Early Years and Childcare Aspiring Leadership Programme Gillian O’Rourke & Sheena Lowes

Review of last week…

Focus of this session HGIOELC- 1 Focus of this session HGIOELC- 1.1 Self-Evaluation for Self Improvement Aims To give an overview of the self- evaluation for self-improvement process To share practice- Sheena Lowes To share strategies that involve the whole team

What is self evaluation? Table discussion & statement Self-evaluation is..............

Can you name 2 national resources that support SE in Early Years? Can you name 3 CEC resources that support SE in Early years? How many QIs in total from HGIOELC? Fill in the blank… Looking inwards, looking outwards , _________________? What is quality indicator 2.3?

Resources to support Self-evaluation

Evaluating and Improving using HGIOELC? The three key questions: How are we doing? How do we know? What are we going to do now? Making sound judgements about the impact on learners is central to self- evaluation Michael Fullan video clip: Michael Fullan at BLC14-The principal:3 keys to maximising impact

Michael fullan: the three keys to maximising impact

What does this look like? The Reflective Practitioner What does this look like? Discuss

Quality Indicator 1.1 Self evaluation for self improvement Task: Read and highlight key words or sentences Discuss Feedback

Some key words/phrases Collaborative approaches to self evaluation All Integral aspect Reflect well together Work well with stakeholders and partners Agreed rationale Wide Range of approaches Engage and listen

Evidence based improvement Our self evaluation focuses on improved outcomes for children Local national and international advice and research ..........Evidence to document assess and record children’s progress Involving children and families in regularly reviewing learning and progress Sharing good practice

Ensuring impact of success for children and families Continuous improvement ............. Strategic improvement High quality learning through play is a central focus of our improvement planning We can evidence clearly the link between self evaluation and improved approaches to how children learn within our setting

Self evaluation in practice Sheena Lowes “An approach used at Little Voices”

Aim To illustrate the process of self improvement through self evaluation How are we doing? How do we know? What are we going to do now? Looking inwards, Looking Outwards, Looking Forwards

The beginning Looking at the Evidence How are we doing? How do we know? Report from QIO Photographs Evidence from staff

QIO Report 18/05/14

The Evidence

How are we doing? Getting to know the staff

My vision for the team

What are we going to do now? Develop reflective practitioners Give relevance to documentation and SE Increase confidence Include staff in the process Inform and upskill Actions - Inhouse training Being a reflective practitioner Looking at change Explaining significance of documents and relating to practice

Making the documents and process relevant

Evidence to action

Standard and Quality Report

Little evidence of any real change

Evaluation of Progress Very little evidence of change Learning lost between training sessions and rooms i.e. lack of impact Had to be more creative UP until now looking inwards, now need to start looking outwards What are we going to do now? Training, Visits to other centres and staff to feedback on return, join cluster

Programme of Evaluation and Monitoring of Practice Create folder, SE calendar and proformas to support SE at all levels Use of tools at all levels What was happening? Very little – staff had no input to SQIP and were not personally invested in the actions. Evaluating myself as leader – Can’t do it all by myself

Looking Inwards, Looking Outwards, Looking Forwards New idea for collaborative working which would involve teams in discussions around a wide range of issues in the nursery. Took back and adapted for my setting Prompted lots of discussion Very positive feedback from the teams Gathered their views and used as basis for next steps Staff much more involved

A new collaborative approach Statements to be discussed and evaluated by staff. to be sorted into sections Identify 5 key areas for development

The Task

Identifying Priorities

Evaluating Progress

Staff worked in teams and feedback findings to whole group Visuals Posters prepared by all groups

SQIP

A Word about Consulting Parents

‘It is not always necessary to use a complete quality indicator or the entire framework for effective self-evaluation. However, over a 3 to 5 year period, it would be useful for you to demonstrate self- evaluation using all of the quality indicators. In this way you will build a complete picture of your school’s work and capacity for improvement over time ... ‘ ‘Self-evaluation should not be seen as an “add-on” or involve lots of additional time and bureaucracy. It should focus on the key work of the school – learning and teaching. Evidence gathered should arise from your ongoing work.’ ‘Quality indicators or themes from different quality indicators can be bundled together to enable a focus on a particular area of work such as family learning, employability skills or ensuring equity.’

Identifying a suite of indictors Task Looking through HGIOELC quality indicators and themes, identify which ones relate to the practical example.

Identifying a suite of indictors QI 1.1 – all three themes QI 1.2 – professional engagement and collegiate working theme QI 1.3 – all three themes QI 2.3 – planning tracking and monitoring theme QI 3.2 all four themes

Example of a “suite of indicators”. 1.2 Leadership of Learning – To what extent does our own professional learning reflect the needs of individuals ? How confident are we at building on the knowledge and skills of individual skills and interests which lead to improvement 2.3 Learning Teaching and Assessment – Planned experiences are developmentally appropriate and tailored to meet all children’s individual learning needs 2.4 Personalised Support – Where appropriate, learning targets are in place specific to individual children 2.6 Transitions – We actively work in partnership with others, including the named person, to ensure transition arrangements are effective for all children, in particular for requiring additional support. 3.1 Ensuring wellbeing, equality and inclusion – We have effective strategies in place which are improving progress for all children with a focus on those facing challenges such as children from our most deprived area, those who are looked after and those with additional support needs

The How How do you know? The triangulation of evidence based information: Observation of practice Review data Gathering people’s views All lead to a robust evaluation of the settings capacity for continuous improvement.

Evaluate Monitor Check Watch Assess Observe Appraise Keep an eye on Supervise Scrutinize Examine Assess Appraise Weigh up

Sophisticated approach to improvement What difference are we making? Who are we learning from? 21st century learners – ahead of the curve

Standards & Quality and Improvement Plan

STANDARDS AND QUALITY REPORT This should be informed by ”intelligence” gathered through self evaluation from a variety of sources The report should be written using evaluative language / statements Informed by information on the impact of current priorities How have you gathered the information? Use HMIe reports – if under 2 years old Care Inspectorate reports Self evaluation exercises – using RANGE of documents – HMIE / CEC/ audit toolkits Not delusional CEC audit toolkits

Effective self-evaluation should focus on: Improvement for the learner High aspirations and expectations Knowledge of local community Partnerships Removing barriers to success Identifying strengths and areas for improvement Involvement of all stakeholders Inward, outward, forward Evidence of impact Self-evaluation to drive change

Literacy toolkit – indoors and out Numeracy toolkit Technology toolkit CEC support materials Literacy toolkit – indoors and out Numeracy toolkit Technology toolkit Building the Ambition toolkit Pre birth to three toolkit

https://blogs.glowscotland.org.uk/ce/EarlyYears/ Early Years Blog https://blogs.glowscotland.org.uk/ce/EarlyYears/