The Annual Life-Cycle of a Primary SEF

This programme is for schools who are looking to develop their self-evaluation processes across the school year. As well as focussing on the practice of effective self evaluation, the programme will explore systems and processes by which schools integrate and link together different monitoring and evaluation strands into a coherent annual programme.

Course Leader: Robert Vincent

Robert is a vastly experienced School Improvement Partner and local authority adviser who has worked closely with primary schools for many years. He advocates a robust no-nonsense approach to school improvement in which more effort is focussed on fewer priorities to effect greatest impact.

Autumn 2009: The new primary SEF - an introduction and overview

  • Finding your way round the SEF.
  • How do the sections link with each other?
  • What is its relationship to the new Ofsted Framework?
  • Who is the SEF for?
  • What kind of discourse should we use in the SEF?
  • How do we make judgements?
  • What do we mean by evaluation?
  • London Mon 5th October
  • Birmingham Tues 6th October
  • Leicester Wed 7th October

Spring 2010: Developing effective SEF processes in primary schools

  • What is the place of data in writing a SEF?
  • How do we use Raiseonline and other data sets?
  • What data is useful and how do we interpret it?
  • When should we use it?
  • How do we match the SEF cycle to the needs of the academic year?
  • Who should be involved in producing the SEF?
  • What processes does the school use for staff self-evaluation?
  • How are these processes linked to performance management?
  • London Mon 1st February
  • Birmingham Tues 2nd February
  • Leicester Wed 3rd February

Summer 2010: Writing an effective SEF and selecting your evidence

  • How and where do we begin?
  • What kind of language should we use?
  • How do we identify the key points in each section?
  • What principles of selection should we use?
  • What makes a SEF effective?
  • Who decides?
  • London Mon 17th May
  • Birmingham Tues 18th May
  • Leicester Wed 19th May


The course content above is indicative of plans for the programme at this stage but may be modified slightly to better meet the needs of participants during the year.

One-off courses: It is possible for additional colleagues from participating schools to attend any course for £100. For schools who are not participating in Upward Trends, day delegate attendance on any single course is available for £150.

Your Upward Trends Tutor. In addition to the 3 courses above, participating schools will receive year-round support from a colleague with experience of supporting school-tailored improvement projects. This support includes a project workbook, recent relevant research resources, personal support through telephone, email, face to face sessions and electronic links to other schools on the programme.
 

Upward Trends, SDSA, Alliance House, 6 Bishop Street, Leicester, LE1 6AF