Involving all stakeholders in identifying priorities for school improvement

Information about the school

Llanrhidian Primary School is situated on the beautiful Gower Peninsula, approximately 6 miles from the City of Swansea.  Llanrhidian School serves a large area of North West Gower.  The school is within a designated area of outstanding natural beauty and close to the heritage coastline.  Many of the children arrive by bus from the Llangennith and Llanmadoc area.  Currently, nearly half of the pupils come from outside of the catchment area.  There are 168 pupils on roll, organised into 5 classes.   There are currently 17% pupils identified by the school on the additional learning needs register.  Over the past three years, the average number of pupils eligible for free school meals is around 3%, well below the national average of 19%.

Context and background to sector-leading practice

Since the previous inspection in March 2010, the headteacher and school management team recognised the need to further improve the self-evaluation systems to drive school improvement.  The school identified the need to consider a wide variety of information, and include all stakeholders when identifying and evaluating school priorities.  As a result Llanrhidian Primary School has been on a journey to develop a culture of continuous, rigorous self-evaluation focused strongly upon improving outcomes in standards and wellbeing for every pupil. 

The refined processes are underpinned by the involvement of every member of staff, all of whom feel part of school improvement.  Systems are clear, transparent, and evolve to meet the school’s current needs.  All staff have a genuine desire for excellence, and adhere to an annual monitoring plan which clearly outlines accountability and minimum expectations.  The systems of monitoring have been refined to minimise workload, yet provide invaluable information which is routinely shared at an individual, whole school and governing body level.  Exemplary use of technology enables key documents to be shared and collaboratively updated, providing formative feedback to staff and immediate opportunities for change and improvement.  The pace at which the processes identify areas for improvement and implement change is key to the success of the school.

Description of nature of strategy or activity

The school’s effective pupil tracking systems have been continuously improved to ensure routine and rigorous evaluation of every pupil’s progress.  These systems are underpinned by consistent and accurate assessment procedures across the school.  Governors are kept well informed and receive pupil progress data termly, enabling effective and focused challenge from the standards subcommittee.  Formative data is collected against all national curriculum skills through an effective online planning and assessment tool.  This enables highly effective monitoring of curriculum coverage and standards in any area of learning, any cohort or per individual.  The tracking system also evaluates pupils’ wellbeing through pupil self-assessments, teacher observations and live and current data to identify pupils at risk and the impact of wellbeing interventions.  Such information also provides whole school wellbeing data to identify any training and development requirements for staff and to tailor pupil support interventions and provision.

The systematic monitoring of pupils’ work, alongside lesson reviews, has supported the school to identify practice worth sharing, as well as areas to improve.  Teachers have refined a POD (Plan, Observe, Discuss) peer approach to developing their own teaching, underpinned by the school’s regularly updated Teaching for Learning Policy.  This has a positive impact on the blended approach to teaching, and created consistency across the school.  A culture of self-improvement is embedded, where teachers are confident to take risks and try new ideas.  This has a positive impact on standards, the pace of pupil progress and in the development of an authentic and creative curriculum.  Feedback to staff is effective and has been developed into a narrative form through four areas (SOAP):

• Strengths
• Opportunities for sharing
• Areas for further development
• Pedagogy – effective methods and practice

Valuing and acting upon the views of stakeholders has enhanced the culture of school improvement at Llanrhidian.  Routine analysis of stakeholder views are collected through the school’s ‘My Voice’ online questionnaires.  Such information is considered, and shared back with the stakeholders via newsletters, governing body reports and the school’s twitter feed (#Llanimp). In addition, the school holds a successful ‘school development day’ for parents each autumn.  This is well attended, and parents offer their views on the school’s strengths and areas for development.  Pupil voice groups work alongside parents at this event, discussing school targets and future actions.  As a result, the school has responded to issues and parents feel that their views are well considered. 

There are a number of opportunities for pupils to improve their school and have their say at Llanrhidian.  For example, the ‘Wellbeing Warriors’ took on the responsibility of developing a child friendly anti-bullying policy, and supporting other pupils with worries or concerns.  Both of these areas had previously been identified through an analysis of wellbeing data.  Pupils share their views through a range of formats to leaders and governors, across the school.  Their voice is valued by all, and pupils are entrusted to identify, address and evaluate improvement as much as possible.  For example, pupils run a stationery shop and school bank, facilitate stalls at all events and present an evaluation of the child-friendly school development plan to governors annually. 

Specific types of monitoring do not happen in isolation at Llanrhidian.  For example, a pupil work scrutiny session will also consider evidence from listening to learners and analyse class planning and assessment data to ensure triangulation and accuracy of findings.  Learning walks are often undertaken to consolidate findings and incorporate perspectives from other monitoring activities.  This enables staff and leaders to know the school as accurately as possible.  It is this use of current data and information, by all staff, that is the key to successful and well-paced school improvement at Llanrhidian. 

What impact has this work had on provision and learners’ standards?

• Information collected from the self-evaluation processes is used effectively to set priorities for improvement that accurately meet the needs of pupils
• Monitoring systems ensure that performance management targets are well matched to the needs of the staff, and impact positively upon standards across the school
• Timely tracking of pupils’ wellbeing has impacted positively upon attitudes to learning, coping strategies and the overall wellbeing of pupils
• Feedback from the monitoring of teachers’ planning, pupils’ work and lessons has an impact upon the quality of teaching across the school, particularly in understanding and identifying excellence
• Increased opportunities to listen to learners has empowered pupils to drive change in their school
• Questionnaires demonstrate that parents feel valued as a result of shared information and opportunities to have their say

How have you shared your good practice?

The school has close working relationships with a number of schools across the local authority, and has shared its successful strategies through training, school visits and mentoring.  A number of schools are using the school’s stakeholder questionnaires, tracking systems, and self-evaluation documentation.