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School effectiveness

Governance and website reviews

Curriculum review

The role of the governing board is crucial in understanding and challenging the extent to which the curriculum within the setting takes account of the school’s vision and ethos and its unique context.

We offer a comprehensive curriculum review to help you gain a quality assured external evaluation of the strengths and areas for development of your curriculum and how it meets the needs of all pupils, including those who are vulnerable and disadvantaged.

Governance review (standard)

How effective is your school governance?

During a one day visit, an experienced governance adviser will spend time talking to the headteacher, the chair of governors, the clerk and at least one recently appointed governor/trustee. A range of paperwork will also be examined and scrutinised.

A governance review is suitable for any governing board and will provide an invaluable assessment of strengths and weaknesses regardless of where you are on the ‘Ofsted cycle’. Examples of areas reviewed include how clearly the governing board understands the strengths and weaknesses of the school and how effectively the governing board holds the headteacher to account for the performance of the school.

Governance review (enhanced)

The enhanced review will build on the information acquired through the standard review and will allow additional time for the adviser to work with the governing board on developing a governance improvement plan to address the key priorities for improvement in governance.

The enhanced review involves two and a half days of governance adviser time to review current governance practice and work with the board to identify areas for improvement and work together to co-construct a governance improvement plan. This will enable the board to move forward rapidly and focus on the key strategic priorities.

Governance review in a multi-academy trust (MAT)

This review is designed for trust boards of multi-academy trusts (MATs) to support accurate self-evaluation of governance. It aims to give boards confidence that governance arrangements are robust and will withstand external scrutiny.

We would recommend this review to all trust boards of MATs to give them an accurate external view of the robustness and efficiency of their governance arrangements, and also help to identify any areas for improvement.

During a one day visit, an experienced governance adviser will spend time talking to the CEO, the chair of the trust board, the clerk/governance professional and other trustees as available. A range of paperwork will also be examined and scrutinised.

Website review

Individual school website review

This service for governing boards will review the information available on your school website to ensure that the minimum statutory requirements are being met. The DfE has a list of information, policies and documents which it expects schools to publish on their website.

Ofsted will look at and scrutinise the content of your website before they visit and will comment on non-compliance in their report.

The review will:

  • look at the information and documents you published to ensure that the school is meeting the statutory criteria
  • identify gaps in criteria, with signposting and advice on how any oversights can be addressed
  • identify information that should not be on your website, or is out of date
  • check information relating to governors/trustees/ directors/members and the governance of the school to ensure it meets the minimum levels required under DfE guidance and/or legislation
  • check links to ensure that they work properly and that they take the user to current information

We will produce a RAG rated report, identifying the findings of the review, highlighting any areas of immediate concern, together with suggestions for future action.

In Federations and MATs

If you require a bespoke service for several websites within your organisation, more time may be required. Please get in touch for further information and a quote.

Where generic content is the same across the sites there will be no additional time required.

How to purchase any of our review services

Please visit the Devon Education Services website.

Alternatively please email educationsales@devon.gov.uk; or call us on 01392 28731 to receive assistance over the phone.


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