Bryan Slater Director of Education	Distribution
	TO ALL HEADTEACHERS AND CHAIRS OF GOVERNORS PRIMARY, JUNIOR, MIDDLE, INFANT, FIRST AND NURSERY SCHOOLS

This document needs your action as detailed below:

ACTION	Title	Norfolk School Self Review (NSSR)
	Summary of contents	Update re NSSR developments
	Associated documents	School Self Review Website http://advisoryserviceactive.norfolk.gov.uk/ssr
	Date	11^th June 2004
	Summary of action required	Headteacher and Chair of Governors – completion of Norfolk School Self Review Agenda for meeting with Review and Development Adviser
	To be completed by	End of Autumn Term 2004
	LEA Contact	Terry Cook	(	01603-433276
	E-mail address	Terry.cook@norfolk.gov.uk
	Norfolk Self Review reference	7. How well is the school led and managed?
	Document reference	MI 131/04

Re Norfolk School Self-Review Autumn 2004

I am writing to provide additional information to support the process of completing the summative statement for the Norfolk School Self-Review programme in Autumn 2004. As you will all be aware OFSTED is currently consulting on proposed changes to the inspection process to be introduced as from September 2005. As part of this activity there are a number of pilot inspections to be conducted to test the operation of the proposed changes. At this point in time we cannot be certain of the exact shape of the new inspection system or of the documentation requirements. Therefore, it would not be appropriate to make large scale changes to the Norfolk School Self-Review process at the moment. Instead, we are aiming to follow the strategy outlined below.

It is our aim to bring the Norfolk School Self-Review model more closely in line with the evaluation systems currently being used by OFSTED. Therefore, we have taken the decision not to modify the current Norfolk School Self-Review model on the website. Instead we are improving the quality assurance procedures associated with the system to increase the rigour of the decision making process and thus accuracy of judgements recorded.

As soon as OFSTED have completed the current phase of pilot inspections and the consultation process in relation to the new inspection system to be implemented in September 2005, they will be briefing all interested parties on the new procedures. Once this has taken place we can then consult with schools on the developments / amendments required to ensure that the Norfolk School Self-Review model fully reflects the new requirements and supports effective self-evaluation by schools. I will be writing to you to outline the procedures and time-line for this consultation immediately we have final details from OFSTED.

We have produced additional guidance to help schools in this period of transition and to increase the rigour and accuracy of the School Self-Review. This guidance is made up of three elements. These are:

¨ Evaluation tools to support the School Self-Review process – to support schools in reaching summative judgements for the key areas within Self-Review, we are developing a range of self-evaluation tools. These are guidance documents which can be used to support the monitoring process. They are not compulsory documents. It is an individual school’s decision how the monitoring evidence is gathered, judgements recorded and action decided. However, we have developed some initial tools and will continue to produce further ones as the new OFSTED inspection system becomes clearer and the need arises. Examples of the tools to support school self-review that we have developed so far and made available to schools include:

- Foundation Stage Self-Review (paper copy available, E-copy being developed)

- SEN self-evaluation – available on-line at http://www.esinet.norfolk.gov.uk/cadmin/misheets/mi_55-04.htm

- Governors’ Self-Review (paper copy available, E-copy being developed)

To ensure that sufficient rigour is built into the School Self-Review process and to enable the final outcomes to be verified and stand up to external scrutiny we have also developed two new guidance documents. These are:

¨ Self-Review strategy grid

The Self-Review strategy grid, attached to this letter as appendix 1, shows how the production of the summative Norfolk Self-Review profile links closely with the current requirements for OFSTED Form S4 and other reports produced by schools. The grid suggests a range of monitoring and evaluation activities that during the course of a year can contribute to the compilation of OFSTED Form S4, School Self-Review and summative statement, and evaluation reports to governors.

¨ Quality Assurance Checklist

When we evaluated the completed self-reviews at the end of the summer term 2003, our quality assurance procedures showed that there was a variation in quality both within and across reviews. For example, some reviews had a high level of description with some key judgements missing. Therefore, we have produced a quality assurance checklist to support headteachers in ensuring there is rigour in each section of the self-review and to assist RDAs in the evaluation of the quality of the self-review process and summative statements. The checklist gives the minimum expectation of coverage in the review for each aspect. It also asks for a check on the match of text to the overall review grade given. The criteria used for this activity are the characteristics tables, published in the OFSTED handbook for Inspecting Schools, which illustrate the pitch of overall judgements.

The quality checklist is provided as an appendix to this letter. It is proposed that the checklist is discussed at the review meeting between the RDA and the Headteacher / Chair of Governors and is finally completed by the RDA and attached to the RDA Record of Visit.

To further support those schools who provide for the Foundation Stage a self-evaluation proforma for the Foundation Stage will be sent to you in the Autumn Term. We hope you will find this useful in making judgements about quality and achievement in the Foundation Stage, which can then be fed into your overall school self evaluation.

The Self-Review profile will be on the website as last year. Schools are asked to have completed the information on line two weeks prior to the agreed date for the visit of the RDA during the Autumn term to allow time for the RDA to carry out a preliminary assessment using the quality assurance checklist.

I hope all the above helps clarify the current situation in relation to School Self-Review and the OFSTED process.

Also attached to this letter is the RDA Autumn Term Agenda 2004. Detailed documentation, including the target setting proformas and guidance, will be provided at the start of the Autumn Term.

If you have any queries please do not hesitate to contact Terry Cook, Principal Adviser, School Performance, Monitoring and Inclusion at the Norfolk Education Advisory Service.

Yours sincerely

Bryan Slater

Director of Education