The framework of indicators in this edition of How good is our school? provides a set of tools to help to evaluate the quality of education in a school. The indicators cover the full range of a school’s work and are designed to help identify strengths and priorities for improvement which can be built into an improvement plan. Over the years, staff in schools have become accustomed to using indicators in this way to help them to manage the process of continuous improvement. A school will always need to know how well it is doing across the full range of its work, and the indicators will help you to do this.
Each of the dimensions of excellence in Part 2 of The Journey to Excellence is associated with one of the key areas in which the indicators in How good is our school? are organised. The dimensions can help a school to move forward on those aspects of its work where it judges that it is ready to go from good, or very good, to great. They can help to make real changes to those aspects which are at the heart of what a school is about - learning and success for all. The dimensions are not audit tools. They do not cover everything which goes on in a school. They focus on those aspects which have a direct impact on learning and outcomes for all young people. They are levers for transformational change, moving straight into the activities and practices which are associated with excellence. The dimensions and their related features give ideas of some of the things which can make a school an excellent school.
How and when a school uses the dimensions will depend on the stage the school has reached on its journey to excellence and the kinds of improvements which are necessary. It will also depend on features of its capacity for improvement, that is how well prepared your school is for making the kinds of changes which can transform the lives of its learners:
Planning for Excellence, part 4 of How good is our school?: The Journey to Excellence looks in more detail at the various ways in which a school can engage in developing its vision and values, its approaches to self-evaluation and planning for improvement so that approaches can be tailored to meet the needs of the individual school.