The Management side of your Schools Improvement Plan looks at all aspects of “strangely enough” management!
But what sort of things do we class as management and what should be included?
The answer to this is “it’s up to you” – as senior managers you will have a vision for where and how you want to take your school forward. You may have all sorts of plans that you wish to implement and so the Management plan will reflect these aims and aspirations and set out the schools progression towards achieving these goals.
However there are some basic categories that you should be considering when you are looking at writing this section of the School Improvement Plan.
Suggested Inclusions to the Management section of your School Improvement Plan….
Overall Management of the curriculum (irrespective of subject) :- lets break this down further – don’t forget these apply to the whole school.
- The Quality of Teaching and Learning
- Planning systems and approach
- Assessment and Record keeping
- Pupil achievement and Target setting
Each of the above would have a separate section within the Management part of the SIP.
Staff :- directly looking at staff management and organisation – again we can break this down as necessary into sections.
- Staff professional development and training
- Staff appraisal
Buildings and Grounds : – This would be a brief summary of possible projects or repairs that are needed. For anything more than routine maintenance (which can be regarded as ongoing) I would assume that additional documentation would be prepared and submitted through the usual approval channels including the Governing body.
Financial Planning and Management :- Any aspect of the financial programme of the school. This could involve new systems being integrated, preparation of financial summaries for presentations etc
Community : This is an important inclusion into your SIP as it reflects the schools role in the local community and the reciprocal place of the community in the school. (This is a great interview presentation topic !) This should give detail as to how this is to be achieved and should also reflect statements made in the school prospectus!
How is everything to be presented in the document?
The document you would be writing would cover 1 year – now there are 2 thoughts on this and both are equally valid and so you won’t go wrong with whichever you choose.
Some schools (in collaboration with their financial advisers) like to run the SIP alongside the financial year so there is a direct tally. Other school will choose the academic school year for the length of the SIP. As I said, equally valid whichever you decide upon.
I personally used to choose the academic year, as for me, it was easier to work things out according to the year in school….my thinking being “this year we will….” rather than separate bits of 2 academic years.
You will be writing a management section (all the different categories you have chosen) for each of the 3 terms that the document covers. From this it is possible to see how an area is to be progressed towards its overall goal.
So for example you will be writing for Autumn 2016 / Spring 2017 / Summer 2017.
The main things that need to be considered in writing the management section are :-
- Aims (Overall aim for this area)
- Targets (for this term)
- Success Criteria
- Costs
A simple layout could look like this – however it really is up to you.
Two things to raise here about this. The first is the detail. The purpose of the SIP is not to be a detailed guide to how things will be approached and carried out. The SIP summarises the path that the school is taking through these areas. The summary gives broad aims and objectives but IS NOT the place for detail on how this will be achieved, carried out or assessed on its success.
This should NEVER be set out or detailed in this way. If aspects of the SIP require further documentation by members of the SLT (or coordinators) then this will be discussed and produced according to need. There are many examples of SIP’s that are in my opinion overly detailed and as such lose the purpose of the document.
The second thing to mention is that the SIP should be costed – and that these costs should be reflected in the School financial budget. Your School SIP outlines the schools priorities for the Year and so naturally these are going to be incurred costs for which you have to budget.
I have included this as an example – I am not really sure what this is supposed to represent – however as a SIP document it has absolutely no merit whatsoever. On the schools webpage it is described as the Schools Improvement Plan….I can only hope there is more to it than this !
I hope I have given you some ideas as to what should be included in your management section of the SIP. Again I have to reiterate that these are only my thoughts on this and that you will, I am sure have your own ways to approach these things.
If you take the basic principles as a foundation and build what your school needs from there then you can’t go wrong.
I hope this has been of some help even if just to direct your thoughts – the next article will look at the curriculum section of the SIP and a cyclical approach over a 3 year period.
Charles