The Swansea Standard for the Self Evaluating School

Rationale

The importance of self evaluation is steadily increasing. Its significance is widely recognised as the major means through which a school not only improves its provision but also works actively with others to fulfil its accountabilities. School self evaluation is a term that is used to describe all the processes and practices by which a school comes to know itself better, so that developments and their outcomes are both effective and transparent. Whilst frameworks of questions and lists of criteria for judging standards and quality are readily accessible, there is currently little available to challenge schools to examine, develop or validate their processes and practices. The The Swansea Standard comprises a set of statements by which the quality of self evaluation can itself be assessed at 3 levels – Bronze, Silver and Gold.

Principles

The following principles underpin the Swansea Standard:

The purpose of self evaluation is to enhance the quality of learning, teaching and provision for the children;
The climate for self evaluation should be supportive, collaborative and open;
Processes and procedures for self evaluation should build the school’s capacity for managing itself particularly by empowering staff and children;
Self evaluation is fundamentally about learning; at an individual, classroom and whole school level;
Self evaluation should be continuous and embedded within the culture of the school
Self inspection and self evaluation are not the same;
All members of the school community should be involved in school self evaluation;
Schools have a professional and moral responsibility to review and improve their effectiveness in order to fulfil their accountability to the children, their parents and carers and the wider community;
Self evaluation needs the mediation and support of critical friends;
The self evaluating school not only asks itself the most challenging questions, but welcomes challenge from others.

Preparation

The Swansea Standard is intended to be challenging and developmental. However, it is not a framework for generating extra paperwork or stress. It is hoped that, as the school itself has control over what and how evidence is presented, staff will work collaboratively within the school and also with other schools to manage the process of preparing for assessment. The intention is that through this process of preparation, the school will gain fresh insights into its work.

Assessment

Schools can offer themselves for assessment at any time through their School Development Adviser (SDA). Assessment will comprise an initial meeting between the headteacher and the lead assessor followed by at least one full day’s assessment by a team of two or more people. A school must have achieved the Bronze Award before it can be assessed for the Silver or Gold.

It will be the responsibility of the school to provide evidence to substantiate each of the statements. Each of the statements will be examined by the assessment team whose task it is to decide to what extent the school meets the standard through the evidence it has provided.

The Award

The award will be made at three different levels.

The school will achieve the Bronze Award if:

It provides a good range of evidence of high quality to illustrate the ten statements.

The school will achieve the Silver Award if:

It provides a wide range of evidence of high quality to support and substantiate the additional five statements;
It is able to demonstrate that significant development has taken place since the award of the Bronze Standard

The school will receive the Gold Award if:

It provides a wide range of evidence of high quality to support and illustrate the five additional statements;
It is able to demonstrate that significant development has taken place since the award of the Silver Standard;
It is able to show, through the evidence provided, that processes and practices of self evaluation are embedded in the culture of the school and that groups and individuals across the school community have a deep understanding of their role in helping the school to develop and improve through self evaluation

Evidence

It is the responsibility of the school to provide evidence to the assessment team to exemplify and illustrate as fully as possible each of the statements. Evidence is likely to comprise written documentation in the form of policy statements, minutes of meetings, witness statements etc., but it is envisaged that a large part of the assessment will involve talking with children, teachers and other members of staff and the wider school community and very importantly, observing the school at work. Obviously at times the same piece of evidence can be used to illustrate more than one statement.

Outcomes

At the end of the assessment, the team will offer to meet with all staff to confirm the award and to engage in a dialogue about the range and quality of evidence. This meeting also provides a good opportunity for the assessment team to receive feedback about the Swansea Standard and the affect on the school of preparing for the assessment.

The school will receive a certificate for all three awards.

A ‘confidence statement’ in the strength, security and quality of its self evaluation will also be provided with the award of the Bronze and the Gold standards.