Crowlees Self Evaluation Form 2016 -17

The 2017/18 Self Evaluation document is currently being written and will be available to view here soon.

The full Self Evaluation document is available to download here.

Overall Effectiveness	Grade 1
Effectiveness of Leadership and Management	Grade 1
Quality of Teaching, Learning and Assessment	Grade 1
Personal Development, Behaviour and Welfare	Grade 1
Pupil Outcomes	Grade 1

1. Effectiveness of Leadership and Management

• The school’s aims, values and code of conduct reflect leaders’ vision for Crowlees; set the framework for, and are the backbone of, our culture that enables all pupils and staff to excel. This is evident in pupils’ current and historical achievement, personal development and conduct and is due to the highest expectations that are simply the norm in our school.

• The vision is realised and managed by a team of highly skilled senior and middle leaders. Their work is relentlessly focused to sustaining and improving pupil outcomes, evidenced by the newly introduced tracking system that accurately and robustly measures progress between milestones in the new curriculum so that achievement is forensically analysed and gaps in knowledge, skills and understanding are quickly identified and addressed. This is supported by regular, in-depth analysis of pupils’ work to ensure the accuracy of assessment; make certain that pupils are acting quickly on incisive feedback; ensure that opportunities to achieve challenging next steps are routinely provided so that progress is consistently good because teaching is highly effective.

2. Quality of Teaching, Learning and Assessment

• Accurate, rigorous and regular monitoring of pupils’ learning informs the typical quality of teaching, learning and assessment over time and is evidenced through the triangulation of pupil data, work analysis and observations of lessons, all involving pupil interviews. The evidence drawn from all key stages confirms that all teachers have high expectations of all pupils both in their behaviour and academic work. Drawing upon excellent subject knowledge, teachers plan astutely and set challenging tasks for pupils of abilities aligned to the new mastery curriculum, using their expertise to effectively deepen children’s understanding and to teach them the “thinking” skills they need in order to become successful, confident, independent and resilient learners. This planning is based on thorough, systematic checks of pupils’ understanding. Time in lessons is then used very well to ensure that pupils have the right amount of time to securely embed knowledge, skills and understanding before moving on. Work analyses and lesson observations confirm that common misconceptions are quickly identified; that these are quickly acted upon and that, for specific pupils, focused, rapid support is put in place to prevent them falling behind. Consequently, most pupils are working at or above age related expectations because they take account of incisive feedback and because the content of their lessons is highly challenging. Much of this challenge is inspired by teachers’ highly effective questioning which is aligned to the mastery curriculum and therefore encourages pupils to think about subject content in different ways. As a result, pupils successfully translate expectations from one subject to another. The quality of application evident in pupils’ work and lessons confirms that reading, writing, communication and maths are taught highly effectively across the curriculum.

3. Personal Development, Behaviour and Welfare

• Pupils’ behaviour in and outside of lessons is impeccable because the core school values are embedded into daily practice and children know what is expected. As a result, almost all pupils self-manage their behaviour in a manner appropriate to their age, which reflects the culture of high expectations set by leaders, very well promoted and managed by all staff. Regular reviews of the school’s clear behaviour policy (reflecting the governors’ statement of principles) have been instrumental in ensuring consistency of effective and inclusive strategies. Consequently, pupils know how this links to the school’s code of conduct and to our Christian values, so few ever need specific behaviour plans. Any reportable incident would be extremely rare because pupils are keenly aware of how good attitudes and behaviour contribute to school and community life.

• Lesson observations and routine learning walks evidence pupils’ generally excellent attitudes to learning, which enables lessons to move along without interruption. Children here are confident and self-assured learners. They work hard on the tasks they are set and demonstrate resilience, encouraging one another to try their best. Pupils can talk confidently about their achievements and pupil interviews evidence an age-appropriate understanding of how these positive attitudes strongly impact on their own learning and the progress they are making.

4. Outcomes for Pupils

• Pupils usually enter school with skills in line with, or slightly above, those typically expected for their age and, by the time they start Year 1, have made substantial progress (see next section). This strong progress is sustained through KS1 with most pupils exceeding the new 6 band measure of expected progress in Year 1 and Year 2 and over 35% on track to exceed end of year expectations. Historically, this has been evidenced by the proportions of pupils exceeding level 2b and the APS (significantly above average since 2011) having attained a GLD. KS1 work analyses confirm strong and sustained progress from all starting points and pupils’ work corroborates the accuracy of January 2016 data drawn from tracking.

• The quality of teaching of reading is outstanding because teachers carefully select resources appropriate to each pupil to supplement ‘letters and sounds’ and deliver lessons to pupils in ability bands. Consequently, the proportions reaching the phonic standard are consistently well above average, including a significant number of ‘emerging’ pupils (end EY) with no significant difference in the performance of boys and girls. Throughout school, pupils read widely and often to a high standard with fluency appropriate to their age.

• Current predictions strongly suggest that 82% will reach the national Y1 standard in reading; 82% in writing and 80% in maths; 84% will reach the national Y2 standard in reading; 72% in writing and 86% in maths, thereby demonstrating exceptionally strong progress from 2015/2014 EY outcomes respectively and particularly in light of the rafting up of Y1 and Y2 expectations. This is due to highly effective quality first teaching, supported by the school’s focus to accelerate progress in reading and to embed mastery for pupils of abilities.

5. Effectiveness of Early Years Provision

• Children usually enter reception (from up to 17 different settings) with skills typical for their age and, for some, skills typically above expected, although there is always some disparity between the learning goals. However, the NFER baseline in 2015 suggests that the 2015 cohort was not typical in that, attainment on entry was broadly average with a greater number of children than usual entering with skills below those typically expected. As a new baseline, we are working closely with our pyramid schools to moderate results. Continuous and focused provision has been reviewed to ensure that appropriate provision is in place for all children in the EY but ongoing observations confirm that this cohort is not as strong as previous new entrants. The school recognises the need to work with our PVI feeder settings to raise AOE so that this picture does not develop into a trend.
• Children make rapid and sustained progress through the Early Years because the leader drives and supports the team to focus provision around independent application and practice of basic skills from the outset to particular areas of learning and specific (groups of) pupils (identified from children’s baseline results). As a result, the proportion of pupils attaining a GLD has risen year-on-year because this intervention promotes several key areas of learning and focuses children’s learning to gaps in development. Consequently, in 2015 10% pupils exceeded the GLD; a further 5% only missed one area to exceed the GLD and the proportions of pupils reaching ELG were comparatively high to national figures.