Dumfries & Galloway Council
Brief outline of support and engagement with Insight
Context:
The education service has three improvement objectives:
- We will raise attainment in all children and young people to improve life chances.
- We will improve the way we work with parents and partners.
- We will promote and support a culture of empowerment, collaboration and creativity.
The authority developed a strategy to support raising attainment by creating a Raising Attainment Reflection Tool Kit based on six key areas:
• Increasing the ambition, aspiration and expectations of every child and young person
• Delivering excellent learning and teaching in everyclassroom, every day through the curriculum
• Developing effective leadership at all levels
•Engaging family, partners and wider community
• Focusing on literacy, numeracy and healthand well-being as platforms on which to build
future learning
• Using information intelligently tounderstand progress
The using information intelligently key area helped shape engagement with Insight, with the reflective nature of the tool kit promoting self-evaluation and supporting school improvement.
Engagement:
March 2014 – The Secondary Head Teacher conference held a workshop on Insight supported by input from Scottish Government and Education Scotland.
October 2014 – Secondary Collaborative Forums were established in which schools in groups of four presented to their peers and central staff on SQA attainment, sharing notable achievements and areas for development. Insight formed the basis for the presentations and question and answer sessions.
January 2015 – Elected members seminar on raising attainment including a presentation on Insight
February 2015 – A short life working group was established comprising of school representatives and central officers to create a support document for collaborative forums and school review, based on the school statistical report used by Education Scotlandand work from other authorities. The Dumfries & Galloway report that incorporate reflective aspects as in the Raising Attainment Reflection Tool Kit.
May 2015 – All Principal Teachers Curriculum attended leadership training, with a workshop session on Insight. This workshop was then cascaded to all staff by the Principal Teachers at the school In-Service day on 29 May.
June 2015 – Short life working group finalised recommendations for the school summary report. The report contains four sections, context, broad general education, senior phase and wider achievement. The document has reflective questions throughout to promote self-evaluation and support the collaborative forum.
September 2015 – Head Teachers and Deputes will have a professional learning session on using Insight and the school summary report to support self-evaluation.
October 2015 – Secondary Collaborative Forum takes place.
The approach has been to ensure that staff at all levels have been trained in the use of Insight and appreciate its central role in supporting self-evaluation and school improvement.