Name of participant

Name of sponsor Role of sponsor Headteacher

Participant evidence

Background

Scope of the school My school improvement priority was “To

improvement priority improve the quality and accuracy of
assessment in writing, by agreeing and
implementing a set of standards for use
across the partnership of schools.” This
linked in with the School Improvement
Plan and Raising Attainment Plan. See
Documents 1 & 2.
With the initiative focussing on working in
a newly formed partnership of schools, it
was necessary to ensure that I had
everyone’s ‘buy-in’ from the outset. I
approached the headteachers of the
schools to ensure that this was a project
that would benefit them and their schools
improvement and that they would ensure
the co-operation and commitment of their
staff to the project.
My initiative focussed on LKS2 but,
because of the template created, can be
easily broadened to UKS2 and KS1.
Reasons for selection After discussions with my headteacher,
of the school we agreed that, due to the change in
improvement priority expectations of the new National
Curriculum, teachers were unsure of the
expectations from each year group.
Taking these discussions to other
headteachers in our partnership, it
became clear that this was not a localised
problem.
By ensuring that teachers across our
partnership of schools had the same
expectations of their pupils, we could
avoid gaps forming between expectations
across years before the New Curriculum
started, thus catching any discrepancy
before it became a problem.
Teams you worked I worked with the Year 3 and 4 teachers
with across the across our partnership of schools. There
school are 5 schools in our partnership.
3 of the schools have one form entry and
the other two schools have two form
entry.
This created a team of 8 people (as one of
the schools had 2 part time teachers job-
sharing).
Once the project was completed, I
presented the outcome to the
headteachers of all 5 schools.
As I would be working with a team who
had never worked together before, I was
very aware of Bruce Tuckman’s ‘Stages of
Team Development’ and understood that
there would be a period of ‘Storming’ that
I would need to contend with when the
time came.
Part 1 Planning for improvement Participant Sponsor verification, additional
document evidence and grade – Very Good /
references Good / Moderate / Poor
Outline of key actions In order to ensure that I ran the project
in Planning for effectively, I used John Kotter’s ‘Eight
improvement steps to successful change’ as a template
from which to work.
From my 360 Degree Competency
Assessment, I knew that I needed to work
on Holding People to Account so I
ensured that my headteacher was there to
guide and coach me through.
I held a preliminary meeting in which to
show the need for the project, create a
‘burning platform’ and develop a ‘vision’.
From this, I would run a second meeting
in which we could decide the
expectations, thus ensuring a ‘quick win’
for the project to keep motivation up.
From the Leadership Styles
Questionnaire, I know that I am a
‘Visionary’ and ‘Participative’ leader. I
think these will help me to gain
agreement from all parties to run the
project but once it is up and running, I will
need to develop my leadership style to
take more of a ‘Pacesetting’ role in order
to deliver the project on time.
Competency: I needed to create a ‘burning platform’ E demonstrated a systematic
Information seeking from which to launch this new initiative, approach and gathered
so I set up a work scrutiny to confirm the information from a wide range of
gap between expectations of the teachers perspectives. He reviewed,
across the curriculum. analysed and reflected on this
Through discussions, it was clear that no information, enabling him to look
two teachers agreed on the expectations at the long-term plan. He
of pupils in writing for the New collected and organised
Curriculum. information from different
This gave me the opportunity to explain sources to help him solve the
the ‘vision’ of the project and create a issues.
‘sense of urgency’ for the project.
Sponsor grade: 4 - Very Good
Competency: As this was a newly formed team with E was able to analyse the
Analytical thinking members who worked at different relationships between the several
locations and to different timetables, I aspects of the problem, was able
was aware that each individual’s time and to devise a plan and identify the
availability would not be the same. I obstacles. He used a range of
therefore contacted the team members analytic methods and was able to
directly, rather than going through their make an informed choice as to
line managers or headteachers in order to the best options to devise
get the quickest response and ensure that solutions.
the time for meetings would be planned in
and not double-booked.
I could then ensure that individual team Sponsor grade: 3 – Good
members were also held accountable.
Due to the time pressures facing class
teachers (and understanding them, as I
am one), I was able to remain genuinely
empathetic and use my emotional
intelligence to remind them of the
importance of the project. I remained
vigilant at all times of any suggestion that
the team may not have all members fully
on board with the vision.
Competency: Because of the benefit that the end goal E has high expectations and he is
Delivering continuous would bring to teachers, I was able to able to verbalise and
improvement show how this project would generate demonstrate these to colleagues.
continuous improvement across not only He had a clear vision of what he
 their class, but all classes in their year wanted to achieve and had
and across all the schools in our strategic priorities to achieve this
partnership. We have children who move goal. He undertook regular
locally in the area, so transition between reviews of progress and tried to
schools would become more fluid. remove barriers to ensure that
the work was completed.

Sponsor grade: 4 – Very good

Competency: Through the NPQSL course, I was able to E is very driven and has high
Personal drive further my understanding of myself as a expectations of himself and
leader and also gain a greater others. He always strives to
understanding of the most effective ways provide outstanding education
to run a whole school project (or in this for his pupils and saw this as the
case, a project across a partnership of vehicle for improving the quality
schools) and see it through to of learning for not only the
completing. children in his class but also the
With this additional knowledge, and that children across the partnership.
of my 360 Degree Competency
Framework, I was able to see how this
Impact Initiative would help the different Sponsor grade: 4 – Very good
members of the team and how each could
use it to benefit their teaching and
learning.
Being able to benefit and help others is
something that drives me to succeed, so I
had a desire to achieve in this project.
Being able to prepare a project to be
completed before a problem actually
became unmanageable, gave me the
timescales that I needed to ensure I led
the team to meet the necessary
milestones and complete the initiative on
time and in full.
Part 2 Leading the implementation of the priority Participant Sponsor verification, additional
across the school document evidence and grade – Very Good /
references Good / Moderate / Poor
Outline of key actions Following John Kotter’s 8 steps, I had
in Leading the already ‘established an urgency’ and
implementation of the ‘created a vision’ from the preliminary
priority across the meeting with the team.
school After ensuring the ‘buy-in’ from my
‘burning platform’, I quickly set up a
second meeting of all team members, in
order to keep the momentum moving with
the project, while everyone was still
motivated for it.
At this second meeting, in order to move
forward, we agreed the aspects of the
writing National Curriculum for Year 3 and
Year 4 that would make up our section
headings.
These were:
 Handwriting
 Spelling
 Editing Others’ Work
 Vocabulary, Grammar &
Punctuation
We then paired up and took a section
each, deciding the expectations of a Year
3 and Year 4 at the end of the year. This
‘quick win’ approach motivated the team
to complete the task and take
responsibility for the project.
By the end of the first meeting, we had
generated an agreed list of expectations.
Everyone left this meeting with a sense of
 achievement but I was aware that this
newly formed team had yet to reach its
‘storming’ phase and there was still a
long way before reaching the
‘implementation’ stage.

I emailed everyone a copy of the See

outcomes from the meeting, asked them Document 3
to digest and reply with any changes or First Draft
adaptations they would like. of
See Document 3 Standards
File
One member who was not able to make
the meeting replied, suggesting that the
expectations were ‘black and white’, that
the children had to either achieve or not.
This was something we had not
considered fully and set about on a See
discussion to adapt the document to Document 4
include variability amongst the headings Adapted
i.e. the inclusion of phrases such as Standards
‘beginning to’ and ‘evidence of’. File – Final
A final draft of this initial document was Draft
agreed by the team over email.
See Document 4

The final stage in preparing the document

was to include examples from children’s
work from our classes. While the team
had agreed to this at the meeting and
were aware of the expectation, the
communication asking them to provide
this evidence was via email. The email
included SMART targets for the team –
SPECIFIC instructions as to the evidence
required, MEASURABLE & ACHIEVABLE
amounts required for each section,
REALISTIC work-load as it was from
children’s books that they have access to
every day and TIME BOUND as there was
a clear deadline to return the evidence by.

With this final evidence in place, the

document could be created and
presented to headteachers in the new
school year, to be used with the
implementation of the new National
Curriculum.
Competency: In order to ensure that this project had E regularly reviewed and
Delivering continuous the most impact and to keep the celebrated progress and then set
improvement improvement of teachers’ expectations next step targets and priorities.
consistent across schools, it was He listened to colleagues in the
important to have it in place before the group and made adaptions where
start of the new school year, (or soon necessary and continually
afterwards as it needed to be passed reflected on his role as the leader
through the headteachers of the schools of the group.
first) as the plan was to both stop a gap He set clear deadlines and laid
developing with the New Curriculum, as out his expectations for the
well as to close a gap that had already delivery of a shared document.
formed from the old one.
By holding regular work scrutinies across
the partnership schools, it would be clear Sponsor grade: 4 – Very good
to see if the potential gap had been
avoided with the onset of the New
Curriculum. These work scrutinies could
run alongside other partnership meetings,
thus not adding to the workload of
 teachers and could be discussed by the
partnership team, rather than being
passed through different headteachers,
which would give the results an
immediate impact or could initiate an
immediate change plan if a gap started to
develop.
Competency: At each meeting and in each email, I E shared his vision with the
Modelling excellence ensured the ‘vision’ of the project was partnership colleagues and
in leadership of clear – ‘To enable teachers across the modelled his expectations
teaching and learning partnership to improve their quality of through the sharing of pupil
teaching through a better understanding work. He empowered others in
of the expectations of the curriculum’. I the group by giving them the
also ensured that the team understood opportunity to share their pupils’
how they would benefit from the project work and express their opinions.
and how it would benefit their teaching
i.e. by each teacher having clear
expectations, the pupils can have clear
expectations of the standard of work
expected of them, so they can strive Sponsor grade: 4 – Very good
towards excellence themselves.
By allowing the team to develop the
standards folder together, I empowered
them and helped them to find clarity in its
development. They also then felt
accountable for its creation and would
feel more able to use it competently in the
new year.
Competency: While I knew I had the buy-in from the E led this challenging initiative
Learning focus team, I knew that ‘time’ would always be a and brought colleagues together
factor in getting the team together to from a wide range of experience.
progress the project. With this in mind, I He valued contributions made by
tried to always refer them to the benefit colleagues but kept the focus on
that they would get from completing this improving pupil attainment. He
project, how it would help them as a was keen to share innovative
teacher and how, from it, they would be approaches to teaching and
able to teach in-line with the new National learning.
Curriculum which was still an unknown
entity in many respects.
I also encouraged them to think about the Sponsor grade: 4 – Very good
benefits to their pupils – it will encourage
learners to actively engage in their own
learning by showing them the
expectations for their writing.
Competency: I knew from the start that this competency E had consistently high
Holding others to was going to be my biggest challenge as I expectations of himself and of
account had scored lowest with this on my 360 those in the team. He held
Degree Competency Framework. To colleagues accountable by
ensure that the team knew that they were setting clear deadlines and clear
accountable, I explained to them at each expectations. The monitoring of
meeting how important it was that these was more difficult because
everyone had input to the project and of the lack of face-to-face contact
provided the evidence needed. This but he kept positive
would ensure a set of examples from communication through the use
across the schools, thus improving the of email.
consistency of expectations.
At the final meeting of the year, where
everyone was asked to bring examples of Sponsor grade: 3 - Good
their children’s work that met the
standards we had agreed, I received an
email on the day of the meeting from one
school explaining that none of their 3
teachers could attend that evening due to
having “so many meetings towards the
end of term”. I replied, asking if I could
collect the examples they had collated but
they had “just not had time to look
 through work and find examples yet”. I
sought advice from my headteacher as to
how I would best hold them accountable
and ensure that they provided the
evidence, as they had agreed to the date 2
weeks before. She coached me into
finding the solution - that I would need to
include their headteacher in the
discussion so that I could understand
whether this decision had come from her
or if she thought it may be possible for
them to deliver on the target. Their
headteacher confirmed that they had not
informed her of the meeting and she knew
nothing of the targets that were set. She
helped the teachers to understand their
accountability in the project and they
delivered in full, but a few days late.
I believe this point in the project to be the
start of the ‘Storming’ stage of the team.
Part 3 Evaluating the impact Participant Sponsor verification, additional
document evidence and grade – Very Good /
references Good / Moderate / Poor
Outline of key actions The impact of my leadership has seen a See
in Evaluating the standardised file created for Year 3 and 4 Document 5
impact of your writing that can be used to align the Final
leadership expectations of teachers across all the Standards
partnership schools. This file was File
presented to headteachers from all 5
partnership schools as well as 2 other
local primaries and the local high school
and they have agreed that it will become a
standard document in our partnership,
used to aid teachers and ensure that the
gap between expectations of pupils
across schools is closed.

The impact of the project itself will be

seen at a meeting in October when the
partnership team reform.

Because I followed a clear change

process, I was able to ensure I had the
buy-in from all parties, the commitment
from all involved to see the project
through, the personal drive to complete
the project and was able to hold other to
account when necessary. It has enabled
me to empower others and see the benefit
of short-term wins to motivate.

One difficulty that I faced throughout was

communication. Because all team
members were working at different sites
and being a full-time class practitioner
myself, I found it very difficult to ensure
communication was being received and
to follow up on emails. Face-to-face
meetings are much easier to gauge
emotional buy-in, to discuss problems, to
hold people accountable and to
consolidate ideas and information.
Meeting once per month only can lead to
a slowing down of the pace of the project
as there is no ‘face’ to the project
leadership every day at each site.
Competency: Through the initial analysis of data at the
Analytical thinking work scrutiny, we were able to identify the
gap between expectations of teachers
across the partnership schools which will
be a very useful check as time goes on as
to whether this gap is closing due to the
use of the new document created.
Taking the project forward, there are two
things I will adapt to make improvements
on, based on the experiences I have had
so far. I will ensure that emails have been
received by all parties by asking for a
response and will try to meet with
individuals between meetings to offer
help and advice to complete tasks they
may have. I will also, now that I have
made personal contact with the
respective headteachers of the schools,
include them in the progress with respect
to the work scrutinies we will have and
the closing of the gap between
expectations.
Competency: Having now completed the Standards File
Personal drive Document for LKS2, I feel that the next
steps of the project would be to create
similar documents for KS1 and UKS2. I
would like to lead these teams to
completing their own version of the
document and use my learnings from this
project to improve the efficiency of the
others.
Running this project alongside my full-
time teaching has allowed me to re-
consider and, if necessary, improve my
time-management, drive to achieve and
analytical thinking as there have been
new and different challenges involved
that my usual day-to-day running would
not cover. This has shown me that I feel
ready for a new challenge and
responsibility and can use everything that
I have learnt on my NPQSL course to
achieve this.
By meeting with all the headteachers from
local schools, I have raised my profile
across the partnership. They were all very
grateful for me attending and presenting
my project.
Competency: In order to keep the project moving and to
Impact and influence develop my leadership styles, I took
control of the initial vision for the project,
created a ‘burning platform’ and helped
start an urgency in the project. Once the
second meeting came around, I took more
of a ‘chairperson’ role, keeping the
‘pacesetting’ leadership style and
ensuring the meetings moved on, but
allowing others to have their say,
guaranteeing everyone a chance to voice
their opinions. This also allowed me to
judge the other personalities on the team.
When the team were not responding to
emails and not delivering to the agreed
timescales, I used their direct line
managers to help me as I knew that they
were behind the project and would be the
E has reflected on the project,
celebrated the successes and
learnt the challenges and
obstacles that arise when leading
a team over 5 school sites. Even
though regular meeting dates
were set, E was let down by some
colleagues not attending the final
meeting and their line managers
have since apologised for this.
The obstacles that were created
due to the difficulty of working
across 5 sites were overcome by
E being proactive and making
contact with his colleagues to
ensure that the project was
finished.
Sponsor grade: 4 – Very good
See E continued to drive the project
Document 5 forward throughout with a view to
Final improving pupil learning and
Standards pupil attainment. He succeeded
File in building strong links with
partnership schools, where
colleagues now have a shared
vision and understanding which
is going to be built on across
both key stages. Therefore, this
project has had a significant
impact across all partnership
schools.
Sponsor grade: 4 – Very good
E has a clear leadership style. He
shared his vision and engaged all
of his colleagues from other
schools. He kept a good pace in
meetings and ensured all
colleagues understood all the
tasks they needed to complete
and the deadlines they needed to
meet.
Communication was both face-to-
face and via email. Colleagues
have fed back that this project
has helped them improve their
teaching in their classes and
pupil learning. They look forward
to working on future projects.
Therefore, this project has had a
significant impact across all
 best to influence the team members as
they were seeing them every day. This
was very useful as I was not able to talk
to them face-to-face.
Competency: I know that I am a very driven person and
Self awareness when a task needs doing, I ensure that it
is completed in full and on time. I am also
aware that not everyone has this same
drive as me and may complete tasks very
last minute. Allowing others the freedom
to work within the boundaries set but to
their own agenda is something I struggle
to do, so I used this project as an
opportunity to develop this trait. On
reflection, I may have allowed a little too
much freedom as some of the team did
not complete the tasks on time, but I feel I
used the support network effectively to
help me where I was struggling.
partnership schools.
Sponsor grade: 4 – Very good
E has a good awareness of his
strengths and is learning to
delegate and trust others to
complete tasks and meet
deadlines. He has an excellent
ability to empathise with others
and listen to the views of others
and he has reflected on how his
actions impact on those around
him.
I have seen him grow and
develop through this process.
Sponsor grade: 4 – Very good

Through the 360 Degree Competency

Assessment, I knew that ‘Holding others
to account’ was an area that I needed help
to improve. The situation arose whereby
others were not meeting targets and after
using my headteacher to help me find a
solution, I was able to hold the team
members to account and received the
data requested.
Document 1
Document 2

Document 3
Document 4
Document 5

Expectation of an average Year 3 – Year end

Handwriting
 All letters are written on the line
 All letters and numbers are formed correctly
 Children are beginning to use some of the horizontal and diagonal strokes to join
letters

Spelling
 Evidence of using prefixes or suffixes:
o –ly
o un-
o in-
o dis-
o im-
o –ally

 30% of Year 3/4 Nat. Curric. spelling list spelt correctly

 Apostrophe used correctly for singular nouns

 Can locate the first letter of a word in a dictionary

Editing Others’ Work

 Can find some minor errors that have been missed in punctuation

 Beginning to use paragraphs in writing

Vocabulary, Grammar & Punctuation

 Evidence of starting to use some subordinating conjunctions

 Evidence of consistency in the use of tenses in cross-curricular work

 More common pronouns used accurately to avoid repetition

o It
o S/he
o I
o They
o You
o We

 Evidence of expanding sentences using adverbs

 Can use inverted commas/speech marks to identify speech correctly

 Put a new speaker onto a new line every time
Expectation of an average Year 4 – Year end

Handwriting
 Majority of writing is joined correctly across the curriculum
 Lower case letters are of a similar size throughout writing
 Capital letters and numbers are of the correct size

Spelling
 Evidence of using prefixes or suffixes:
o –ous
o –tion
o –sion
o –cian

 60% of Year 3/4 Nat. Curric. spelling list spelt correctly

 Apostrophe used correctly for plural nouns

 Can locate a word in a dictionary by finding the first 2 or 3 letters

Editing Others’ Work

 Can find some spelling mistakes from known suffix/prefix spellings and those on
the Year 3/4 spelling list

 Shows evidence of using paragraphs to link ideas on some occasions

Vocabulary, Grammar & Punctuation
 Evidence of subordinating conjunctions in all cross-curricular writing

 Starting to use present perfect and past tenses to determine when events have
happened

 Less common pronouns used accurately to avoid repetition

o Everyone
o Himself
o Themselves
o Us

 Evidence of adverbs and prepositions being used correctly in all writing

 Evidence of extending sentences using Fronted Adverbials with correct

punctuation
 Accurately punctuates direct speech