What is the School Development Plan and why do we have one?
Schools are about the future. The purpose of a school is to work collaboratively with families and other stakeholders to prepare pupils for what comes after school by helping develop their character and equip them with the knowledge and skills which will help them to be fulfilled and productive.
The Department of Education requires each school to have in place a School Development Plan (SDP). The SDP sets out the school’s priorities for areas of development over a three year period. This plan should be influenced by a sound understanding of the school and the community it serves and be ambitious for the future. Schools should seek to ensure continual improvement in all aspects of what they do and the School Development Plan is a strategic plan for that improvement. It should not be seen as a rigid ‘road map’, instead it is a ‘living document’ setting out the school’s intentions and identifying the actions that can help it achieve the priorities, the resources it will require, and the outcomes it hopes to achieve. The SDP should not detail every change which will take place in the school but should focus on the most strategic, neither should positive change ever be limited to what is in the SDP.
It is important that schools are constantly evaluating what they do and working on how to improve. Schools that lack a culture of self-evaluation will fail to improve. The School Development Plan is central to this self-evaluative culture.
Each year the school should take time to evaluate progress towards achieving its in-year priorities, considering the extent to which they have been achieved and what if any factors had prevented them from being realised.
School development plans at RSA are motivated by four objectives:
Securing the best possible outcomes for each pupil
Ensuring the best possible learning and teaching opportunities for each pupil
Providing the best possible advice, care, support and guidance for each pupil
Engaging creatively with the communities our pupils come from
Our School Development Plan is divided into four broad areas which correspond to the areas identified in the Department of Education’s document, Every School a Good School – A Policy for School Improvement:
High Quality Learning & Teaching
Effective Leadership
Child-Centred Provision
A School connected to its Local Community