Agenda for Primary SIP Summer Term Visit Including Annual Commentary

This term's visit focuses on two key matters.

The first is an evaluation of the School Improvement and Development Plan including the impact of intervention and support. The SIP will work with the school to evaluate how the actions agreed at previous meetings have improved outcomes for pupils. The opportunity to review the effectiveness of the actions taken is a valuable one, and the intention is to complete the 'journey' that started in the autumn term with the analysis of standards and other performance data. In most schools, it will be possible to draw on a range of evidence at this stage of the year including data from tracking and teacher assessment, evidence of improved provision, attendance data, information about the outcomes of targeted intervention including staff training, for example. In some schools, depending on when the SIP visit takes place, it may also be possible to draw on results from the end of the key stage assessment, although this will be picked up in more detail in all schools during the visit in the autumn term. It will also be important to discuss how the school is demonstrating its capacity to improve as well as the next set of priorities for 2009/10 and beyond.

The second element of the visit is the preparation and delivery of the SIP Annual Commentary to Governors. The SIP will have assembled key elements of the report from autumn and spring term records of visit, and will agree the key matters from the summer term visit as part of the review of impact, set out above. The report will also contain a 'Key Data' section. The SIP will check this with the headteacher during the visit and it is important that the headteacher is well prepared for this, possibly by completing their own version of the data grid, using the information that they hold, prior to the visit.

It is important for the Chair of Governors (or a representative) to be present at this meeting as the third element of this term's agenda is the presentation of the agreed draft of the Annual Report, by the headteacher, Chair of Governors and SIP, to the whole governing body or, if it would be more appropriate, to a group of governors. Presentation to the whole governing body could take place at a regular meeting or at a meeting specially called for the purpose. Ideally the SIP Agenda with these two elements of the SIP Agenda would be completed on the same day. A group of governors could be made up of members of one of the committees or the committee chairs, for example. The blank Record of Visit form (containing more detail about the agenda) and an example of the Annual Report for a Primary School can be viewed by clicking on the blue links.