Monitoring

Our aim at Firfield is to improve the lives of children through our ambitious curriculum and through high quality teaching and learning, so that all children can achieve their potential.

School leaders, including senior, middle, and subject leaders, all have a responsibility to monitor the quality of teaching and learning. Effective monitoring contributes to establishing priorities for future school improvement plans. The monitoring process should be supportive and encourage staff to work collaboratively within and across teams. If a school is working effectively, there will be a positive impact on pupil outcomes.

Definition of monitoring:

Within the context of a school, monitoring is both the process of keeping track of performance and to ensure compliance with policies. Effective monitoring shows whether a system, or process, is functioning efficiently, as planned or designed. The process of evaluation is more to do with effectiveness and improvement. Evaluation focusses on assessing the quality and impact of processes, learning from them, or identifying ways of improving them. It is important for school leaders to know that not everything that matters is measurable, and not everything that is measurable matters, and that the more a specific metric is used to make important decisions the more it will be gamed (Muller, 2019).

Monitoring includes:

a. Data

b. Pupil Voice

c. Book Looks

d. Lesson Observations

e. Learning Walks

f. Planning and Resourcing

What can you do to create a positive monitoring experience in your subject?

How do you measure the impact of the curriculum accessed by learners in your subject?

How do you ensure that teachers have the necessary expertise to teach your subject?