The Great School Framework

The great school has a self-evaluating culture.

Collective and collaborative review - book looks, learning walks and observations of teaching - are habitually conducted by a wide range of staff. upils and stakeholders are routinely asked to feed into the development of the school and identify areas for improvement.  Peer review and feedback are seen as an entitlement, used as an opportunity to increase the common wealth of intellectual curiosity, knowledge and expertise and ensure consistently high standards.

Leaders ensure that the education and business plans are integrated and embedded. They are flexible and responsive, they complement each other and are regularly reviewed for their joint maximum impact.  There is a regular and forensic analysis of performance and business data. Discussion leads to the identification of strategies for improvement and effective interventions, the implementation of smart action plans and the securing of accountability. The school has an embedded culture for collective review of financial and business management linked to the school priorities. Leaders continuously strive to ensure best practice across all business functions of the school in order to achieve the highest quality of education.

The school practises appreciative enquiry by distinguishing the best of ‘what is’, fostering a dialogue around ‘what should be’ and creating a vision for ‘what will be’. There is a continuous process of reflection that becomes implicit in the way that everyone within the school community talks about their learning. Self-evaluation at all levels is grounded in sophisticated, accurate and open analysis and is used unflinchingly to compare performance against the most stretching of benchmarks. The school regularly seeks feedback from and takes full account of the views of students, parents and the community in evaluating its progress and meeting all the needs of its learners. It learns from its mistakes and accepts the challenge of continual improvement.

The great school makes good use of external critical friends - including peer schools - at key points in its journey to provide an open and rigorous reality check.