Developing a shared vision with BlueSky
Transcription
Developing a shared vision with BlueSky
REAL STORY Secondary School Real Story Garnock Academy, North Ayrshire Developing a shared vision with BlueSky At Garnock Academy, reflecting on the Standards of Registration is an ongoing process that supports professional engagement and whole school improvement. About the school Garnock Academy is a semi-rural school in the heart of the Garnock Valley in North Ayrshire. The school has seen significant improvements in recent years and Alan Dick joined as Headteacher in 2014. The school has 120 staff and the majority of its 1,000 pupils travel to school by bus. At the time of writing, the school had recently been inspected. What were the challenges? Alan Dick, Headteacher, explains “On arrival at Garnock, I wanted to bring together elements of the Professional Review and Development (PRD), such as, lesson observations, professional objectives and professional update, and triangulate them with school improvement. This is a great school with great staff and, as well as involving them with the school’s improvement, I wanted to give them an easy way to record their progress and CPD whilst supporting their development needs. As an example, at the time, lesson observations only gauged individual teacher performance and there was no analysis or relationship with school improvement. “I also wanted to keep the school improvement planning live and ongoing and not simply a tick-box exercise.” I wanted to bring together elements of the Professional Review and Development (PRD), such as lesson observations, professional objectives and professional update and triangulate them with school improvement. Alan Dick, Headteacher We are currently using BlueSky with the teaching staff who find it intuitive and easy to use. Johana House, Depute Headteacher How is BlueSky helping? What is the impact? Johana House, Depute Headteacher explains, “We are currently using BlueSky with the teaching staff who find it intuitive and easy to use. Staff can review themselves against the Standards for Registration and then identify their professional update needs, all within BlueSky. Some of these needs are met within school, such as working with “Most recently BlueSky impacted on our ability to engage inspectors and demonstrated our commitment to selfevaluation at all levels. Using BlueSky provided clear pathways on the journey to excellence and comments from inspectors strengthened our belief in BlueSky. colleagues, and this is logged within the system to form part of their 35 hours of directed time. nature and assists the development of our shared vision. There is a clear articulation towards improvement and everyone can see their role in the future of Garnock Academy. Teachers reflect on the Standards of Registration throughout the year which is supporting their engagement with the PRD process, professional update and developing them as professionals. I can quickly see where our strengths are and where staff need support which in time will influence our CPD provision. “We reviewed our lesson observations and, as a school, agreed four observation areas that would apply to all staff, regardless of role. Our observation form is in BlueSky and staff can choose if they use a printed version or add their observations directly into the software. The four elements we observe on all link to school improvement make analysis of progress and development need straightforward.” Alan Dick continues, “Before our inspection, the senior team rated themselves, and the school, against the HGIOS (How Good Is Our School) quality indicators. This really helped us to prepare for the inspection and provided specific reports for the inspectors. “Embedding BlueSky with all staff supports our inclusive What’s next? “We are planning to develop bespoke CPD based on needs analysis reporting and staff strengths. This will raise the quality of CPD, bring more of it in-house and further develop a collegiate staff. We have trialled the BlueSky Projects area and plan to develop this to introduce action research across the school. Another area we are considering is 360 reviews, using this with senior staff will help us in our self-evaluation.” BlueSky impacted on our ability to engage inspectors and demonstrated our commitment to self-evaluation at all levels. Alan Dick, Headteacher © BlueSky March 2015 Tel: 01483 880004 | Email: [email protected] Twitter: @BlueSkyMatters | www.blueskyeducation.co.uk RS-09-0315 National Association of School Business Management