Building leadership capacity within school management teams is fundamental to improving provision and outcomes for learners.
We can provide you with strategic challenge and support for your school leaders through the provision of a dedicated team of experienced and skilled Primary Curriculum Advisers for assessment, maths, English, computing and music. All advisers have a proven track record of supporting organisations to raise standards and improve outcomes for all learners, including the disadvantaged and the most able.
The Curriculum Advisers focus on curriculum development and innovation at subject and whole school level, alongside providing support with teaching, learning and leadership at all levels. This is supported by resources that enhance colleagues’ understanding of: formative and statutory assessment; curriculum planning; impact evaluation and subject leadership. We can provide you with an objective view of your school curriculum to evaluate whether it is effectively meeting the learning needs of all learners.
Our curriculum service is a bespoke consultancy service tailored to address your individual priorities and we can work in partnership with all of your school stakeholders including senior leaders, teachers, subject leaders, parents, governors and children.
We can also provide you with strategic challenge and support for your school leadership through the provision of a dedicated School Improvement Adviser (SIA). The SIA acts as a ‘critical friend’ helping the leadership, including governors, to rigorously evaluate its performance, identify priorities for improvement and plan and monitor effective change. Through regular visits, the role builds the school’s capacity to improve the achievement of all pupils including the most disadvantaged.
What we offer
We can work with you to design a School Improvement Membership package that comprises a combination of Curriculum days and School Improvement Adviser days or exclusively Curriculum days. A typical starting point may be a package of six days of support which provides you with the advantages of:
- a preferential CPD rate for courses offered by the Curriculum team. There is a 10% differential between the full price of courses/conferences and the preferential rate offered to School Improvement Membership schools
- a newsletter three times a year
- access to secure membership websites
- email and telephone helpdesk with FAQ support.
Collaboration with teachers and leaders from other schools is of benefit to schools, teachers and learners. If you wish to use your curriculum days so that you can work with a group of other schools then we are happy to facilitate this. We provide various options depending on the number of schools in the collaboration but all the options benefit from additional contact time beyond what you pay for.
Curriculum Support – Delivered as whole or half days in your own school
- Whole days will be for 6 hours, suitable for example for inset, moderation and subject reviews
- Half days delivered will be 2.5 hours e.g. 9:00 – 11:30am or 1:00 – 3:30pm
- A staff meeting counts as ½ day
- If an afternoon session is requested followed by a staff meeting this will count as 1 whole day.
Curriculum Support – Use a number of days in your own school and a number of days so that you can work with a group of other schools to benefit from networking and value added time.
- Networks will run as ½ day sessions of 2.5 hours each.
- To be effective we would recommend between 5 and 9 schools in a network.
- Each school wanting to be part of a network contributes equally in number of days
- A ‘lead’ school needs to be nominated within the group of schools and be the main contact for all requests on behalf of the group.
- Each school in a network may send up to two members of staff to each network session.
An example of a network would be 5 schools each using ½ day of their curriculum time for a mathematics network. The total days aggregated by the five schools would be 2.5 days. Each school would then be able to attend 4 x ½ day sessions of that network.
Why choose us?
- All of our Curriculum Advisers and Associate Advisers are highly experienced, with significant teaching and leadership experience. Many also hold further qualifications and accreditations. All are quality assured and DBS checked, with a track record of proven effective practice in relation to school improvement.
- All our SIAs have wide expertise in school improvement and show a respect for the school’s autonomy to plan its development based on the school’s self-evaluation. Many are inspectors for Ofsted, current or recently retired Headteachers and experienced LA officers.
- Our expertise in analysis of data and other evidence; strategic planning; impact evaluation; and understanding of change management processes with skills honed over a wide variety of school systems, enables us to support you in bringing about effective and sustainable change appropriate for your organisation.
- Our Curriculum team are recognised regionally and nationally for their skills and innovation and contribute to national bodies designing education practice and policy.
- Our specialist subject knowledge and understanding of pedagogy enables them to work closely with subject leaders and staff in schools, building the quality of teaching in your school and leading to improved outcomes.
- Our team of SIAs and Curriculum Advisers understand the local and national context in which you work and have backgrounds firmly rooted in highly successful teaching, leadership, inspection and training.
- With strong relationships and access to other services such as Governor Development and HR for Schools, we can take a holistic approach to your school improvement requirements.
- We provide professional development for SIAs to ensure consistency, up to date knowledge and joint problem solving, ensuring you receive accurate and reliable judgements and helpful notes of visits.
- There is strict adherence to confidentiality for all our work within the context of the Freedom of Information Act and the Code of Practice for working with schools.
- Our approach is collaborative, bespoke, flexible and responsive. We build on your ideas and challenge your school to improve at all levels.
- We already have long standing and successful relationships with within and beyond South Gloucestershire and have developed new ways of working with groups of schools through partnerships and collaborations.
- We understand how quickly education changes and we can help you change with it.
Benefits
Specific benefits are dependent upon the focus for support but will include:
- a focus on pupil progress, learning and achievement and the many factors which influence it, including pupil well-being, wrap-around services, the curriculum and parental involvement
- impartial and objective evidence-based assessment of the school’s performance and its strategies for improving teaching and learning, including national and school based data analysis
- respectful professional challenge and support so that the school leaders, teaching and non-teaching staff feel that school practice is improved by interactions and there is evidence of impact
- understanding of local context including working with, academies, MATs and federations
- sharing of good practice from other schools with links made to other School Improvement services
- clear and frank communication about judgments where appropriate as part of a purposeful and productive dialogue to inform continued development
- more rigorous subject leadership with clear systems for accountability
- teaching which is more engaging and challenging for learners; promotes progression, enrichment, creativity and capacity to meet the needs of all learners
- skilled, knowledgeable staff confident to lead and deliver an enriched and exciting curriculum that gives outcomes you want for your children
- support which aligns with your ethos, your SDP, your challenges and your distinctiveness.