameworks

The TDA improvement planning framework

The Training and Development Agency for Schools (TDA) has developed the school improvement planning framework. The framework, and the tools that are available with it, aim to engage staff in improvement and with monitoring the impact of improvements on pupils.

The framework divides the planning process into three stages:

  • Prepare and engage
  • Identify objectives
  • Ensure successful outcomes

Within each of the stages individual modules focus on specific aspects of school improvement. Schools can work their way through all the modules, or pick and choose ones which match their needs.

School improvement planning framework process, TDA
http://www.tda.gov.uk/leaders/sipf2/process.aspx

School improvement planning framework resources, TDA
http://www.tda.gov.uk/leaders/sipf2/resources.aspx

Commercial improvement planning tool

School Centre has an online self-evaluation and school improvement tool. According to the company, the tool offers a way to help school leadership teams, teachers, governors and the local authority collaborate effectively in delivering the school improvement plan. The software is said to:

  • Link your SEF to your school development plan
  • Help departments and staff complete departmental SEF evaluations
  • Upload the SEF directly to the Ofsted website
  • Access school records online
  • Use performance management to monitor and review individual staff progress
  • Share documents electronically for an Ofsted inspection
  • Track progress towards meeting the requirements of Every Child Matters

The package is reportedly best suited to a one-year operational plan, but some schools are trying to find ways to apply it to longer-term strategic planning.

School Centre's school improvement tool is a commercial package requiring users to purchase the software licence. Its presence in this article is for your information and does not constitute a recommendation from The Key.

School development and planning software from Granada Learning
http://www.schoolcentre.net/

Improvement planning in schools causing concern

Schools causing concern have a legal obligation to produce strategies to improve their performance. The Department for Children, Schools and Families, now the Department for Education, published guidance on planning improvement in schools causing concern.

The guidance includes a school improvement timeline on page 32, as well as information on planning school improvement on page 35.

Amended statutory guidance for schools causing concern (Word doc file)
http://www.standards.dcsf.gov.uk/sie/documents/sccamendedguidance.doc

Tips for improvement planning and benchmarking

GovernorNet provides tips on writing and managing a school improvement plan, including a list of 10 points it considers as central to successful benchmarking in schools. These are:

Use benchmarking as part of a strategic financial plan linked to your school development plan

  • Use benchmarking as part of a strategic financial plan linked to your school development plan
  • Make sure school managers and governors are committed to benchmarking
  • Select a small number of key areas of expenditure likely to bring early success or large improvements in standards or costs
  • Compare your spending in these areas with similar schools to your own (Teachernet's 'Financial benchmarking website for schools' website – see link below – describes the criteria)
  • Take time to analyse results carefully and involve the whole team
  • Agree a plan for making changes with management and stakeholders and set targets
  • Monitor outcomes and ensure the whole team is aware of successes
  • Don't benchmark just to seek reassurance – the aim is to improve
  • Don't waste time on areas where there is little scope for improvement
  • Don't lose sight of your objective. It is tempting to try to benchmark too much at once

10 Tips for successful benchmarking, GovernorNet
http://www.governornet.co.uk/cropArticle.cfm?topicAreaId=5&contentId=645&mode=bg

GovernorNet’s main site for school improvement plans, GovernorNet
http://www.governornet.co.uk/publishArticle.cfm?topicAreaId=1&contentId=312&context=0

Financial benchmarking website for schools, Teachernet
https://sfb.teachernet.gov.uk/login.aspx

Alternative improvement planning

Brent Davies, who has written a number of books on school leadership and strategic planning, has published a paper through the National College for Leadership of Schools and Children's Services (National College) in which he argues that a traditional approach to planning in schools is no longer viable.

He suggests instead that schools use a new system with three interactive planning strands:

  • A strand that takes account of longer-term, possibly global, trends that could affect the school and create a new perspective
  • A strand that combines strategic intent and strategic planning for adaptability in turbulent times
  • A strand that replaces development planning with operational target-setting for the next one to two years

On pages 50-57, the paper features a strategic plan framework template and sample frameworks from a primary and secondary school.

Success and sustainability: developing the strategically-focused school (Adobe pdf file)
http://www.nationalcollege.org.uk/download?id=17403&filename=success-and-sustainability.pdf

Additional sources and further reading

The TDA encourages schools to link improvement strategies with continuing professional development (CPD) and other processes.

This is to reduce unnecessary bureaucracy and ensure that information gathered during the CPD cycle is used to drive forward improvement, particularly in teaching and learning.

Addressing the link between performance management, school improvement and other school processes: TDA (Adobe pdf file)
http://www.tda.gov.uk/upload/resources/pdf/p/pm_school_improvement_final.pdf

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members. They are published within three working days.
This article was updated as a result of feedback from the headteacher
of a medium-size urban primary school in the east Midlands.

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