1. Our Successful SSIF Application

2. Steps to success Before we began to actually write the bid, we dedicated time to ensuring we knew what the round 2 SSIF funding priorities were.

3. Prior to making your bid
Make sure that you are clear about improvement priorities
- What are the greatest barriers to improving
standards?
- What can we do to define and ultimately change that
barrier?
Read and familiarise yourself with all guidance documentation
Research schools within the target areas

4. Steps to success We had a round the table meeting with Key People

5. Involving Key People Local Authority
Speak to Head Teachers that fall into the targeted group
Involve Academy CEOs as they are often the decision makers
Make sure that this contact is made personally
In addition we worked with the Diocese
Work with other Teaching Schools

6. The Bid
We looked at 3 main areas when we were planning our bid. We gave all careful consideration.
Is it Evidence Based?
Is it Good Value for Money?
Is it focussing on the Targeted Schools?

7. Evidence Based
Has your proposed approach been successful in the past and can you improve on it?
Eg. We referenced our successful reading strategies and the impact in our own schools
Do you have a thorough understanding of the improvement need?
Are you able to be concise in the language you use detailing the sound theory behind the proposal – i.e research proving its success?
Are there clear baseline and outcome measures?

8. Education Endowment Fund - Guidance Reports

10. Value for Money
The vast majority of money should be spent on the delivery of improvement – we had no administration costs and low travel costs
Include a clear breakdown of costs
We kept a spreadsheet of costs as we were working on the bid
Try to optimise resources and ensure all rates are competitive and consistent
Careful planning for delivery by location – reducing travel time and cost (Phase 1 and Phase 2 Schools)
Use our own experienced staff rather than external expertise
Eg. We also teamed up with other local teaching schools so we had a greater reach

11. Targeted Schools
Ensure that the schools you propose to support meet the eligibility factors
This takes time and research. We used this to help us:
One school didn’t meet eligibility but we explained why this was the case
Include other Teaching Schools – work in alliance to increase capacity

12. The Action plan/KPIs/outcomes
Clear and realistic action plan – looking at our capacity
We set out our own action plan so we could see it more clearly than the SSIF template sets out

13. Writing the bid
Before composing paragraphs, we wrote down the issues and the outcomes.
Our bid was very factual
“Lessons use PICC (Predict, Interrogate, Capture and Create). The teacher models comprehension skills explicitly for the pupils (EEF). ….
Support = planning support (presented to London Mayors Gold Club), coaching and observation.
Research Driven Interventions”

14. Other tips We included who would be accountable at each stage.
We addressed teacher workload
We addressed the fact that the 2017 data was showing a different picture
All meetings also had a training aspect

15. Sustainability Our bid develops skilled middle leaders
This in turn supports schools with retention.
Additionally, we aim to convert these middle leaders to SLEs who can act as area HUBS.
Our approach will use the ‘Train the Trainer’ model

16. Legacy
Our bid is about leadership and how this model can be sustained beyond the period of funding
We aim for the approach to become embedded in all our target schools
Our bid will develop hubs and develop leaders