A guide to self evaluation
Ambitious, Excellent Schools includes reference to the importance of 'tougher, intelligent accountabilities'. Systematic and rigorous monitoring and self evaluation, complemented by external inspection by HMIE is key to this accountability.
A Curriculum for Excellence outlines the four capacities which young people should develop during the course of their education. They should become:
- Successful learners, with enthusiasm and motivation for learning, and able to link and apply different kinds of learning in new situations;
- Confident individuals, with a sense of physical, mental and emotional wellbeing, and able to achieve success in different areas of activity;
- Responsible citizens, with commitment to participate responsibly in political, economic, social and cultural life; and
- Effective contributors, with resilience and self reliance, and able to work in partnership and teams.
Out of School Hours Learning has a clear and important contribution to make to the development of all four of these capacities. When looking at how well the aims of OSHL have been achieved, these four outcomes of an effective education should be a central focus for evaluation.
An 'excellent school' is a school which has young people's learning at the heart of its work and focuses on enabling them to achieve success through the outcomes of A Curriculum for Excellence. An excellent school also works effectively with all the members of the school and its community, listens to what they say and involves them in making important decisions. This, of course, means young people themselves, but also their parents and carers, and partners in the community, such as health and social workers, the police, local businesses, members of community groups and others.
It is clear that OSHL can contribute to fulfilling the aims and visions of an excellent school and the principles of good practice explore what is meant by high quality delivery, but what should we look for to evaluate this?
When you evaluate the quality of OSHL within your school and community, you should select those quality indicators most relevant to the development of the four capacities of A Curriculum for Excellence and to the aims of OSHL and use them systematically as part of your regular cycle of audit and development planning as set out by your local authority. Some of the relevant quality indicators from How good is our school? are noted below. The revised versions of quality indicators for community learning and development and for education authorities are also of relevance, depending on the aspects of OSHL on which you are focusing. Using the features of good practice outlined in the previous section should help you to identify specific evidence for self evaluation.
Consider the quality of OSHL organised by your school in relation to six key questions.
1) What key outcomes for OSHL have we achieved?
Evaluate the extent to which young people have developed the four capacities of A Curriculum for Excellence through their engagement in OSHL. ( QI 2.1 Overall quality of attainment, QI 4.2 Personal and social development)
What evidence do you have that:
- their learning in school and out of school has improved?
- their involvement in OSHL activities has resulted in them becoming more confident?
- they have developed, and put into practice, important citizenship skills as part of their OSHL activities?
- their activities have resulted in them making positive contributions to their schools, the experiences of other young people and to their community as a whole?
2) What impact have we had in meeting the needs of young people, staff and the community through OSHL?
Ask young people themselves what they have gained from their experiences and the extent to which they have been involved and whether the ethos is right. ( QI 3.3 Pupils' learning experiences, QI 5.1 Climate and relationships, QI 5.3 equality and fairness)
- Do they feel that their OSHL activities have helped them to improve their learning, to become more confident, to become responsible citizens and to make positive contributions to the school and wider community?
- Consider evidence such as levels of attendance at OSHL sessions. Have these risen or fallen?
- How effective are the ways you use to consult with young people?
- To what extent are young people involved in mentoring and delivering the activities?
- To what extent are young people's achievements promoted and celebrated?
- Do they feel that good use is made of visual stimuli, such as photos, posters and ethos statements, to create a positive learning environment?
- Is there access for all users?
Ask staff about their perceptions of OSHL.
- Do they think they have had the support and training they need to carry out their work with young people?
- Look at the turnover rate of staff. Does it indicate that there are any problems with motivation and satisfaction, or does it show considerable, and perhaps increasing, commitment to their involvement?
Ask members of the community of their views of OSHL activities.
- If young people have been working with local groups, or businesses, what do these people in these organisations think about the value of OSHL activities?
- What kind of reputation do the activities have in the community?
- How positive is the media coverage?
3) How good is our delivery of Out-of-School-Hours Learning?
Look at the quality of your planning for learning. ( QI 1.2 Course and programmes, QI 3.1 Teachers' planning)
- How do you review the ways young people learn? Do you provide opportunities to share this knowledge?
- How do you use feedback from young people, for example through the use of self-assessment diaries, video diaries, logs and review meetings, to review learning styles and methods?
- Have you devised and published clear criteria for the activity leaders?
- To what extent have you identified the interests, skills and talents of potential key people, such as senior students, parents, external agency staff, local business people, teachers and other school staff, librarians, sports and cultural co-ordinators, and other interested adults?
4) How good is our management of OSHL?
Evaluate how good you are at finding out what's needed and having a purpose. ( QI 1.1 Structure of the curriculum, QI 6.6, Staff review and development, QI 7.2 Self-evaluation)
- Do the activities have clear aims?
- Do these aims relate to the identified needs of young people?
- To what extent have young people been consulted about their needs as well as ideas about how these needs could be met, for example, through pupil councils and focus groups?
- To what extent are young people, parents, teachers, local providers and other relevant key people involved in the planning and evaluation processes?
- Is there a clearly detailed, ongoing review by all those involved in the activities?
- To what extent do activities take account of other provision in the locality, and involve developing closer contacts, and collaborative working on analysing needs and co-ordinating provision?
- Have you established inter-agency meetings and networks, including those which contribute to Children's Services Plans?
- To what extent have you identified and provided training opportunities for staff and other activity leaders?
Look at your success in developing partnerships. ( QI 4.8 Links with local authority or other managing body, other schools, agencies and employers, QI 5.4 Partnership with parents, the School Board and the community)
- Have you established working groups of professional and voluntary staff, young people and parents, to target possible partners?
- To what extent have inter-agency links been developed into partnerships, e.g. with public libraries, sports clubs, museums and art galleries?
- Have you identified the potential benefits for partners of co-working in Out of School Hours Learning?
- Are staff given the opportunity to undertake joint training events?
Look at the effectiveness of your mechanisms for organising OSHL and linking it to national and local priorities. ( QI 7.1 Aims and policy making, QI 7.2 Planning for improvement)
- Have you identified personnel to take on co-ordination roles?
- To what extent have you provided opportunities for co-ordinators of major policy initiatives to meet together to join up thinking and practices?
- To what extent have you built in Out of School Hours Learning as a key component in plans to achieve policy objectives?
- Have you identified and established ways of co-ordinating the implementation of Out of School Hours Learning programmes?
- Have you developed and used tools compatible with existing frameworks, e.g.HGIOS, to monitor and evaluate activities?
- To what extent do you use Out of School Hours Learning guidelines and examples of good practice to monitor and evaluate activities?
- To what extent do you refer to other relevant packages of Out of School Hours Learning guidance and training materials, e.g. The OSHL Workbook, to assist monitoring and evaluation?
Evaluate your success in learning together and selecting key people. ( QI 6.5 Effectiveness and deployment of staff)
- To what extent have you reviewed the ways young people learn, and arranged for opportunities to share this knowledge?
- How well have you used feedback from young people, such as through the use of self-assessment diaries, video diaries, logs and review meetings, to review learning styles and methods?
- To what extent have you consulted young people about what support they need to assist them to learn?
- How successful have you been in creating opportunities to harness the talents of potential key people as activity leaders or volunteer support?
- To what extent have you identified and provided training opportunities for staff and other activity leaders?
5) How good is our leadership of OSHL?
Evaluate the quality of leadership of OSHL at all levels, including senior managers and team and activity leaders. ( QI 7.4 Leadership, QI 7.5 Effectiveness and deployment of staff with additional responsibilities)
- To what extent do those leading and directing OSHL have the appropriate personal qualities, skills and expertise?
- How good are they at managing staff?
- How well do they relate to young people and their parents?
- To what extent do they take an active role in pursuing and establishing partnerships?
- How good are they at leading and managing change and innovation?
6) What is our capacity for improvement?
Schools in Scotland currently offer a varied range of OSHL opportunities for children and young people. The questions above are not a checklist of good OSHL provision; however, they will help provide ideas for evaluating the success and impact of opportunities and how provision might be improved in the future. In other words, you need to look back at what you have achieved already and the success of any improvements. You also need to look forward by considering how well placed you are to continue the process of improvement. Considering the answers you have given, to what extent do you think you are in a good position to continue to develop the OSHL which you provide?
Systematic and rigorous evaluation carried out within a regular cycle will enable you to identify key strengths in your provision and areas for improvement. Having a clear understanding of quality in these broader aspects of your school's work will also be good preparation for any inspection by HMIE. HMIE recognises the importance of young people achieving highly not only in terms of their progress in classroom-based learning, but also in wider aspects of achievement, such as sport and fitness, creative activities and the development of personal and social skills. They evaluate these wider aspects of achievement in their inspection reports and use the evidence when considering the overall impact of the school on the experiences and achievements of young people.