School improvement plan: template, checklist and monitoring guidance

Download one of our school improvement plan (SIP) templates and use our checklist to help you evaluate your own SIP. Learn how you can monitor implementation of your SIP.

Last reviewed on 12 February 2026See updates
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Contents
  1. Download our templates
  2. Evaluate your SIP with our checklist
  3. Share your SIP with your school community
  4. Monitor implementation of your SIP
  5. See examples of SIPs from other schools

Schools use various terms to describe their whole-school plan, including 'school improvement plan', ‘strategic plan' and 'school development plan'. Here, we use 'school improvement plan' (SIP).

Download our templates

Your SIP should be part of your overall improvement process and not created specifically for Ofsted.

It doesn't need to be presented in a specific format.

You'll find 2 options of templates below, so you can choose the 1 that suits your school best and adapt it further if you wish. 

Option 1: template based on the 2025 Ofsted framework

Use our template to create your SIP based on Ofsted's 2025 inspection framework and toolkit.

KeyDoc: SIP based on the 2025 Ofsted framework – template DOCX, 194.7 KB
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To help you create your SIP, use our self-evaluation form (SEF) checklist and template to identify key areas of improvement.

Option 2: template structured by objectives

You'll have space to record:

  • Contextual information
  • Your school’s objectives
  • Further details for each objective
KeyDoc: SIP structured by objectives – template DOCX, 213.7 KB
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