Monitoring and Quality Assurance Policy
Monitoring and Quality Assurance is the process by which the school continually monitors all aspects of its performance. The purpose of Monitoring and Quality Assurance is to enable the school to accurately identify its strengths and any areas for development; so that this information can be used to plan school improvements that will result in improved performance, particularly improved outcomes for students.
It is important that all members of the school community contribute to the self- evaluation process. To ensure that this occurs, the school has adopted a process whereby meaningful self- evaluation is carried out by senior leaders, middle leaders, and their teams.
Effective self-evaluation is a continuous process that reflects, and is linked with, the priorities of the whole school and of each individual phase. A phase, led by their relevant senior and middle leaders, are responsible for self-evaluation and for ensuring continuing improvement in their areas. They have the freedom to develop their own approaches to self-evaluation and to ensure continuing improvement. However, with this freedom comes accountability and the responsibility for ensuring that self- evaluation is accurate and effective and, in particular, that it results in improved performance, particularly in relation to student outcomes.
Middle leaders, supported by their relevant senior leaders, are responsible for rigorously and honestly evaluating their team’s performance. The expectations and rigour in relation to self-evaluation within and between teams must be consistent. Senior leaders play an important moderation role in relation to developing this consistency. Self-evaluation cannot be viewed in isolation and it links in with the other related processes and elements listed below, which also contribute to effective school improvement planning:
- The cycle of reports (progress reports, full written reports, and the real-time access for parents and students
- The Performance Management and Professional Development cycle
Quality Assurance Calendar
| Quality Assurance | April | May | June | Sep | Oct | Nov | Jan | Feb | March |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Data Analysis | Baseline and CAT 4 NGRT A | Target Setting | PA 1 | NGRT B | Term 1 | NGRT C | Term 2 ASSET / ABT | ||
| Formal Assessment Moderation | Baseline | Term 1 Question Papers | Term 1 Marking and Grades | Term 2 Question Papers | Term 2 Marking and Grades | ||||
| Pupil Progress Meetings & Reports | Progress from April to June | Term 1 with Reports | Term 2 with Reports | ||||||
| POP Ins & Learning Walks | ONGOING | ||||||||
| Book Look / Work Samples Scrutiny | BL Cycle 1 | BL Cycle 2 | BL Cycle 3 | BL Cycle 4 | BL Cycle 5 | BL Cycle 6 | BL Cycle 7 | ||
| Formal Lesson Observations by SLT / MLT | FL Cycle 1 | FL Cycle 2 | FL Cycle 3 | FL Cycle 4 | FL Cycle 5 | FL Cycle 6 | FL Cycle 7 | ||
| Appraisals | Cycle 1 Goal Setting | Cycle 2 Mid-Year Review | Cycle 3 End of Year Review | ||||||
| SOW Review / Annotation | MONTHLY for SCHOLASTIC and BIMONTHLY for NON SCHOLASTIC SUBJECTS | ||||||||
| Curriculum Tracker |
Eng / Maths / Science / Arabic – Every Week Islamic / French / Hindi – Every 2 Weeks PE / ICRA / Swimming / Art / Dance – Every 4 Weeks |
||||||||
| LEAP Lesson |
Eng / Maths / Science / Arabic – Every 2 Weeks Islamic / French / Hindi – Every 4 Weeks PE / ICRA / Swimming / Art / Dance – Every 6–8 Weeks |
||||||||
| Super Teach Week Plan | Induction and Revision of Key gaps/ concepts of previous Year | Revision of Key gaps/ concepts of previous Session 1 of Term 1 | Revision of Key gaps/ concepts of previous Session 1 of Term 2 | ||||||
| Curriculum Scope & Sequence Review | Curriculum Intent- Implementa tion- Impact review cycle 1 | Curriculum Intent- Implementa tion- Impact review cycle 2 | Curriculum Intent- Implementa tion- Impact review cycle 3 | ||||||
| Lesson Plan Review |
Ongoing 1. LP submitted by planners two weeks before on every Tuesday to Head of Department and Head of Section for review 2. Feedback to be given by Thursday/Friday two weeks before 3. Revised plans are submitted by Tuesday one week before implementation. 4. Co planning with LSAs and TAs and preparation of all differentiated resources to be done by Thursday a week before. |
||||||||
The Quality Assurance Calendar shares with staff how and when the main Quality Assurance processes will take place across an Academic Year. Its purpose is to ensure that there is a balance of approaches to ensure data is gathered in both an in-depth Broadway.
Self-Evaluation Processes
Honest, rigorous and effective self-evaluation is the responsibility of every member of staff and therefore operates at all levels within the school, beginning very importantly with the classroom teacher.
Monitoring & evaluation by Teachers
Teachers are required to ensure that they take ownership over the monitoring and evaluation of their own teaching and professional standards in accordance with the Teaching Standards of the UAE and England’s National Teachers Standards. They should be reflective on the following aspects:
- Attainment, Progress and Learning Skills
- Students’ Personal and Social Development, and their Innovation Skills
- Teaching and Assessment
- Curriculum
- The Protection, Care, Guidance and Support of Students
- Leadership and Management
To ensure that they have the information needed to complete accurate and meaningful self- evaluation, leaders will need to complete the following monitoring activities:
- Evaluations of Student Assessment Data
- Learning observations (both formal and drop-in style)
- Curriculum and Planning Reviews (long, medium and short term)
- Evaluation of Student Work and Feedback
- Evaluation of student, teacher and parent opinions and views (voice)
- Subject and Department Audits
Leaders should be able to:
- Accurately describe the quality and consistency of each of the key features above.
- Describe the processes they have used to come to their judgements
- Have an evidence base to support their judgements
- Accurately carry out self-evaluation of their phase / department via completion of appropriate documentation
- Link self-evaluation to effective phase improvement via the completion and maintenance of an up-to date Phase / Department Action Plan
- Effective evaluation and monitoring linked to effective Phase / Department improvement is a key
- Leadership competencies for all senior and middle leaders.
Evaluation Methods
Staff members at all levels are involved in the self-evaluation and quality assurance process. At The School, a number of approaches are used to gain a data to support self evaluation
Evaluations of Student Assessment Data (Pupil Progress Meetings)
Pupil Progress Meetings are carried out by middle and senior leaders as part of the professional development and performance management (PM) process.
Group-level progress data
Data is used to evaluate and focus on the performance of different groups of pupils in a teacher’s class.
The following groups are focused on:
- Pupils with high prior attainment
- Pupils with low prior attainment
- Male and Females
- Pupils of Determination
- English Language Learners
- Gifted and Talented Students
Individual case studies
Based on the data and teacher’s own knowledge, they should select case studies of individual pupils who either:
- Demonstrate the trends they’ve spotted, both positive and negative, or are causing particular concern due to insufficient progress
- The teacher should provide examples of work from the pupils and records on
interventions they’ve received to complement the case studies..
Learning observations (both formal and drop-in style)
Learning observations are carried out by all staff members as part of the professional development and performance management (PM) process. The observed performance of individual teachers is used strictly and only to inform and support staff development. However, anonymous aggregated data from these observations is used to determine the overall quality of Teaching & Learning and other aspects of the DSIB Framework.
Curriculum and Planning Reviews (long, medium and short term)
Staff members will carry out a review of subject planning as calendared. The purpose of curriculum and planning reviews is to evaluate and provide formative feedback, for the purpose of ongoing phase development, on the quality of medium term and long-term planning. The focus of the reviews will include:
- Progression
- Differentiation, particularly for the most and least able
- Range of learning activities, particularly active learning activities
- Assessment for Learning/formative assessment opportunities (including use of learning outcomes,self and peer assessment activities, level/grade ladders and plenaries)
- Summative assessment arrangements
- Homework
- Support for ICT, and other aspects relating to National Agenda
Middle and senior leaders will complete the appropriate proforma following the review which will then be discussed in a scheduled departmental meeting.
Reviews of Students Work and Feedback
Middle and senior leaders will carry out reviews of student’s work as calendared. Teachers should ensure that, on the dates of each work review, all of the students’ work is readily accessible in their classrooms so that it can be provided for the review at short notice at the start of the identified review day.
The purpose of work reviews is to evaluate and provide formative feedback, for the purpose of ongoing departmental development, on:
- The condition of students works
- The quantity and quality of work completed by students
- The frequency and quality of marking and assessment, including whether or not the schools
- feedback for learning policy is being implemented
- The frequency and quality of self and peer assessment opportunities for students
- The use made by students of assessment or grading criteria
- The frequency and quality of homework
- The quality of support for the National Agenda / 2021 Vision
Middle and senior leaders will complete the appropriate proforma following each review, which will then be discussed in a scheduled departmental meeting.
Evaluation of student, teacher and parent opinions and views (voice)
Student, parent and staff voices acknowledge that various stakeholders at the school have unique perspectives on learning, teaching, and schooling, and should have the opportunity to actively shape the education provided.
All stakeholders should be regularly involved in providing feedback in order to provide valuable data for self-evaluation. Data is gathered from the following sources:
- Student and Parent Councils
- Pupil Voice Conversations
- Teacher Surveys
- Parent Surveys
Subject and Department Audits
Subject and Department Audits are carried out by leaders as calendared in the summer term and evaluate departments using the relevant parts of the DSIB Framework which enables judgements to be reached in a number of key areas. The dates of the reviews will be given with appropriate Notice.
The purpose of the reviews is to:
- Identify good practice so that it can be shared within and between departments
- Support improvement planning within departments by providing constructive formative
- feedback across the key areas, which is consistent across departments
- Identify whole school areas for development to enable effective planning for the
- improvement of these areas
The reviews include an evaluation of the following data/elements:
- End of key stage results achieved over the past three years and the estimated results for the current year
- Anonymous aggregated data obtained through lesson observations during the school year
- Data on the number of relocations for low level disruptive behavior
- Quality of long-, medium- and short-term planning
- Quantity and quality of the student work
- Student voice
- Phase SEF reports and progress in relation to Phase Action Plans