Crowlees Self Evaluation Form 2017 -18

The 2018/19 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.
• All behaviour incidents are reported and carefully monitored by the head teacher. Incidents of significant negative behaviour are very low (see behaviour reports), but the school is quick to involve parents and put actions in place if any pattern of low-level disruption is found.

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 on track to meet or exceed age related expectations by the end of KS1 (80%-90%). Historically, this has been evidenced by the proportions of pupils exceeding expected levels having attained a GLD. KS1 work analyses confirm strong and sustained progress from all starting points and pupils’ work corroborates the accuracy of Autumn 2017 data drawn from tracking.
• Past predictions from the school’s own monitoring and tracking have proved to be accurate– evidencing that the leadership team know and understand their pupils well and track their attainment and progress effectively.
• 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. Percentages remain well above the national average. Throughout school, pupils read widely and often to a high standard with fluency appropriate to their age.

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.
• EY leaders have begun working with the many nursery providers to ensure more consistency in the recording of children’s abilities on entry to the EYFS
• 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 remains high year-on -year because this intervention promotes several key areas of learning and focuses children’s learning to gaps in development. Overall pupils achieving GLD 80.3% (70% NA).