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Real school improvement success stories

Our case studies explore how Schools and Trusts are using our software as a tool to drive their school improvement journey. Whether it is Trust CEOs using the data dashboard to detect emerging risks, the senior leadership team collaborating to produce different sections of the SEF or line managers and subject leaders carrying out subject reviews, there’s examples of best practice within our Evaluate-Ed community. 

A case study of Evaluate-Ed 

“I would definitely recommend Evaluate-Ed. It is a powerful tool for a school at any stage of their journey.”

JOE MANGAN

Headteacher at Maricourt Catholic High School

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A case study of the Catholic Review

“I’d recommend colleagues completing and revisiting the review because it’s a really good way of becoming familiar with the CSI evaluation schedule.”

Rachel Tyler

Headteacher at St Brigid’s Catholic Primary School

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A case study of Subject Reviews

“Evaluate-Ed has been a really useful self-evaluating tool that has helped highlight areas of development, but also reaffirm areas of strength and good practice within the department.”

HEAD OF PERFORMING ARTS

All Saints School

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Joe Mangan

Headteacher at Maricourt Catholic High School

We started using Evaluate-Ed after a recommendation from a headteacher colleague. From this, we set up an online meeting with John Croghan and had a trial of the product. The initial attraction was how comprehensive the coverage was and how user friendly it was. This was confirmed when we took our trial and found Evaluate-Ed very easy to use. It allowed us to track how many sections we had reviewed and where the areas of strength and development were very quickly.

With Evaluate-Ed in place, we could get the whole team involved, not just our SLT, but also curriculum and pastoral leaders and governors. The feedback was very positive from all.

In terms of using the product, we compared what came from Evaluate-Ed to what we already had in our SEF and development plan. We did this termly but I know of other colleagues who use it far more frequently and this is something we intend to replicate.

Evaluate-Ed highlighted some areas of middle leadership we could improve and we did this through targeted CPD. This led to improvements in the quality of learning and teaching and pupil progress.  As a result of using Evaluate-Ed, we also ensured all stakeholders had a greater involvement in school development planning and we were able to support our Governors in having a greater understanding of the school.  This led to greater challenge and support from the governing body. It also reaffirmed what we knew were areas of strength and development.  It also made us look more closely at the budget and the school development plan. Evaluate-Ed certainly accelerated our rate of improvement.

Going forward we will be using Evaluate-Ed far more frequently on key areas of development to monitor impact. The new developments in the product, such as the 60 minute SEF, will lead to significant time savings so more time can be focussed on implementing key actions to improve the school still further.

I would definitely recommend Evaluate-Ed. It is a powerful tool for a school at any stage of their journey.

Rachel Tyler

OVERVIEW

Rachael Tyler is Head Teacher at St Brigid’s Catholic Primary School, Knowsley, Northwest England. In September 2023, The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Liverpool invested in Evaluate-Ed software for all the schools in the Archdiocese to use. Since then, Rachel has used the Catholic Review to successfully self-evaluate her school’s performance against the Catholic Inspection Framework.

 

APPROACH

The initial Catholic Review took me about 45 minutes to complete on Evaluate-Ed. Our RE lead and I reviewed and updated our Catholic Review together at set points across the last two terms and then with governors.

Evaluate-Eds Catholic Review was used several times prior to our inspection to inform governors and as baseline for discussion during our extraordinary CSED meetings (Autumn & Spring). It was great for governors as it was an easy way to see progress made over time and to become familiar with the grading on the evaluation schedule.

What was useful to the SLT, and governors is that we know our school inside out and have evaluated our school well, using the software. We could use the report to discuss the targets we had set and see the progress made against them.

 

RESULTS

  • Completing and revisiting the Catholic Review was a really good way of becoming familiar with the CSI evaluation schedule.
  • Quick and easy to use to generate an overview of the school at a particular point in time.
  • Able to save a report as a PDF to share with governors and inspectors.

 

CONCLUSION

The Catholic Reviews helped to prepare our school for the Catholic Inspection and we felt confident we had made progress against the targets that we set. Our next step is to use the online SEF in preparation for our next Ofsted visit.

All Saints School

A case study to show how Evaluate-Ed can empower your school.

Our Senior Leaders point of view

Deputy Head

The department reports which are created by HoDs enables for a quick and insightful view of their subject areas.  This can then form the basis of line management discussions.  It is also useful to see each of the different aspects of the school in the SEF and provides a useful point of reflection when completing the online form.

Assistant Head Teacher

Evaluate Ed provides a really clear structure for self evaluation. It is user friendly and produces helpful visual representations of your responses so you can review the strengths and weaknesses of your departments at a glance.  Evaluate Ed is a really useful self evaluation tool for Section 48.  It provides clearly defined criteria for gathering evidence for each section.

The features I like best are:

  • Helpful questions – very useful during line management meetings.
  • Subject leadership review report – This provides features of excellence, strength and development

I also like the way it looks.  It is visually very easy to understand and use which saves times.

Middle leaders experience

Head of MFL

I found Evaluate-Ed a useful kit to:

  • have a picture of where a department is at one given time,
  • identify strengths and weaknesses,
  • It is easy to use as it is colour coded so weaknesses stand out.
  • The questions are linked to Ofsted criteria

Head of Computer Science 

I found the evaluation very detailed and structured and I liked the way the questions were organised in four categories: leadership, intent, implementation and impact. It produces a comprehensive evaluation report which definitely helps a HOD  to gain a better insight into the  department’s performance, identify areas of strength and where more work needs to be done. 

Head of Performing Arts

Evaluate Ed has been a really useful self-evaluating tool that has helped highlight areas of development, but also reaffirm areas of strength and good practice within the department. It’s particularly useful as it uses the format and language of the Ofsted framework, which enables us as HoDs to familiarise and practice answering questions and topics of discussion that are likely to be addressed as a result of a deep dive into the department. When the time comes, this is definitely be something that I will be revisiting to prepare myself for inspection. It will also be something that I will be referring back to regularly, as I intend to work on areas of development over time to continue to develop the department.

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