School Priorities
School Priorities for 2023-2024
Area 1: Leadership and Management
Objective 1.1
To strengthen the role of middle leaders to ensure that pupils benefit from effective teaching and consistent expectations.
- Incisive performance management approaches ensure that middle leaders are made clear of the high expectations for their role and that they are held to account for their performance.
- Leaders will aspire for pupils to make outstanding progress in their areas of responsibility. This will be evidenced by a triangulated evidence base.
- Subject Leadership will be judged to be good and sometimes outstanding by July 2024.
- Subject leaders will be able to clearly articulate for their subject the intent of the school’s curriculum, its implementation and impact to an external advisor
- The actions of all leaders creates coherence and consistency across the school.
Objective 1.2
To strengthen governors’ knowledge and understanding of filtering and monitoring arrangements at the school in the light of recent local and national Ofsted findings/outcomes (with a particular focus on e-safety).
- Roles and responsibilities for filtering and monitoring arrangements identified and assigned to a named governor and senior member of staff.
- The roles and responsibilities of staff and third parties, for example, external service providers are clear and there is evidence that procedures and policies are followed.
- A detailed review of filtering and monitoring will be carried out to identify current provision, any gaps, and the specific needs of pupils and staff.
- Effective device monitoring is in place which meets the required standard and the risk profile of the school.
- Filtering and Monitoring and associated policies updated by July 2024
Area 2: Pupil Progress
Objective 2.1
To further improve teaching, learning and assessment in writing through the ‘Talk for Writing’ approach.
Success criteria
- Incisive performance management approaches will make clear to all teachers their areas of focus in enabling outstanding learning in writing within their classes.
- Teachers know and use strategies to move middle and more able writers away from the model text.
- Monitoring shows that pupils are making at least expected progress in writing and are using the strategies they learn in lessons.
- Teachers to have a secure understanding of the use of verbal strategies, including ‘over-rehearsal’ and games to improve pupils’ long term retention of learning in writing lessons.
- Teachers review existing writing plans and update them to create unit plans that demonstrate a progressive and cohesive learning journey closely matched to the needs of pupils.
Objective 2.2
To strengthen teaching, learning and assessment in mathematics.
- Teachers review existing maths planning and update them to create unit plans that demonstrate a progressive and cohesive learning journey closely matched to the needs of pupils.
- A review of the current approach of teaching maths takes place in the autumn term and clear actions are identified and put in place to improve the quality of education.
- Current groupings of pupils in each year group are reviewed, in order to ensure that more able pupils receive teaching input and opportunities to practise their skills to ensure good progress for the more able.
- Training for staff ensures that teachers are aware of and effectively use strategies that increase pupils’ attainment and progress in maths.
- Maths outcomes at the expected and higher levels for pupils in year six will be higher in July 2024 than they were in July 2023
Area 3: Strategic Planning
Objective 3.1
To further improve pupils’ metacognitive skills, motivation to learn and self-regulation through the IQM Flagship research project (follow on objective)
Success criteria
- There is evidence that staff adopt and use the strategies outlined in the updated Behaviour policy to improve pupils’ motivation and learning behaviours
- Senior leaders ensure staff receive training in the Essex Steps approach as well as in implementing the strategies outlined in the Behaviour policy.
- Pupil voice reflects a positive view of learning behaviours in lessons
- The use of IRIS is embedded as a means of raising awareness of pupils’ learning behaviours is effective as a CPD tool (e.g. embedding of routines).
Objective 3.2
To further improve pupils’ acquisition and understanding of oracy skills through the IQM Flagship research project (follow on objective)
Success criteria
- Use oracy resources in lessons and create displays to raise awareness.
- Teachers planning, lesson observations and pupils’ work shows that pupils’ oracy skills are improving (with a particular focus on pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds).
- Pupils’ oracy skills improve as a result of opportunities to develop their speaking skills (e.g. poetry workshop, class assemblies, performances, sharing of projects in class).