Downloadable departmental/subject action plan template

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Use our action plan template to set out your long-term and short-term priorities, and any associated actions, to help you plan improvements in your department or subject. 

English department action plan example

Use the following sample action plan to give you an idea of how the details for one priority in a secondary English department action plan might be filled in. It is intended as an example only. 

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How to develop and embed your action plan

The plan should reflect whole-school priorities

Your action plan should not be set in stone as it will be changed and updated regularly. You should also ensure it links with other documents, such as:

• Curriculum maps
• Departmental/subject self-evaluation
• Records of training
• The school improvement plan (SIP)

For example, your departmental/subject self-evaluation results and the priorities in the school improvement plan will feed into the long-term plans and short-term priorities of your subject or department. 

You can find out more about linking subject plans to the school improvement plan in a further article. 

The plan should be costed into the budget

If the action plan is ready prior to your school's budget-setting process, it can be costed into the budget.

This makes it possible for senior leaders to allocate money to things they know are making a difference. For this reason, you should try and align the departmental review process with the school’s financial cycle. 

The plan should include professional development actions 

Performance management of staff should feed into professional development for the next academic year, and you should include actions related to this in your departmental action plan.

For example, one action could be to raise standards by having a particular teacher attend a course.

Examples from schools

Primary schools

Thorney Island Community Primary School in West Sussex has published action plans for subjects such as maths, English and science. 

For each key objective, it sets out desired outcomes and associated tasks.

Subject action plans, Thorney Island Community Primary School http://www.thorneyisland.w-sussex.sch.uk/Subject Action Plans.htm

Cranmer Primary School has also published subject action plans which outline:

• Key objectives
• Success criteria
• Actions
• Persons responsible
• Resources
• How progress will be monitored

Each action is red, amber, green (RAG) rated to indicated whether it has been achieved, partially achieved or not achieved. 

Subject action plans, Cranmer Primary School http://www.cranmer.merton.sch.uk/Learning/Subject-Action-Plans/

Secondary school example

Helston Community College in Cornwall's literacy and numeracy action plan outlines:

• Actions that need to be taken, the key person leading on the action and the staff involved
• Timescales for completion and evaluation, and when updates will take place
• Criteria for evaluating impact
• Funding 

The action plan can be downloaded from the school's 'policies' web page.

Policies, Helston Community College http://www.helston.cornwall.sch.uk/policies

Special school example

As part of its school development plan for 2018/19, Amwell View School in Hertfordshire has budget action plans for different subjects, including:

• English
• Maths
• Science
• Computing

School development plan, Amwell View School http://www.amwell.herts.sch.uk/school-development-plan.html?parent_id=5