An Outstanding school overcoming Performance Management paperwork

An Outstanding school overcoming Performance Management paperwork

Deputy headteacher Jeff Miller had one overarching reason to choose an online school improvement planning system.

“Quite simply, I didn’t want to do staff performance management on paper,” says Jeff, who is deputy head at the ‘outstanding’ 1,000 pupil Oakwood Park Grammar School in Maidstone, Kent.

“As the person charged with performance management my head comes to me and asks me how staff are doing in their performance appraisals and I can use an online system to give him an instant picture. Without an online system it was a case of me roaming around the school for a couple of weeks collecting pieces of paper.”

After demoing a number of systems Jeff chose Bluewave.SWIFT School Edition. This is an online system that connects information and documents across self-evaluation, school inspection reports, strategic planning, professional development and performance appraisal. Schools can then drive improvement processes and keep ahead of ever-changing accountability and inspection requirements while saving time and cutting costs. The school has been using the system since May 2008.

Jeff is using the performance management element of the system at the moment although he does have ambitions to use other functions in the future.

The performance management element of Bluewave.SWIFT School Edition allows Jeff and his headteacher to see where each of the 120 Oakwood staff members are in the performance appraisal cycle. Jeff can see information such as whether the headteacher has approved appraisals, details of lesson observations of each staff member, when the next interim reviews are scheduled and how each staff member is doing against the teacher professional standards. Staff members can see their individual appraisal records and feed their observations and evidence into them.

The recent change in the teacher professional standards in September 2012, when the number of standards were drastically reduced, could have created an enormous extra workload for Jeff and his team. However, with the Bluewave system the evidence that staff built up against the previous standards were automatically mapped to the new standards, so there was no need to start again.

“The system has been very good with tracking the changing teacher standards,” says Jeff. “It has made it easy to link the teaching standards to the objectives that you are setting staff.”

“It does what Bluewave.SWIFT says it does very well,” he says. “I also like it that when I give them feedback about the system, the company takes things on board. The product doesn’t stand still - it is always in evolution.”

“Very simply I made the best choice based on price and functionality.”

For further information, please visit our website – www.bluewaveswift.co.uk or contact us on 0845 4900 447, info@bluewaveswift.com

The Journey out of Special Measures

The Journey out of Special Measures

When the Manor Academy in Mansfield Woodhouse, Nottinghamshire was placed in special measures in autumn 2011, Ofsted inspectors said ‘the school needed to rigorously monitor and evaluate the quality of teaching and trends in the school’s performance data.’

It was an area that the leadership team were determined to tackle. This prompted a search for a management information system that would provide the rigour needed. “That was where the decision to buy Bluewave.SWIFT came in,” explains deputy headteacher Donna Casey.

Bluewave.SWIFT School Edition is an online system that connects information and documents across self-evaluation, school inspection reports, strategic planning, professional development and performance appraisal. Schools can then drive improvement processes, keep ahead of ever-changing accountability and inspection requirements while saving time and cutting costs.

“I had used another system at my previous school – that was for performance management and review,” says Donna. “Bluewave was a step up which gave you performance management and review as well as a whole host of other things. It did all the things that we needed to do and now provides the foundation for all of our quality assurance work.”

In December 2012, just 14 months after the school was put into special measures, the inspectors made their third monitoring visit and lifted the school out of category, telling a delighted leadership team that the school could be ‘outstanding’ within 18 months.

The school’s management and tracking of school improvement processes such as performance management, development planning and CPD, were singled out for praise by the inspectors. Donna believes that Bluewave.SWIFT has played a crucial role in the school’s journey out of special measures.

“The inspectors were clear that our new performance management review procedure, done through Bluewave.SWIFT was robust, and linked heavily to our development plan and the new professional standards. It provided a firm backbone for the safeguarding of standards throughout the institution,” says Donna.

“They also commented on the transparency and clarity of our development planning, again done through Bluewave.SWIFT. They loved the fact that our school development plan was directly linked to faculty development plans, which then linked to performance management reviews and informed our CPD schedule, all of which was viewed at the click of the mouse. The lesson observation information, linked to performance management, enables all leadership members to have a view of every area within our large institution anywhere and at any time.

“Ofsted also said that our quality assurance systems were rigorous with an emphasis on accountability and attention to detail.”

Although The Manor Academy has only been using the system since the start of the 2012-13 academic year it is already making full use of most of the elements of Bluewave.SWIFT and all 250 staff members use the system on an almost daily basis.

“I was advised that we should implement Bluewave.SWIFT with a phased approach but we have done it all in one go,” Donna says. “In July we spent two twilight sessions training the leadership team and in September training was delivered for all staff.”

Donna acted as the lead advocate for the system – supporting staff and putting together bespoke ‘how to’ guides so that colleagues could quickly get up to speed with how to use the system.

The reports element allows leaders to create bespoke evaluation reports quickly and easily for a range of subjects, from exams analysis and coaching reports to the school SEF.

The system’s school development planning element allows The Manor Academy to develop a whole school strategic plan which then feeds into the development plans of individual faculties – and the staff who work in them.

The performance management feature provides the academy with a complete picture of staff performance. This includes the ability to track and evaluate staff CPD, record classroom observations and review statements and objectives linked to the school development plan.

Donna Casey believes that Bluewave.SWIFT’s observation analysis feature is an underplayed part of the system. “This allows you to do lesson observations live and then upload immediately to the system,” she explains. “This gives me a picture of which teachers are outstanding and which might need support to improve. It also tells me what their particular teaching strengths are.

“That’s hugely powerful. I can be doing a lesson observation, inputting directly into the system using my iPad and attaching video and other material such as lesson plans onto the record and the teacher can see the observation immediately after the lesson. It also means that if I am out of school I can see lesson observations remotely wherever I am.”

This feature has won the support of teaching staff. “Teachers are really pleased with it,” says Donna. “The quality of feedback you can give is really impressive. You can build up a rich picture of practice that is helpful to me and helpful to the teacher as well.

“We were told by Ofsted that the school had no capability to properly assess lessons. Now they are satisfied that we have that capability.”

The CPD recording feature also comes in for praise. “We’d never evaluated the impact of CPD before. Now we know what CPD results in changes and impact.”

“I feel like we know what is going on in the institution,” Donna adds. “There is no way I can see everyone all the time but I now have a good view across the academy.”

For further information, please visit our website – www.bluewaveswift.co.uk or contact us on 0845 4900 447, info@bluewaveswift.com

Making a major contribution to the progress of children

  

 Making a major contribution to the progress of children

William Barcroft Junior School

Increasing accountability and giving staff the power to make a real difference were two key drivers behind headteacher Claire Constantopoulos’ search for a new school improvement management system.

“We were looking for a system which ensured that staff and governors could be actively involved in the development of the school,” says Claire, head of William Barcroft Junior School in Cleethorpes.

“We wanted something that increased accountability and strengthened performance management processes - and went hand in hand with the staff’s desire to make a real difference,” she explains.

“We always strive to be transparent and gain trust, so I wanted a shared location for all the schools documents that was easily accessible to staff, regardless of where and when they were working.

“Another important element was to make sure that school self evaluation was constantly informed by the great work being done throughout the school.”

Bluewave.SWIFT School Edition was chosen because it answered all these needs, says Claire. “The online system helps schools link together and drive improvement processes including self-evaluation, school inspection reports, strategic planning, professional development and performance appraisals. The system also helps schools keep ahead of ever-changing accountability and inspection requirements while saving time and cutting costs.

Says Claire: “When the leadership team was led through the demonstration, we discussed the benefits of the system. It had to become an integral part of the way the school worked. This needed to be modelled by the senior leadership team. Bluewave.SWIFT needed to become an everyday word in school.

“It was also clear that as a speedily developing school the implementation needed to be planned carefully and the staff had to understand the benefits of learning a new way of working.”

When Bluewave.SWIFT went ‘live’ at William Barcroft the first action for Claire and her team was to build up the system as a resource bank by putting all documents into the resource area.

“We were very strict and it became a joke in the school. The response was always ‘That’s great, have you uploaded it to Bluewave?’”

Before Bluewave.SWIFT the school’s leadership team did all the SEF. Now self evaluation and action planning is much more of a shared endeavour. “The staff are amazed that many of the pieces of evidence they have already put onto the system are crucial to informing self-evaluation and in turn action planning,” says Claire.

The next step was to move the performance management process into Bluewave. This has helped William Barcroft Junior School make significant strides in the way teachers conduct pupil assessment for learning.

“When we did a round of lesson observations a common thread that emerged was the need for assessment training as most of the staff were quite inexperienced in this area. This was flagged in performance management as an issue so we found some training which the staff completed,” explains Claire.

“In a recent round of lesson observations, assessment for learning has become good to outstanding throughout the school, from what was a very mixed picture.”

The Bluewave.SWIFT system means that Claire gets an instant picture of the school’s progress in any development area – and this helps her justify spending decisions.

“When I have done a round of lesson observations I go back to the lesson observation section of the Bluewave system which brings up all the data. I can explain to governors why I am spending so much money on school training.”

William Barcroft staff have recently been issued with iPads and this has enhanced the lesson observation process, says Claire. “I input straight into Bluewave.SWIFT during the lesson observation and then the teacher can see exactly what I have written straight after the lesson has finished.

“I can also shoot video of the lesson and take pictures of materials such as lesson plans and attach them to the observation record.”

Claire is convinced that the Bluewave.SWIFT system is making a major contribution to the progress of children at William Barcroft.

“The impact of Bluewave has been huge to the progress of children in our school. The way in which staff and governors are interacting with the action plans and creating  evidence means that they always keep the Ofsted criteria in mind and this has created many questions which of course leads to discussion and the team generating ideas. Our team feels empowered and valued. The easy access to all evidence has made us all feel more secure that we are working in the right direction.”