School Self Evaluation Form
Academic Year: / 2012-13Contributor: / SLT, Governors
Date: / JANUARY 2013
Self Evaluation is an important tool in identifying strengths and areas for development in your area. It is not meant to be a descriptive document but reflective and analytical. Your contributions will be used to formulate sections of the school SEF for Ofsted.
The SEF is structured in sub-sections that correspond to the evaluation schedule used by inspectors. The evaluation schedule sets out what inspectors evaluate; outline guidance; and grade descriptors for every inspection judgement.
The grade descriptors and the information on what inspectors evaluate are replicated at the start of each relevant section to help you evaluate effectively.
Each question starts by asking subjects/ years to grade aspects of their work on a four-point scale, as follows:
Grade 1: Outstanding
Grade 2: Good
Grade 3: Satisfactory
Grade 4: Inadequate.
Please refer closely to the grade descriptors at the start of each section.
You are asked to give major reasons for deciding on this grade and ensure that you reference your judgement to the matters in the relevant grade descriptor. You should include only the minimum amount of detail in support of your judgement; bullet points are quite acceptable.
If you judge that your Subject/ Year is close to a grade boundary, briefly say why you did not select the other grade.
Wherever possible, you should support your judgements with carefully chosen evidence which demonstrates the impact of the subject or year's actions on the outcomes for learners.
§ Please complete each section fully by referring to the Ofsted Criteria attached at the start of each section and matching your judgement against this.
§ Ensure that you have evidence to support any claims that you make within the document.
§ Once complete discuss this with your line Manager before passing to the Head Teacher and Heads PA
Section 1What are the characteristics of the school?
What are your distinctive aims as a school?
Any special facilities, specialist status, partnerships etc?
Any aids or barriers to raising performance such as recruitment and retention, reorganisation, accommodation issues?
Whether the school has any distinctive characteristics, e.g. specialist subject etc.?
What are the main priorities of your improvement plan?
In our Ofsted in November 2009 Crestwood was described as a “good and vibrant school where students enjoy learning. It has many outstanding features”.
Eastleigh was a thriving railway and engineering town. There were significant employers within the town including British Rail, Manor Bakeries (Mr. Kipling) and Pirelli Cables. Over recent years the town has seen all of these industries disappear. Although the town has lost its main employers, the low aspirations that they generated in the local workforce still exist today in a significant proportion of our parents and this in turn leads to low aspirations within many of our families. Eastleigh has seen and continues to see significant building programmes on brown and green field sites. Unfortunately many of these houses have been aimed at commuters and starter homes. The new developments are targeted at families and it is hoped that this will generate extra pupils. The current Year 3 and Year R (2012) are struggling to gain school places, therefore the 25% surplus places in Eastleigh will disappear by 2015/16. A local primary school is increasing its capacity from 400 to 600. This will have an impact on our numbers on roll. Whilst this is many ways is a positive development, it has brought it’s problems. The leavers of 2012 were a disparate year group as we were inundated with extra students after the September start in 2009. The profile of the year group changed significantly from a starting KS2 point score of 27.2 to a final KS2 point score of 25.8. We coped extremely well with the demands socially and educationally that they presented to us.
First choices continue to be stable despite a decline in the overall numbers in Eastleigh. The school is situated in the Boyatt Wood estate which is filled with an older generation who have not moved on after their families have left home. Therefore many of our students have to travel from outside the immediate vicinity. We have one feeder school but take students from up to 17 other schools outside our catchment, therefore we have to work hard to build up a community spirit.
The school was built in 1981 and has St. Peters Church on site. We are fortunate with the close links with the church and have therefore have become in 2009 an affiliated school. We sit in the centre of the community and have a thriving extended schools provision, with wrap around care being provided at all levels, for all ages and backgrounds. In 2009 we underwent a major building programme initiated by the sale of the school field in 2006. The work has been significant in our development and provision. We are a school that serves it’s local community.
The attainment of our students on entry shows they are consistently below the national averages but with an increasing number of SEN statements. In 2007 our statement hours were 30 and in September 2013 they are projected to be over 300. We have a good reputation for being a caring school and therefore we attract a disproportionate amount of students with complex needs. We also attract Southampton Authority students and there is a drift of disaffection from this Unitary Authority. Crestwood’s SPLD provision has an excellent reputation and this will often attract those students from outside our catchment who display dyslexic tendencies but do not qualify for a place. On a recent inspector visit to the provision it was highlighted for it’s good teaching and tracking mechanisms.
The social and economic background of the students is quite varied. Most of our students are from White British families. We do have a significant minority of Asian children in the college. A large percentage of our students come from our catchment of Eastleigh North where less than a 5th of households are deemed high social class. The area to the east of the college was formerly a post war council estate and houses most of our less affluent families. The areas to the west and north serve more affluent areas. Eastleigh Borough Council have identified Boyatt Wood as an area where there is a high level of overcrowding which is above national averages. We are close to national averages in terms of social class mix but noticeably below national averages in terms of families who have experienced higher education. Teenage pregnancy is on increase and is a strategic priority for reduction by Eastleigh Borough Council. There is therefore a particular need to engage with some parents in order to increase motivation and encourage students to continue their education post 16.
School Improvement plan priorities:
Crestwood College For Business and Enterprise
“Learning, Achieving, Leading”
STRATEGIC SCHOOL IMPROVEMENT PLAN
2011 – 2015Crestwood College is committed to excellence through empowering all learners to achieve success
We aim:· to encourage learners to be responsible and to respect the needs and rights of others
· to empower learners to embark on journeys of self belief, enrichment and achievement
· to enable learners to develop skills and knowledge that are relevant, flexible and transferable
· to offer a rich, diverse and inclusive curriculum with progression opportunities for all
· to motivate learners to embrace challenges, to have high aspirations, continue with life long learning and be good citizens
· to continue to develop our outstanding practices through a collaborative approach
Priorities and objectives:
1. Every learner achieves and makes outstanding progress
1.1 To continue to develop an inclusive, innovative and diverse curriculum
1.2 Ensure assessment of and for learning is evident across all areas
1.3 Maximise the use of qualitative and quantitative data to enhance the progress of all learners
1.4 To equip learners with the relevant and transferable skills which will encourage independence
2. Develop further our innovative professional learning community
2.1 To develop our teaching pedagogy to support the achievement and progress of all learners2.2 To deepen our understanding and application of how new technologies can enhance learning
2.3 To further enhance our understanding of coaching and collaborative learning
2.4 Develop rigorous and stringent quality assurance to promote consistent, high quality and effective teaching and learning for all
3. Promote a positive learning culture that challenges and empowers
3.1 Further enhance our culture where learners understand rights, respect and responsibilities
3.2 Ensure all learners are equipped and ready for learning
3.3 Engaging learners in deepening our understanding of effective practice
3.4 Recognise and celebrate all learners talents and potential
4. Raising aspirations for all in our learning community
4.1 Support and enable all learners to make informed choices regarding their future pathways
4.2 To enhance and promote Crestwood as a centre of excellence and opportunity for all of our learning community
4.3 Continue to work collaboratively with families to ensure positive outcomes for all
Section 2
What are the areas identified as a strength of the school?
What are the areas for whole school improvement?
What are identified as strengths from previous Self Evaluation?
What do other stakeholders say are strengths of the school?
What external awards are held demonstrating excellence and commitment?
What has been identified on the 4 year strategic plan as areas for development?
What are the areas identified on the current annual improvement plan?
Strengths:
· Strong SLT, which has been cohesive and instrumental in driving the school forward
· Head Teacher Reviews and Scrutiny panels instigated have given depth and rigour to our quality assurance and improvement agenda
· Accountability structure is clear and executed by the SLT with rigour through line management, learning walks and scrutiny panels
· Good reputation and relationship with the local community
· English progress is the best in the county for lower attaining students and progress rates are relatively equal across all groups
· A unique building that supports our ethos and culture
· Our sports facilities are well utilised during the day and evening, generating income to support our day time activity
· Students are well behaved and motivated, poor behaviour has clear consequences and exclusions have dramatically fallen
· Students observe teaching and learning and make a valuable contribution on how we improve
· In the past Change Teams drove new whole school initiatives such as curriculum, uniform, pastoral issues.
· We are a Professional Learning Community through the CTLC and Professional Learning groups. We develop pedagogy, discussion and time for reflection and improvement. It is a collaborative learning culture.
· We have strong middle leaders who have developed their thinking alongside whole school priorities and are strategic with their approach
· We recruit and retain staff very well
· Relationships between staff, parents and students are strong
· We have a justifiable reputation for sharing good practice and training new teachers to the profession
· We are an integral part of the Learn Direct and have good links with our local teaching school
· Good extra curricular music bands who are asked to play at large local events, including the 20/20 cricket
· We have good specialist facilities in D&T, catering, PE, ICT
· Our community provision is extensive and engages our local community in supporting learning
· Excellent care, guidance and support for all children through our inclusion services
· SEN provision is thorough and effective
· We support the families of our vulnerable children through our parent support services
· One county funded AST that support other schools
· Head Teacher seconded on a part time basis to a school in Special Measures. School improvement continued in both institutions and SM removed one term early
· Transition work is strong, language projects and developing pupil independence projects have been undertaken with our feeder
· Students’ welcome the opportunities to be leaders in areas such as sport, peer mentoring and student council
· We have a strong relationship with the Church and are affiliated
External Verification
· Gold Investors in People
· Hampshire Gifted and Talented Challenge Award
· Hampshire Gold Award for Continued Professional Development
· International Schools Award
· Healthy Schools Award
· Hampshire Extended Schools Gold Award
· Ofsted “Good with outstanding features”
Areas for development?
· Although our results we FFT D we need to focus on the new “best 8” measure and closing the gap between middle attaining students and vulnerable groups
· We need to bring Science and Mathematics progress in line with English
· We have to tackle the progress issue with middle attaining students
· We need to change the perceptions of significant minority of parents and students who think that learning is institutionalised and time bound to the school day
· Further develop our Inclusion Provision, creating our own referral unit which is of quality teaching and intervention
· To ensure that teaching is good or better consistently
· Quality feedback needs improvement in some areas
Section 3
Progress towards identified development points from previous Ofsted
What were the previous areas for development from our last Ofsted?
What actions have we taken to remedy the deficits in this area?
What has been the impact of these actions?
What further needs to be developed in these areas?
Areas for action:
Ensure that the best practice in the use of assessment is employed consistently and rigorously in all lessons, by:
· building on the existing strengths in teachers’ questioning to assess more frequently the progress made by students during lessons, so that learning proceeds at an even more challenging pace, particularly for the most able
· developing further the opportunities that students have to assess their own work and the work of others, using agreed success criteria and/or examination grade descriptors
· ensuring that more regular written feedback consistently provides students with precise information about how they can improve their work and achieve the most ambitious targets
Action taken:
· Introduced new marking sheet system which identifies next small steps in learning and builds in the reviewing and tracking of this.
· At parents’ evening staff prepare progress notes to inform discussion and highlight targets for improvement. These notes are taken home so that further discussion can be had.
· We have validated the quality of teaching and learning through the use of Head teacher reviews, scrutiny panels and learning walks.
· Work sampling through line management and our QA mechanisms have increased accountability for staff to assess effectively.
· The SLT proactively challenges inadequacies and staff are clear of the actions required to improve performance.
· Introduced professional learning groups to address issues resulting from the outcome of the reviews
· SISRA implemented and cycle to analyse progress on a regular basis to identify intervention strategies and effect change in the classroom.
· Focus on success criteria in lessons.
· AST has lead staff CPD on learning through talk and questioning.
· Through our twilight sessions and middle leaders meetings we regularly discuss and review data at cohorts, department and individual levels.
Impact:
· Quantity and quality of marking has shown improvement and we have improved our accountability systems to pick up issues of concern.
· Middle leaders have a better understanding of the progress that pupils are making in their subject.
· Pupils have a better understanding of how feedback can improve their learning.
· SISRA is used effectively by all staff.
· Middle leaders have been instrumental in shaping our use of data and have implemented a new policy in the way of reporting.
· Reviews and scrutiny panels have been developmental and improved outcomes in subject areas.
· Success criteria are apparent in lesson observations.
· Performance management of middle leaders is focused and robust.
Evidence:
· Review documentation (SAM)
· Scrutiny Panel documentation (JS)
· Middle leaders’ minutes (JS)
· Progress report analysis (SJC)
· Lesson observations overview (SAM)
Section 4