School Improvement
Finance
You can view our school’s financial data and even see how it compares with others by going to Gov.uk’s school financial benchmarking website.
School Improvement Plan
At Waterside, the school improvement plan drives improvement in all areas of the school. It is developed after consultation with children, teachers, governors and current results. The priorities lead and refine staff training and teacher, governor and headteacher appraisal. It is monitored and updated constantly.
OFSTED areas for improvement (May 2019):
Improve leadership and management by:
- embedding the work of middle leaders, so that the rapid improvements made to systems during this academic year are applied consistently across the whole school
- further developing the reading curriculum, so that pupils gain a love of reading and enjoy reading regularly, both at school and at home.
Improve the quality of teaching and learning by:
- ensuring that teachers are focused on increasing the proportion of pupils reaching the higher standards of attainment and appropriately challenging the most able pupils
- building on recent improvements in the progress of disadvantaged pupils, so that the gap between their attainment and that of other pupils continues to narrow.
Waterside School Improvements 2020/21 Key Objectives:
Overview
It is important to understand that this plan has two drivers.
The first is to continue to build on the strengths (building blocks) we have identified and cemented over the past three years, in some casing continuing with plans/actions already implemented or initiated.
The second is to respond directly to the current position in terms of Covid-19 and a return to school following partial closure. In order to do this there has needed to be a period of ‘assessment’ in order to ‘capture’ a starting point. There are also a number of school improvement priorities which would not have been required should it not have been for the current crisis. The plan is also to be actioned within the context of an on-going Covid response, which is impacting on staff and pupils in a wide variety of ways, thus impacting on the day to day running of the school.
Alongside this, we have additional government funding to support us as we ensure our children ‘catch-up’ with the lost learning from Lockdown 1, and to help us ensure learning continues for all children as the country adapts and responds to the Covid crisis.
Details of how we are implementing that funding can be found here: Covid Catch-Up Premium Plan – September 2020 – Waterside Primary School
Our School Improvement Plan is written to the Ofsted framework areas, as our ultimate aim is to ensure that we ensure we are a school operating well within the ‘Good’ descriptors, working towards those descriptors for ‘Outstanding’.
Focus areas for improvement
- Quality of Education
- Continue to define the intent of our curriculum at Waterside, ensuring this is embedded across the wider curriculum (continual review and reflection focused on impact) – this also needs to be defined in light of Covid and in light of the needs of the children upon their return – What do our children need? What will our curriculum need to provide in terms of opportunities and experiences?
- Develop intent statements for areas of wider curriculum not yet tackled – subject leaders to continue on journey of mapping skills and knowledge in light ‘intent statements’ and knowledge of requirements
- Develop remote learning strategy and support teachers in planning for remote education (Covid response)
- Revision of yearly, termly and weekly overviews for each year group – a) in light of changes and developments to curriculum b) in light of Covid response – what do we know our children need? Is the mapped curriculum responsive to this? Is there evidence of high expectations but also a realistic understanding of current needs and barriers?
- Developing the role of the subject leaders to drive, evaluate and coach around the curriculum
- Continue to develop senior and middle leaders in order that they can carry out bespoke coaching to meet the needs of individual teachers and year groups – to improve the quality of teaching and learning, we are now in a position to be looking at individual teacher needs in terms of subject knowledge and skills – we have applied the broad brushstroke improvements and now we need to identify individual needs and barriers
- Specific development and CPD around developing long-term memory
- Specific development around the use of AFL and feedback – further developing effective assessment opportunities
- Further development around how we use data and our assessment timetable – what is the purpose of each data collection point and activity?
- Through all of the above, improving outcomes for learners (disadvantaged, SEND, GDS)
Specific subject areas (Core curriculum action plans)
Reading
- Building on work to develop a real love of reading across the school
- Developing planning and strategies to improve vocabulary and language comprehension
- Clear mapping of phonics expectations term on term, with identified milestones against which teachers can track progress
- Further develop strategies to assess phonics acquisition in order that progress can be maximised and support provided quickly to ensure children don’t fall behind
- Provide whole school phonics training
Writing
- Developing strategies and resources to support teachers to help build back up pupils’ stamina when writing (Covid response)
Maths
- Support teachers with planning sequences of learning that allow children to build on knowledge, concepts and procedures as well as make connections between areas of learning (Covid response)
- Support teachers with sequences of planning that assist children to remember and apply key facts (Covid response)
- Continue to develop teachers confidence when addressing gaps
EYFS
- Teacher and TA to work with Tim Barber on Role of the Adult project – developing the role of the adult in the EYFS classroom (development of new TA to EYFS)
- Developing remote learning strategies for EYFS (Covid response), developing use of Tapestry as a tool
SEND
- Continue to develop the leadership capacity of our Inclusion lead in order that she can support teachers to identify, assess and meet the needs of SEND pupils in the school, thus further improving outcomes for this group
- In collaboration with subject leaders, work to ensure curriculum maps support and develop the needs of SEND pupils
- To provide coaching/CPD for teachers and TAs around provision for SEND pupils, thus impacting on outcomes for this group
- Behaviour and attitudes
- Ensure all Covid risk assessments (policy addendums) are in place, regularly reviewed and adapted to ensure that school continues to be a safe, orderly and positive environment
- Continue to develop use of ’Positive Pirates’ across the school, to promote positive learning behaviours and aspiration in all classrooms and school settings
- Establish appropriate curriculum resources and interventions to support emotional health and wellbeing across the school (this build on work already in place, but also has had a possible shift in focus with Covid response. We have needed to ‘capture’ current picture and analyse needs before proceeding)
- Continue to develop strategies to promote good attendance with children and parents (ensure high expectations but within context of Covid)
- Personal development
- Continue to develop use of ‘Positive Pirates’ across the school to promote positive learning behaviours and aspiration in all classroom and school settings
- Continue to embed understanding of strategies to support pupils with attachment and trauma (link to wellbeing project)
- In process of rewriting and defining intent and implementation of computing and safeguarding curriculums, address quality of learning and support around online safety (additional Covid response)
- Continued development of RSE curriculum and consultation with parents – supporting teachers with implementation, identifying relevant CPD etc.. (DFE resources)
- Leadership and management
- Developing the role of senior/middle/subject leaders in order that they can, drive improvement, define intent, coach on implementation, identify relevant CPD and measure impact, thus impacting on outcomes and a consistency of approach across the school (Devolved leadership)
- Develop policy and practice to further support staff wellbeing (Covid response especially)
- Further develop strategies to engage parents and ensure positive communication (Covid context relevant here)
- Create a responsive plan for PP spend based on an accurate analysis of needs
- Create a responsive plan for catch-funding based on an accurate analysis of need