Planning and supporting school improvement

  • Action plans for writing (primary)
    Download and adapt our Key Stage (KS) 2 writing action plan template to help you create your own. Find suggestions on how to improve writing in your school, and see examples from other schools.
  • Collaborating with other trusts and schools
    Explore how your multi-academy trust (MAT) can collaborate with other trusts and maintained schools. We explain what sorts of partnerships you can form, and advise on how to set up these collaborations to ensure they’re worth your time.
    For Trust Leaders
  • Creating a school improvement framework for your MAT
    Learn how to create the right environment in your MAT to drive school improvement. Get to grips with what you need to determine as a central team, and how to involve each school in creating the improvement framework by sharing good practice and successful interventions.
    For Trust Leaders
  • How to develop your long-term strategic plan
    Long-term strategic planning will give you an overview of the direction of your school improvement over the next 3 to 5 years. Find out how to develop a robust plan that will help you achieve your school's vision. Plus, download our template plan to save you time writing your own.
  • How to get headteachers to work together to support each other
    We spoke to Russell Boulton, CEO of Enrich Learning Trust, to find out the 3 key ingredients to getting school principals/headteachers to collaborate and work together. Find out how you can equip your heads to do the same in your trust.
    For Trust Leaders
  • How to involve pupils, parents and staff in trust development
    Learn how The Compass Partnership of Schools built a thriving community where staff, pupils and parents have a say on trust development. Trust leader John Camp explains how this approach has led to high staff retention, engaged parents and pupils who feel part of something more than just their school. Find out how you can achieve this too.
    For Trust Leaders
  • PSHE (primary) action plans
    Given the impact of coronavirus and changes to relationships and health education (RHE, formerly known as SRE), you might be prioritising personal, social, health and economic education (PSHE) in your school improvement planning. See examples of action plans from schools to help you develop your own, and download our template to save you time.
  • Raising attainment plans
    Raising attainment plans (RAPs) are tactical, short-term plans to help schools raise standards. Learn how they work, who's involved, and how they differ from a school improvement plan.
  • Reading action plans (primary)
    Download and adapt our Key Stage (KS) 2 reading action plan template to help you create your own. Also check out examples of action plans from other schools.
  • Reviewing the quality of your teaching and learning
    Use a range of sources to get a reliable overall picture of the quality of teaching and learning in your school. Download our tracking and summary sheets to record and communicate the outcomes of your monitoring activities, and understand how to act on this evidence to improve your offer.
  • Science action plans (primary)
    See examples of action plans for science from maintained primary schools. You'll also find a link to another article with a downloadable template for department and subject action plans.
  • SENCO action plan: template and examples
    Download and adapt our action plan template for a special educational needs co-ordinator (SENCO). Get inspiration from special educational needs (SEN) action plans from other schools.
  • SMSC development: action plans
    Take a look at different ways primary, secondary and special schools are making action plans for their spiritual, moral, social and cultural (SMSC) development provision. These include SMSC elements of wider school development plans, and ideas for monitoring and evaluating the outcomes of SMSC education.
  • Subject action plan: template and guidance
    Once you’ve evaluated the strengths and weaknesses of your subject or department, you’ll want to turn that information into a coherent improvement plan. Download our template and follow our guidance to get the most out of your plan.
  • Talent mapping across your trust: getting the most out of a skills database
    Auditing your staff to create a skills database can help the schools across your trust access in-house experts. This can save you money, encourage collaboration, manage talent and drive improvement. Follow our tips to make this work in your trust and find examples of audits you can use.
    For Trust Leaders
  • Trust strategic plans: template and guidance
    Use the template and advice in this article to get started with your trust’s strategic plan, and take a look at examples to see how other trusts have set out their plans and what they’ve included.
    For Trust Leaders
  • Trust-wide collaboration: overview
    Chris Kirk, director of CJK Associates, gives us a rundown on collaboration models and how to make them work for your trust.
    For Trust Leaders
  • Whole-school pastoral action plans
    Download our template for a whole-school pastoral action plan and a sample completed plan. You will also find examples of school approaches to planning for improving pastoral provision.
  • Writing an effective SIP: planning guide
    Be confident that your school improvement plan (SIP) is set up for success. Use our tools to narrow down competing priorities, develop achievable actions and create SMART targets, so you don't risk overburdening your staff and can keep on track with your long-term goals.