The School Improvement Service Level Agreement is designed to provide a wide range of services to support the strategic work of headteachers, governors, senior leaders, and teachers.

We aim to work with schools to:

• Support the achievement and educational experience of children and young people in Northumberland
• Strengthen your self-evaluation
• Help you clarify your priorities for improvement
• Provide solutions to aid your development
• Encourage effective networking
• Prepare your school for inspection
• Provide governors with an external view of school performance
• Provide the data you need to run your school effectively

Services are provided by:

Challenge and support from your School Improvement Partner (SIP)

Your SIP will provide 3 formal days of support and challenge and provide a written report for senior leaders/governors. They will work with your school to evaluate the quality of provision, build leadership capacity and support in achieving identified priorities.

Access to advice and support from the central School Improvement Team

Information, guidance and bespoke training from the central team regarding leadership, curriculum development and assessment. On-going face to face, telephone and e-mail support whenever required

Training and development

Access to training run by the central team and partners (such as the EEF and Newcastle Research School) at no cost/reduced rates to schools outwith the SLA.

Support during OFSTED inspection and ongoing information regarding the inspection framework

A member of the team will support during inspection. In addition, we will provide ongoing intelligence about the pattern and themes of inspections.

• Collection, processing and analysis of statutory collections (not including Moderation)
• Data Analysis Pack (provided several months earlier than the DfE ASP and IDSR reports)
• Access to Perspective Lite - a suite of time-saving tools and report templates for school leaders including (as appropriate) LA, national and partnership performance for accurate benchmarking
• Assessment data for new admission groups and pupils joining during the school year (the latter is by request) and Key Stage 4 outcomes for pupils in feeder schools;
• Pupil Premium guesstimates (ahead of the DfE Pupil Premium release)
• Children open to Social Care Report (with status where the DSA allows)

Legal compliance

It is a statutory requirement that all schools must have an accessibility plan, published equality information and equality objectives updated on a 4 year cycle.

The next reporting cycle is 2025-29. All schools will receive a visit to discuss and refresh both documents. Within a fortnight both pieces of documentation will be updated to reflect your setting's context and main equality challenges, ready for adoption by the governing board and publication on the school website.

• Developing strategies to respond to emerging issues or concerns about pupils with protected characteristics, discrimination and harassment.
• Support to develop and deliver new, controversial and contested aspects of PSHE and RSHE, for example pornography, positive masculinity
• Staff and governor training on themes such as British values, protected characteristics, race equality, LGBT+ identities, the language of equality and best inclusive EDI (Equality, Diversity and Inclusion) practice.

• Pupils – supporting integration into schools
• Parents - through family liaison, advice and guidance Schools - building home-school links; developing good practice around integrating travellers/asylum seekers/refugees
• Staff - through network meetings, training and awareness raising. This can be for specific pupils/families, or for specific events such as Gypsy, Roma and Traveller History month, Refugee Week, Holocaust Memorial Day or World Refugee Day
• Assistance for schools wishing to become Schools of Sanctuary

Please contact Dave Cookson if you would like to discuss the SLA for your school.