Saturday 16 April 2011

Pupil performance: Identifying priorities and actions

Data often raises lot of whys; School governors also need explanations! What are the reasons underlying the results/ how is the school going to tackle underperformance/ what are the school’s priorities? Some questions Governors might ask include:

Appropriateness of the curriculum/ curriculum resources?

Quality of teaching and learning/ homework?

Quality of feedback to pupils?

The deployment of support staff?

What is the attendance/ absence rate like, both generally and for different cohorts?

What are the characteristics of persistent absentees?

What is the link between attendance and attainment?

Any issues around behaviour?

Teacher absence?

Assessment for learning / use of pupil tracking data (how is it monitored?)

What intervention strategies are in use, both generally and for specific cohorts of pupils?

How are impacts monitored/ evaluated?

Parental involvement?

Professional development for staff?

Monitoring of Priorities and Actions


Once priorities for improvement have been identified, it’s important that governors have in place mechanisms to monitor and evaluate outcomes, particularly their impact (remember, all outcomes must have success criteria).

Autumn term agendas should contain an item on assessment/ examination results which should be fully discussed/ analysed at either full governors or the appropriate committee. Any recommendation for action should then feed into the school development plan and be monitored at subsequent meetings.

It’s also important that pupil progress is reported/ monitored at either at full governors or the appropriate committee. If poor progress is an issue, this needs an explanation and addressing.

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