Schools self-evaluation

Emphasis on school self-evaluation as a starting point for all internal and external monitoring/evaluation. 

Inclusion is a process and is not developed overnight. The Inclusion Team will need to develop a clear time plan for developing greater inclusive activities over the forthcoming year. This information will need to be int rated into the school Self-Evaluation Form (SEF). 

The strategy will involve extensive consultation with staff pupils, parents and other stakeholders which will provide useful evidence for the completion of the school Self-Evaluation Form. 

There are many different approaches to self-evaluation and inclusion, with a range of tools, performance indicators and targets available to schools. It is important to adopt a self-evaluation strategy and a range of tools which best fit the nature and context of your school. Self-evaluation is about helping schools ensure continuous improvement and should not be undertaken solely for the purpose of inspection OFSTED recognises the importance of self-evaluation as a continuous process that is complemented from time to time by external inspection Every Child Matters - Framework for the Inspection of Schools in England from September 2005 - OFSTED, 2005). 

This has to be a whole-school process linked to school improvement, particularly when in some schools inclusion is seen as the prime responsibility of the Inclusion Team and no one else. Effeaive whole-school self-evaluation ... 

The Office for Standards in Education provides extensive guidance as to how to complete an SEE and schools can log on to its website www.ofsted.gov.uk to complete an interactive form online There are SEF templates for a variety of schools, for example nursery, primary, secondary, special, together with guidance on how to complete these. There are also examples of approaches and case studies which schools have used to approach the completion of SEFs. The guidance contained in the document A New Relationship with Schools Improving Performance through School Self-Evaluation (OFSTED, 2004) is particularly helpful. The main headings which should be included in the SEF are as follows ... 

OFSTED (2004) A New Relationship with Schools Improving Performance through School Self-Evaluation, OFSTED. 

The other program mentioned in this section of Act is The Healthy School Environments Assessment Tool (HealthySEATv2). It was adapted from a database tool originally developed by the Los Angeles Unified School District to conduct self-assessment inspections in its approximately nine hundred school facilities and substantially modified by EPA to make it widely available to the more than fourteen thousand school districts nationwide. It is free software that can be customized and helps school districts evaluate and manage their school facilities for key environmental, safety, and health issues. EPA has also included critical elements of all of its regulatory and voluntary... 

This chapter looks at how measuring and evaluating the effectiveness and impact of your inclusion strategy and policy is an essential part of making inclusion happen. Self-evaluation is now key to the new OFSTED inspection framework. Shorter inspections will mean a much greater focus on the ability of schools to undertake effective self-evaluation. A range of self-evaluation approaches and tools are considered, and advice is offered on how to complete Self-Evaluation Forms. 

Self-evaluation needs to be an integral part of the day-to-day management of the school. It should ... 

Keep it simple. The self-evaluation strategy must be manageable within the school and build on existing effective practices. All too often, self-evaluation or monitoring strategies are imposed on staff with little or no explanation. This can cause resentment and stress, especially if they involve a lot of mindless form filling with little or no discernable outcome. The key questions should be ... 

There is no single particular self-evaluation product covering all aspects of inclusion evaluation, and schools will need to use a variety of appropriate tools to assess the impact on inclusion and how well they are serving different groups of pupils. Existing products/tools can be grouped into two key types ... 

Special Educational Needs and Disability - Towards Inclusive Schools (OFSTED) highlights the issues that schools are facing when including pupils with varying needs, gives practical recommendations and a useful checklist for self-evaluation around pupils ... 

The school s self-evaluation evidence will be central to the inspection process. There will be a strong emphasis on how schools use self-evaluation, including regular input from pupils, parents and other stakeholders, to ensure school improvement and for the school s internal planning and development. 

Schools are expeaed to complete a Self-Evaluation Form which they should keep up to date. This will be downloaded by inspectors prior to the inspection. 

School Improvement Partners (SIPs) play an important role in challenging the way the school has undertaken its self-evaluation and the judgements it has reached. They can ask questions, suggest sources of evidence and challenge interpretations of the school s evidence. They are a very useful critical friend in the whole process. 

It is important to carefully document core ADHD symptoms at baseline to provide a reference point from which to evaluate effectiveness of treatment. Improvement in individualized patient outcomes are desired, such as (1) family and social relationships, (2) disruptive behavior, (3) completing required tasks, (4) self-motivation, (5) appearance, and (6) self-esteem. It is very important to elicit evaluations of the patient s behavior from family, school, and social environments in order to assess the preceding. Using standardized rating scales (e.g., Conners Rating Scales-Revised, Brown Attention-Deficit Disorder Scale, and IOWA Conners Scale) in both children and adults with ADHD helps to minimize variability in evaluation.29 After initiation of therapy, evaluations should be done every 2 to 4 weeks to determine efficacy of treatment, height, weight, pulse, and blood pressure. Physical examination or liver function tests may be used to monitor for adverse effects. 

Infants, school-age children, and adolescents have been studied in the laboratory, hospital nurseries, schools, institutions, and their homes with polysomnography, time-lapse video monitors, activity monitors, diaries, and self- and parent-report instruments. Children both with and without sleep disorders have been evaluated with these various assessment procedures, and researchers have used a wide range of study designs to investigate the impact of inadequate sleep. For example, in laboratory studies children and adolescents have been assessed on their usual (often arguably inadequate) schedules as well as on study-defined optimized and restricted... 

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