ZES School Development Policy

Introduction

At ZES, school development planning is focused on self-assessment and action-planning. Self-assessment is supported by the Framework for Excellence which Principals must use BEFORE formulating the annual school development plan (SDP) and college development plan (CDP).

The annual development plan is an action plan which ensures that there is cohesion and logic for the actions being taken so that they lead to measurable school/college development.

Every Principal is required to seek continuous improvement in his/her school/college and account for the school’s/college’s performance. Undertaking self-assessment and planning for improvement is ultimately followed by reporting on performance and progress (i.e. the Annual Report).

Self-assessment against the Framework for Excellence enables Principals:

  • To lead (i.e. initiate and direct) the quality of education that the school/college is providing
  • To build on what is working well (e.g. teacher good practice)
  • To clearly identify areas in need of development and to decide on relevant courses of action
  • To support the reporting of the strengths of the school/college and priorities for development

Aims of this Policy

This policy provides a framework for Principals’ planning of continuous school improvement in relation to:

  • Cultivating a high level of student responsibility for their own learning, so that students are motivated, confident and developing as independent learners
  • Building a school culture which supports students’ “deep” learning and supporting students’ all-round development
  • Ensuring practices and procedures impact upon students’ progression and achievement
  • Developing an understanding of the expectations of quality education throughout the school
  • Raising the profile of ZS within the communities that the school serves

Elements of School Development Planning

We use the following elements as a framework for school development planning:

The five elements identified above provide the focus for self-assessment and action-planning.

  1. Leadership

The focus for school leadership is what makes effective teaching and learning in schools. The demands of school leadership that need to be self-assessed are:

  • The Principal’s ability to develop and manage the school environment and resources to enable a successful teaching and learning culture
  • The Principal’s ability to distribute leadership responsibilities to build leadership capacity and effective teams (sustainability and succession planning)
  • How the Principal manages the creation, sharing and review of the strategic vision, ethos and aims of ZS
  • The Principal’s ability to create a whole-school commitment to improvement through modelling self-evaluation and reflection

The school has policies to drive implementation of the quality of provision in ZS. Principals MUST be fully aware of the content of each policy document in order to successfully complete their annual SDP.

  1. Teaching and Learning

School development planning needs to reflect the school’s intention to set the highest standards of teaching and so strive for exceptional levels of student learning. Therefore, for self-assessment, Principals should focus on:

  1. The overall achievement of learner outcomes in the school
  2. The students’ experiences of learning in the school and their level of engagement as learners
  • Reflection on aspects of the learning environment
  1. The extent to which ZS students have ‘learned how to learn’
  2. Teachers’ practices
  3. Values

In ZS we aim to nurture and challenge students to aspire to high principles and values. A self-assessment of a school should include reflection on the extent to which:

  1. The teachers are open to suggestions and honest in their endeavours
  2. The school is a place where active communication occurs
  • Interactions between teachers and students are supportive and respectful
  1. Teachers support and work collaboratively to maximise the success of the students
  2. Parents and teachers are partners
  3. Students trust teachers
  • Morale is high among teachers
  • Teachers and students exhibit pride in the school
  1. Parents perceive the school as inviting and helpful
  2. Skills, Knowledge and Understanding

The following are key points in the self-assessment of development of knowledge, skills and understanding:

  1. The extent of students’ thinking
  • Creativity
  • Critical thinking and problem-solving
  • Decision-making
  • Ability to reflect on learning (metacognition)
  1. Students’ ways of working with others
  • Communication
  • Collaboration
  • Cooperation
  • The extent of students 21st Century skills
  • Information and digital literacy
  • ICT proficiency
  1. Students’ global skills
  • Citizenship
  • Social awareness and responsibility
  • Cultural awareness and competence
  1. Community Relations

Principals need to assess how far they are building constructive partnerships with the school. This can be done by reviewing the following:

  1. Students
  • Level of engagement in activities of community service
  • Involvement with, and organisation of, community events
  1. Teachers
  • Personal and professional motivation to community work
  • Perceived barriers and enablers to working with the school community
  • Satisfaction with experiences of working with/ engagement with the community
  • Community
  • Satisfaction of the level of partnership with the school
  • Development and use of funding for community activities

 

The Role of the Principal

Effective school leadership is an important enabler for developing and expanding quality provision in the school.

As part of the self-assessment process, Principals should:

  • Collaborate with teachers in self-assessment activities to make judgements about the standards of student achievement and the effectiveness of school processes
  • Collaborate with teachers to undertake school planning processes that result in the development of an annual School Development Plan (SDP)
  • Produce an annual School Report that describes the school’s performance.

 

Procedures

The school development cycle should mirror the following structure:

  • Self-Assessment

Principals are required to undertake self-assessment that results in verifiable judgements about school performance (e.g. student achievement, quality teaching etc). For this purpose, Principals should:

  • Critically assess school data and records (e. evidence related to student achievement and school operations) to develop the school development plan (i.e. an action plan)

Principals can do this by asking the following key questions:

  • How well are we doing and what evidence do we have?
  • What are our students achieving (both academic and non-academic)?
  • Are these achievements as good as, or better than, we would expect, given the context of the school?
  • What are our strengths?
  • What are our areas for improvement and what can we do to improve?
  • How will we know if we are improving?
  • Planning and Acting

Principals should action plan what is required to maximise student achievement and develop the school. For this, Principals should consider what are the realistic steps to be taken to address the improvement needs?

Principals, in collaboration with teachers, should:

  • Develop and share with all, before the beginning of a new academic year, a School Development Plan (SDP) that provides a clear strategic direction for the school for that year
  • Include in the SDP the objectives, priorities, improvement targets, major strategies, resources, evaluation measures, and the time frame

Principals are expected to operationalise their School Development Plan in ways that best suit the school’s context.

  • Annual Review and Annual Report

Principals should:

  • Present to the Director of Schools evidence, analysis and judgements about the standards of student achievement and quality of school operations
  • Publish an annual school report in a form that MAY be used beyond the school system (e.g. presented to parents as an electronic publication on the ZS website)

Reporting Format:

  • Operational information (e.g. school name, reporting year, student numbers, number of functions and events, use of school finances)
  • The learning environment (physical environment, implementation of ZS values etc.)
  • Teaching and Learning structured around areas of learning (subject strengths and areas for improvement)
  • Cross-curricular and extra-curricular skills development

The school development cycle is ongoing through each academic year. The three components described above are a dynamic and interactive aspect of school development for Ziauddin Schools. While self-assessment leads to planning, and planning leads to action planning and implementation, Principals should be flexible enough to adjust planning and actions as these may change due to the impact of implementations.

Taking Action

Principals act by supporting everyone in school to execute the SDP. As such, Principals are accountable for ensuring that plans are implemented and then evaluated. At ZS, we recognise that some planning for improvement may take longer to show outcomes than one academic year. Where this happens, the specific actions and carried forward to the next SDP. Where items are carried forward, milestones should be introduced to enable continuous review of whether the strategy is on course and should be continued.