Athelstaneford School Improvement Plan 2017-2018
School Context, Aims, Values Our Vision: We aim to provide experiences of the highest quality for all pupils which will meet their educational, personal and emotional needs. Developing skills for learning, skills for life and skills for work, every child will be supported to become full and active participants of society both now and in the future. Context: Athelstaneford Primary School is situated in a rural setting, serving the village of Athelstaneford and the surrounding area. The school is coeducational and all primary stages 1-7 are catered for in three classes. Our school consists of a nursery together with three classrooms. Composition of classes is decided on an annual basis. Our library area is located in the entrance to the school. We have a small hall in the centre of the school with is currently used as a general purpose room. For physical education, we use the village hall and other outdoor areas within the school grounds and the village. The Acting Head Teacher was appointed permanently to post in March 2017 and is supported by a part-time principal teacher. With the addition of a third class an NQT was appointed to the school to fill the vacancy. As a small school the Head Teacher has a teaching commitment. All other teaching staff in the school work part-time. The school is supported very well by its’ parent council and fundraising group.
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National Priorities In line with the National Improvement Framework, school improvement priorities should clearly articulate with the following 4 key priorities in session 2017/18: Improve attainment, particularly in Literacy and Numeracy Close the attainment gap between the most and least disadvantaged children Improve children and young people’s health and well-being Improve employability skills and sustained, positive destinations for all young people (DYW 3 to 18) Local Priorities Curriculum Implement curriculum frameworks of learning across all schools within the broad general education: Numeracy and Mathematics, English and Literacy, Science, Social Subjects and Health and Wellbeing. Develop and implement the curriculum frameworks for Expressive Arts, Modern Languages and Technologies Review the curriculum within the senior phase across all secondary schools with stakeholders Implement the revised 1+2 Language Plan Learning Teaching and Assessment Implement the revised policy to ensure consistency in our approaches to planning learning, teaching and assessment and ensure our assessment evidence is valid and reliable, particularly at key milestones Continue to engage in ongoing achievement of a level and moderation activities. Implement the national standardised assessments Leadership Shared responsibility for the quality of education of all children and young people Build capacity for leadership at all levels to drive improvement at a school and local level to continue to drive forward our vision for children and young people in East Lothian. Self-evaluation for self-improvement Developing expertise within our schools, collating and sharing ‘what works’. Build on and extend our approaches to self-evaluation for self-improvement across our schools Monitor and evaluate the impact of the Pupil Equity Fund actions Continue to develop approaches to reporting, monitoring and tracking within Broad General Education and DYW Implement the recommendations of the ASN review Develop a Quality Action Plan for early learning and childcare Early Years and childcare Develop the Expansion and Implementation Plan 1140 hours by 29 September 2017 Take forward the Early Learning and Childcare Strategy
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School Priorities Based on your self-evaluation of the following QIs to include actions towards addressing the areas for improvement identified: 1.3 Leadership of change 2.3 Learning, teaching and assessment 3.1 Inclusion, equality and wellbeing 3.2 Raising attainment and achievement Note: Include reference to the actions and approaches being taken forward to improve the effectiveness of moderation of teacher judgement of CfE levels in Literacy and Numeracy and to raising attainment. Note: Include actions identified from the SEE survey and employee engagement survey.
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Priority: To establish a Vision, Values and Aims for our school that everyone has ownership of. Actions
Drivers for improvement
Work with pupil council to review the vision values and aims that exist.
Invite parents share opinions about what they feel vision values and aims should be. Gather these opinions through homework tasks, questionnaire and small short life working group.
Pupil council to set tasks for each class to discuss during circle time their ideas about what they want their school to look like and how we can achieve this through our Vision Value and Aims.
Consult with all staff, sharing thoughts gathered and adding their ideas.
Pupil council, parent group and staff rep to finally work together to conclude what our Vision, Values and Aims will be.
Pupil Council members to share with Parent Council the process and outcome.
Vision Value and Aims to be shared and celebrated with school community.
When/Who
September 2017-June 2018 HT will lead pupil council and parent groups
Impact/Evidence
All members of the school community will have a clear understanding of the Vision, Values and Aims of our school.
There is a commitment by all members of staff to provide the best learning environment and opportunity to enable all learners to be successful.
The Vision Values and Aims will be the driver underpinning our planning for continuous improvement.
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Priority: To improve attainment in numeracy and reading ensuring that there is progress for all pupils.
Actions Numeracy
Drivers for improvement
Training of staff through CAT sessions and attendance at Numeracy Academy to understand and confidently deliver numeracy using the Number Counts method. Develop availability of appropriate resources that will support the teaching of Number Counts in all classes. Engaging with the Curriculum Frameworks to support effective planning and assessment. Lending Library shared in nursery
Reading
Implementation and delivery of robust phonics and spelling programme. Support staff will be used to enable children to work in smaller groups. To improve reading for pleasure the library will be re-organise by genre to help pupils with book selection.
Books will be labelled with an appropriate genre icon.
Story sack will be developed in nursery
When/Who CAT sessions delivered throughout the year by HT
Impact/Evidence
Improved attainment in numeracy.
Confident approach and improved knowledge and understanding of the number counts approach to teaching numeracy.
Access to and ready availability to the required resources in order to deliver effective teaching.
More robust and effective approach to teaching spelling and phonics.
Clear progression ensuring pace and challenge.
Class teacher and support staff to deliver.
Pupils feel and have a positive attitude to reading and do so for pleasure.
EH to oversee pupils and liaise with LC to organise labelling of books.
Ability to find and select books more easily by genre.
CT to attend Numeracy Academy when available Organisation of resources through Working Party. All staff to engage with curriculum frameworks throughout the year when planning and assessing Nursery team
Nursery team
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Priority: To develop reliable and robust holistic assessment approaches to ensure confidence when awarding a level. Actions
Drivers for improvement
Moderation discussion and activities – looking at moderation at the planning stage.
Engagement with curriculum frameworks for Literacy and Numeracy
Development and improved system of attainment and tracking to ensure coverage and progress across the curriculum.
Regular dialogue with sample pupil groups to discuss learning and next steps. Participate in the training for the use of the Standardised Assessments
When/Who
All staff – working with Aberlady and Dirleton. 4 sessions across the year.
Impact/Evidence
Confidence in the awarding of a level using a range of evidence.
Increased teacher confidence when assessing pupil’s progress.
Gathering of reliable assessment evidence which will enable children to talk about their learning and next steps.
Developed understanding of number counts which will enable a range of assessment strategies to be used.
Regular dialogue will help to inform and identify any children who are not meeting their expected levels and what steps need to be taken to improve this.
Robust tracking and attainment will ensure that appropriate planning and target setting is in place.
Staff will be confident in use of standardised assessments which will support their knowledge in the awarding of a level.
All staff in when planning and assessing. HT/PT September 2017 HT - weekly
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Priority: HWB – To develop a Rights Respecting School by engaging with the RRS award. To build on and continue to improve HWB for all children. Actions
Drivers for
When/Who
Impact/Evidence
improvement
Begin engagement to become a Rights Respecting School.
PT September
Review behaviour policy and strategies across the school.
CT’s and pupils
To develop a progression in HWB with a particular focus on social and emotional well-being. Engagement with new resource – The Ice Pack.
All classes
Consolidating work on Growth Mindset and The Learning Pit.
All classes
Continued implementation of the daily mile.
All classes
Pupil Parliament Groups to support work of the School Improvement Plan
.
Rights Respecting Groups Eco Group Twitter Bloggers
All staff and pupils
Pupils will have developed understanding of their rights and responsibilities. This will underpin expectations throughout the school.
Pupils will have ownership of the behaviour policy within their class and set expectations with appropriate rewards and sanctions.
Consistent approach to delivery of social and emotional well-being giving consideration to the multi composite set up.
Children able to talk positively about how they learn.
Through pupil parliament group pupils have ownership for the development and improvement across the school.
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Priority: To establish a Vision, Values and Aims for our school that everyone has ownership of. Actions
Drivers for improvement
Work with pupil council to review the vision values and aims that exist.
Invite parents share opinions about what they feel vision values and aims should be. Gather these opinions through homework tasks, questionnaire and small short life working group.
Pupil council to set tasks for each class to discuss during circle time their ideas about what they want their school to look like and how we can achieve this through our Vision Value and Aims.
Consult with all staff, sharing thoughts gathered and adding their ideas.
Pupil council, parent group and staff rep to finally work together to conclude what our Vision, Values and Aims will be.
Pupil Council members to share with Parent Council the process and outcome.
Vision Value and Aims to be shared and celebrated with school community.
When/Who
September 2017-June 2018 HT will lead pupil council and parent groups
Impact/Evidence
All members of the school community will have a clear understanding of the Vision, Values and Aims of our school.
There is a commitment by all members of staff to provide the best learning environment and opportunity to enable all learners to be successful.
The Vision Values and Aims will be the driver underpinning our planning for continuous improvement.
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Priority: To engage with digital literacy for all learners.
Actions
Staff to attend training opportunity to enable use of chromebooks within the classroom.
Trail use of childrens own devices on the connected learning network.
Use of twitter as a means of communicating with the wider community.
Drivers for improvement
When/Who September CL FO EH
Impact/Evidence
Pupils will be able to access a range of applications to support their learning. Pupils will have increased digital skills. Parents will have access to regular updates about the work of the school and their children’s learning.
September RM
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Session:
Provisional priorities for the following 3 sessions:
2018/19
Digital Technology Numeracy 1140 hours? Holistic assessment and moderation
2019/20
Family Learning Digital Technology Literacy
2020/21
Family Learning
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