1. School Development Planning Initiative
SDPI Regional seminar 2005
School Development Planning Initiative
Planning 2005: Focus on Your School
Regional Seminar 2005

2. Planning 2005 Focus on your School
SDPI Regional seminar 2005
Planning 2005
Focus on your School

3. SDP Process Review Mission Vision Design Evaluate Aims Implement
SDPI Regional seminar 2005
SDP Process
Review
Improved
Practice
Priorities
Mission
Vision
Aims
Design
Evaluate
Action Plans
& Policies
Monitoring
Implement

4. Work with Individual Schools 04-05
SDPI Regional seminar 2005
Work with Individual Schools 04-05
Review: 19%
Mission
Vision
Aims
Design:
63.6%
Evaluate:
17.4%
Implement

5. Progress of SDPI: SDP Process
SDPI Regional seminar 2005
Progress of SDPI: SDP Process
Approx. % of SDPI RC Facilitation Work on each Stage of SDP Process

6. Schools’ Progress in School Development Planning
SDPI Regional seminar 2005
Schools’ Progress in School Development Planning
Huge variations….
Context factors: Trustee/VEC, WSE/SI, ARCs
SDP process: Stage and Stages
Focus in SDP: Subject Dept., Guidance, B&D
Structures for SDP: Coordinator, ISM review
Partnership in SDP: Limited….
SDP documentation: Proliferating… Plans and policies
- Work in progress
- Process records

7. SDPI – Regional Seminar Programmes
Process Folder – managing the documentation
- Review to Design
- Continuing the Planning Cycle
Action Planning – Process and School Supports
- Policy Formulation
- School Self Evaluation (LAOS)
Subject Planning
- Strategy Statement - Ed. (Welfare) Act
- Planning – Implementation and Evaluation
- Special Needs
National Trends / Progress in Planning
- Effective Policy Development
- Subject Planning – moving on

8. Emphasis on Learning and Teaching
SDPI Regional seminar 2005
Emphasis on Learning and Teaching
Definite emerging trend:
A planning focus on learning and teaching,
rooted in the day to day reality of the classroom
- Collaborative Subject Planning

9. Partnership? Trustees Board of Management Staff & Principal Staff &
SDPI Regional seminar 2005
Partnership?
Trustees
Board of Management
Staff
&
Principal
Staff
&
Principal
Parents
Students
Support Staff
How do we develop partnership? – a key challenge

10. What should we be noticing …?
SDPI Regional seminar 2005
What should we be noticing …?
Improved outcomes at the end of a cycle in relation to priorities addressed during the cycle – at least better outcomes than might have been expected if they had not been addressed
Positive impact of the learning environment
Stronger focus on students’ learning needs and on their implications for curriculum and teaching methodologies
A willingness to review classroom practice
Communication and collaboration between teachers
Within subject areas
Across subject areas
At whole-staff level
leading to coherence in the planning, delivery and evaluation of the curriculum and to consistency in the implementation of school policies and procedures

11. What should we be noticing …?
SDPI Regional seminar 2005
What should we be noticing …?
Discernable culture of groupwork
Positive teacher morale
Effective partnership and consultation processes
Collaboration beyond the staff
A sensitivity to unintended outcomes (positive and negative)
A strategic awareness of how the school is developing and of the interconnectedness of the parts within the whole
Ownership
A commitment to ongoing improvement based on self-evaluation and planning
Outcomes may take many forms—the most crucial relate to school culture.
(Consider separate handout sheet)

12. What if no collaborative planning …
SDPI Regional seminar 2005
What if no collaborative planning …
Staff are reluctant to discuss school matters in groups
One or two people try to dictate the agenda for everyone else
Quiet staff members have no voice (or choose to have no voice)
Principal /Deputy ----responsible for everything
Sweeping generalisations are made at staff meetings without any evidence to back up statements
Planning is based on gut reaction from staff meeting issues
Committees are set up without clear mandate/ brief and focus
Consultation and communication are very limited

13. What if no collaborative planning …
SDPI Regional seminar 2005
What if no collaborative planning …
Teaching and learning are only talked about in emergency situations  or not at all
Some staff assume they have no learning to do--they were trained and know it all
Long term vision of the school is virtually non existent
Whole staff development is a 'circle the wagons' exercise
It’s always ‘a someone else’s responsibility to change’ attitude
Problem solving is a fire fighting exercise---moves from one solution to another without reflecting on the bigger picture
Parents and students are not consulted – ‘not in my life time’
Posts of Responsibility are written in stone----review is not part of the process
Policies are the principal's responsibility

14. School Reality Whole School Evaluation Subject Inspection
SDPI Regional seminar 2005
School Reality
Whole School Evaluation
Subject Inspection
Self-evaluation

15. Looking at our School Foreword – Chief Inspector
SDPI Regional seminar 2005
Looking at our School
Foreword – Chief Inspector
LAOS was prepared by ESRU of DES Inspectorate
To assist schools in process of internal review and self-evaluation
To assist schools in fulfilling quality assurance obligations under Education Act 1998
To provide a clear framework for external evaluation by the Inspectorate
Education partners contributed to its development

16. SDPI Regional seminar 2005
LAOS
Towards school improvement through internal review and self-evaluation
School context factors central
School selects focus in the light of context factors
Consistent with SDP approach….

17. LAOS - School Operation
SDPI Regional seminar 2005
LAOS - School Operation

18. SDP in Action School Improvement
SDPI Regional seminar 2005
SDP in Action School Improvement
Planning Infrastructure
Planning Process
Planning Documentation
Planning Outcomes

19. Planning Infrastructure
SDPI Regional seminar 2005
Planning Infrastructure
Structures
SDP Specific - SDP Coordinator, Steering Committee, Task Groups, Policy Formulation/Review Committees
Pre-existing structures
School Calendar (meetings)
SDP Whole Staff
SDP Working Groups
Subject Departments
Communication
Partnership Engagement

20. Planning Process A sense of: Where the school is at
SDPI Regional seminar 2005
Planning Process
A sense of:
Where the school is at
Where the school is going
Promotion of effective learning and teaching
Pro-activeness re change and development
Self-evaluation
Short/Medium/Long-term dimensions of SDP

21. Planning Documentation
SDPI Regional seminar 2005
Planning Documentation
Clear understanding of the relevance and management of documentation
School Plan
Process Folder – drafts of policies and action plans, reports of meetings held
Subject Department Planning Folders
Focus on documentation as a reference point, not as an end in itself

22. Planning Outcomes Improved outcomes re identified priorities
SDPI Regional seminar 2005
Planning Outcomes
Improved outcomes re identified priorities
Positive impact of the learning environment
Communication and collaboration between teachers
Effective partnership and consultation processes
Commitment to ongoing improvement based on self-evaluation and planning

23. SDPI Regional seminar 2005
Workshop
1. Using the worksheet identify where your school is at under the headings:
Planning Infrastructure
Planning Process
Planning Documentation
Planning Outcomes
2. Identify areas for immediate attention

24. WSE process … Letter plus Looking at Our School Reporting Inspector
SDPI Regional seminar 2005
WSE process …
Letter plus Looking at Our School
Reporting Inspector
Pre-evaluation meetings
3 / 4 / 5 Subject Inspections
1 week duration approximately
Meeting all committees / groups / support
Inclusion of Board of Management, Parents, Students
Post- Evaluation – oral feedback
Report

25. Meetings etc. BOM / Local VEC Teaching staff
SDPI Regional seminar 2005
Meetings etc.
BOM / Local VEC
Teaching staff
Parents Council – invitation to all parents
Student Council
Senior management Principal & Deputy Principal
In-school management & other key groups
School plan task groups

26. Documents collected - DES
SDPI Regional seminar 2005
Documents collected - DES
Building & Accommodation
Timetables
Examination Info
Programmes
Enrolment
Recent Inspection Reports

27. Documents collected - School
SDPI Regional seminar 2005
Documents collected - School
Promotional Information
Policy Documents
School Planning Folder
Curriculum, options
Staffing
BOM
Parents Council
Students Council
Management – Schedule of Posts & Post Holders
Extra-curricular
Special Needs and other groups

28. Post evaluation meetings
SDPI Regional seminar 2005
Post evaluation meetings
Principal & in-school management
Teaching staff
BOM
Record of post evaluation meetings and
meetings with parents included in WSE Report
Factual Validation of Draft Report
Issuing of Final Report to school BOM

29. Advice from other schools
SDPI Regional seminar 2005
Advice from other schools
Evidence – planning folder, meeting records etc.
Coherent Documentation
Ongoing Progression
Influence of Mission Statement
Evaluation

30. SDPI Regional seminar 2005
Discussion / Response

31. SDPI Plans for 2005-06 Continuation of work programme in hand
SDPI Regional seminar 2005
SDPI Plans for
Continuation of work programme in hand
Support Services for Post Primary Education, pp
Individual Schools
Cluster-based Support Groups
Regional Seminars
Summer Schools
School Planning Diploma (NUIG)
Resource materials—developmental work
SDPI Website