Developing shared targets, monitoring and evidence collecting
The secret to evidence collection is to start early and work backwards! It is essential to provide accurate baselines against which monitoring and progress can be evaluated. This is where the DfES National Standards were so useful to us for our original audit tool and for our indicator of annual progress.
Very early on, time was spent transferring all the criteria from the National Standards into possible sources of evidence and then collating these into a single Coordinator Checklist. This has now been done centrally by the DfES and is available to download in the User Guide, along with the National Standards, from http://www2.teachernet.gov.uk/gat/
A rule of thumb for G&T coordinators is to remember that is it not their responsibility to deliver provision and collect all the evidence for G&T in their school – that is the responsibility of every class teacher, in every lesson, every day. The G&T Coordinator’s responsibility is to lead school staff to set up an infrastructure to inform and support G&T provision by class teachers, backed up with guidance, training and advice. The Coordination role is one of sharing, collation and monitoring with a responsibility to report on progress to the Headteacher and the Cluster Strand Leader.
Responsibility for evidence collection about individual student achievement had been given to the students themselves. In the form of ‘e Learning Logs’ that hyperlink to the School G&T Register. Each G&T student is given the opportunity and time to created an on-going Powerpoint about themselves that includes their written words, spoken recorded reflection and annotated photographs of work that they are particularly proud of. These can be showcased for all sorts of purposes, not least at School Parents’ Evenings and Open Days.
Monitoring of G&T provision the School Coordinator has been discussed and a model for implementation discussed that will draw upon four sources of evidence : Conversations with Class Teachers; Conversations with G&T students and Classroom observation. During the time spent with Class Teachers, Coordinators are able to cascade information (particularly about data), targets and celebrate successes. Preparation advice is also available for G&T Coordinators and Class Teachers to get them ready for monitoring sessions.
Targets are in place at 3 levels – individually in each school’s School Improvement Plan, network-wide targets for individual schools and collectively as a network with responsibility for evaluation of these being shared by the School and Cluster Coordinators. A section of innovation targets has been set for schools to take on a selection of pilot projects to trial on behalf of the whole cluster.
Our G&T journey is well underway. Whilst numerous milestones have already been passed, many more exciting viewpoints remain ahead for us to collectively discover and explore.