This document relates to the School excellence policy.

School excellence roles and responsibilities

Principals:

• lead the school community in developing and implementing the 4-year School Excellence Plan (SEP)
• endorse school excellence planning processes as an accurate representation of community consultation and evidence-informed decision-making
• confirm the completion of each part of a school’s SEP in SPaRO, with their director, educational leadership (DEL)
• publish the SEP on the school's website at the start of the school excellence cycle and publish annually any updates made to the plan during the cycle (principal completion is due at the end of Term 1 of the relevant year, for DEL endorsement and publication in early Term 2)
• monitor implementation of the School Excellence Plan and adjust as required
• use the School Excellence Framework (SEF) to lead a collaborative, ongoing process of self-assessment of the school's practices to inform their school’s SEP and annual report. This includes authentic reflection of progress, supported by evidence collected over time, and the annual completion of the School Excellence Framework Self-assessment Survey (SEF S-aS) by the end of Term 1 of the following school year
• lead the preparation of the school’s annual report, which includes the school's achievements and meets the department's reporting requirements
• complete the annual report by the end of Term 1 of the following year
• action any recommendations from school development reviews, if undertaken.

Principals, school leadership:

• support schools in school excellence planning, self-assessment and annual reporting processes.

Directors, educational leadership:

• support principals to meet their responsibilities for the school excellence cycle (refer above to ‘Principals’)
• engage in regular conversations with principals about the SEP, self-assessment and annual report
• confirm the completion of each aspect of the SEP with the principal
• approve each SEP before it is published
• monitor the implementation of the SEP's and annual reporting processes for compliance with legislative and policy requirements
• nominate schools to the Executive Director, Public Schools for a school development review, where appropriate and following consultation with the principal
• lead a team to undertake a school development review, and determine appropriate strategies for implementation at the school in consultation with the principal
• produce a school development review report for the principal and the Executive Director, Public Schools with the findings and recommendations of the review
• support the principal to implement any recommendations from a school development review, if undertaken.

External validation roles and responsibilities

Principals:

• ensure relevant school staff complete the ‘School excellence: supporting schools with external validation’ professional learning, online via MyPL
• lead and guide the development and collection of evidence to support self-assessment against the SEF, and ensure all evidence is available in the <year> submission folder in SPaRO
• submit the current year SEF S-aS as part of the school's external validation submission
• consider and draft the ‘School determined future directions to support school improvement’ in preparation for discussion at the panel meeting
• collaboratively guide the school’s response to clarifying questions regarding on-balance judgements (best possible assessment on the evidence) of identified SEF elements
• following external validation
  • take appropriate action to continue to lead the school in ongoing self-assessment practices
  • consult with the DEL and network principal, school leadership to refine the ‘School determined future directions to support school improvement’, as part of updating and approving the SEP.

Principals, school leadership:

• when requested and available, collaborate with principals and school teams to prepare the school's external validation submission
• lead external validations with a peer panellist. Principals, school leadership can only lead external validation panels for schools where they have not been involved in preparing the school's external validation submission
• support schools so that relevant staff complete the ‘School excellence: supporting schools with external validation’ professional learning, online via MyPL
• following external validation, will
  • consult with the school principal and the DEL to finalise the ‘School determined future directions to support school improvement’ section of the panel report
  • support schools to develop SEPs, where appropriate.

Lead panellists (including principals, school leadership):

• support the delivery of peer panellist professional learning
• read the school’s external validation submission and meet with the peer panellist before the panel meeting to consider the school’s evidence
• verify there has been DEL affirmation before the panel meeting
• during the panel meeting, the lead panellist will
  • lead the external validation meeting with a peer panellist
  • collaboratively with the school external validation team, discuss the submission, ask questions to clarify their understanding and make connections between the evidence presented and the school’s on-balance judgements
  • use the SEF to validate the school’s on-balance judgements or identify element/s where the school's self-assessment is not consistent with the evidence presented. Where the panel’s determination differs from the school’s on-balance judgement, the panel will discuss the reason for this determination with the school team. The panel’s decision is reflected in the panel report
  • discuss the ‘School determined future directions to support school improvement’ with the school
  • prepare and finalise relevant sections of the external validation panel report in SPaRO.

Peer panellists:

• complete professional learning to understand the role of a panel member in the processes of self-assessment and validation using the SEF
• read the submission and meet with the lead panellist before the panel meeting to consider the school’s evidence
• engage as a panel member in external validation processes with participating schools.

Directors, educational leadership:

• collaborate with principals and school teams to prepare the school's external validation submission
• affirm the school’s submission as being an accurate representation of the school’s processes in planning, self-assessment and reporting
• consult with the school principal and the principal, school leadership (if relevant) to finalise the ‘School determined future directions to support school improvement’ section of the panel report in SPaRO
• support the principal to take appropriate action following an external validation.

Needs-based funding is the recurrent resourcing targeted to students and schools with demonstrated educational disadvantage. It is provided to lift student outcomes and each school is accountable for effectively using the funds to improve student outcomes through the SEP and annual report.

Relevant funding allocation amounts that schools receive are automatically uploaded to SPaRO when the School Budget Allocation Report (SBAR) is released.

Schools must:

• identify the resources required to support the learning needs of students from identified equity groups, as appropriate to the school context
• use research and evidence-informed decision-making to ensure that students benefit from the funding in the year it is allocated
• enter the funding source for each activity in SPaRO (in the implementation and progress monitoring section).

This ensures schools can track, monitor, reflect and report on the learning outcomes of projects and activities resourced through needs-based funding.

Funding allocations not linked to strategic directions are monitored and reported on in SPaRO through the ‘Other funded activities’ section of the SEP.

All schools must complete their SEP by the end of Term 1 at the start of their school excellence cycle. Once the school has completed the SEP, the principal and director, educational leadership (DEL) ensure the key aspects of the plan (refer to Table 1 in ‘Step 1 – Develop and School Excellence Plan’) meet requirements and then endorse the plan.

Following endorsement, the DEL approves the overall SEP.

Once approved, schools publish their SEP through SPaRO by early Term 2.

The plan will auto-populate on the ‘School planning and reporting’ page of school websites. Schools should verify that this automatic upload has occurred as intended.

Any significant updates to the plan will need to be endorsed, approved and published in line with the above process. Schools will publish updated plans as soon as they are approved.

Schools must collect and analyse evidence, as well as engage in authentic self-assessment and evaluation processes.

It is best practice for schools to use the evidence bank in SPaRO to store and organise their evidence for self-assessment. Using SPaRO in an ongoing way for this task makes it simpler for each school to prepare their external validation evidence.

All schools must complete and document the following information in SPaRO by the end of Term 1 (this ensures the annual report is auto-populated with this information):

• Evaluation of annual progress measure/s reflecting on the impact of initiatives and resources allocated.
• An annual evaluation and impact assessment for each identified funding source, including resources allocated, the activities or initiatives funded, and the impact of these activities and initiatives on student learning and/or student equity groups.

All schools must complete and submit the SEF S-aS in SPaRO before completing their annual report. The SEF S-aS captures a point-in-time judgement (alignment of practices to the SEF at the time of doing the survey) using all elements of the SEF.

Schools consider the evidence using the SEF descriptors and make an on-balance judgement (best possible assessment on the evidence) of the stage of excellence for each theme within the element, and the statement of excellence for each element.

It is recommended that schools complete the SEF S-aS at least a week before the annual report due date, so that schools can reflect and report on findings from the survey in their annual reports.

The school annual report is a statutory requirement that must be completed in SPaRO by the end of Term 1 for the previous year. Its primary focus is to provide the community with information on the school’s progress towards achieving the strategic directions in the School Excellence Plan (SEP).

Most mandatory elements of the annual report are auto populated using information the department holds.

To finalise the annual report, principals must complete:

• the annual SEF S-aS
• an annual evaluation of the progress measure(s) for each strategic direction
• an annual evaluation and impact assessment for allocated funding sources
• post-school destinations table (secondary schools only)
• parent and/or carer, student, teacher satisfaction (all schools).

Schools may include optional commentary or analysis and images in the annual report to provide context for and explanation of the auto populated data.

Once complete:

• the principal must confirm and generate the report in SPaRO
• the DEL must then review and endorse the report
• after endorsement, the principal must publish the report through SPaRO
• the report will auto-populate on the ‘School planning and reporting’ page of school websites. Schools should verify that this automatic upload has occurred as intended.

New schools

Newly established schools, or those undergoing school lifecycle changes, will participate in an external validation process within the first 4 years of opening or amalgamation. The year of external validation will be negotiated between the DEL and school principal, and communicated to the School Excellence directorate as soon as is practical after the school opens.

Colleges

Multiple campuses of the same college may participate in external validation in the same year, but not necessarily at the same time. Each individual school, with a unique school code, is required to develop and submit evidence reflective of their individual campus context to determine their on-balance judgements (best possible assessment on the evidence) using the SEF. The executive and/or college principal may participate in the collaborative preparation of the campus’ external validation submission with the campus leadership team and/or the panel meeting.

The external validation panel’s role is to determine if the school’s evidence, presented in their submission and including the data provided, supports the school’s on-balance judgements (best possible assessment on the evidence) made in the SEF S-aS for each of the elements.

The following people attend the external validation panel meeting:

• independent panel consisting of a lead panellist (a principal, school leadership) and a peer panellist
• the school’s principal and, where relevant, the school’s external validation team including additional members of the school community as decided by the school principal.

The DEL and principal, school leadership may attend to observe the panel meeting. This is in an observer only capacity, unless otherwise invited for contribution by the school’s principal. This enables a collaborative approach to support the school to implement the SEP.

Panellists will declare any conflict of interest with schools undertaking external validation. They will not be scheduled on panels for those schools where there is a real or perceived conflict of interest.

Applying to be a peer panellist

Peer panellists must be one of the following:

• a substantive principal
• deputy principal
• currently employed by the department in a leadership role.

They must have:

• a minimum of 5 years experience in a substantive deputy principal role, 3 years experience in a substantive principal role or extensive experience in an ongoing leadership role within the department, with a minimum of 5 years prior deputy principal or 3 years prior principal experience
• an extensive, working knowledge of the SEF
• a working knowledge of the SPaRO platform
• line manager and director level endorsement to participate in the role.

Qualified nominees apply for the role of peer panellist through an expression of interest (EOI) process.

Schools review the evidence gathered through ongoing self-assessment and select high quality, robust pieces of evidence and data to organise into evidence sets.

Each evidence set is given a title and aligned to the practices across the school and identified elements of the SEF. The school will determine the number of evidence sets per submission. Collectively, the sets must address all 14 elements of the SEF.

Schools do not need to include all evidence used for self-assessment in the external validation submission.

Annotating and analysing evidence: Annotations should describe the significance of the artefact and provide the context for the selected piece or group of evidence. All pieces of evidence used in a submission should be annotated (except for student reports).

An analysis should consider consistent and embedded practices across the school and triangulate information to show where they are sitting against each element of the SEF.

Schools undertaking external evaluation are required to access, complete and submit a new SEF S-aS in SPaRO, corresponding to the year they are participating in the process.

The principal will complete and submit a SEF S-aS after analysing the evidence sets and determining an on-balance judgement for each element of the SEF. The external validation panel uses this SEF S-aS to determine whether the school’s on-balance judgements, and the supporting evidence, align with the descriptors and statements articulated in the SEF for each element.

The director, educational leadership (DEL) works collaboratively with the school to ensure they can affirm the external validation submission is an accurate representation of the school's processes in planning, self-assessment and reporting.

Best practice is for the DEL to have ongoing conversations with the school’s external validation team while evidence sets are being developed.

If a DEL cannot affirm the external validation submission as ‘an accurate representation of the school's processes in planning, self-assessment and reporting’, the DEL will contact the principal to resolve any issues.

If the matter cannot be resolved before the panel date, the DEL will consult with the principal and determine if the panel meeting should be rescheduled.

The school external validation team considers and drafts the ‘School determined future directions to support school improvement.’ These are discussed as part of the panel meeting with the view to identifying any additional value-add opportunities to support the school excellence planning.

The external validation panel:

• contacts the school to confirm panel meeting organisation
• accesses and reviews the school’s submission through SPaRO
• meets (either virtually or face-to-face) before the external validation meeting to consider the school’s submission and on-balance judgements (best possible assessment on the evidence)
• develops questions for discussion at the panel meeting for areas where further clarification may be required to support the panel’s validation of the school’s on-balance judgements.

A school development review is an appropriate course of action if:

• a school has not achieved sustainable improvement, following significant support
• there are clearly identifiable factors or stressors that are impeding whole-school growth and sustainable improvement.

The decision to review will take into consideration the school’s self-assessment and/or external validation along with other available information.

A school development review can be requested – following consultation with the principal by:

• the Deputy Secretary, Public Schools
• the Executive Director, Public Schools
• the Director, Educational Leadership (DEL).

A principal may also request the initiation of a school development review.

The DEL must provide a written application to the Executive Director, Public Schools for approval to conduct the review, including:

• details of the school context
• a reflection on the nature and quality of the school’s self-assessment
• the reasons for nomination or request for the school development review
• information outlining the strategies already used to support the school, including the outcomes of those strategies, and a clear identification of the way in which a school development review is expected to benefit the school.

The Executive Director, Public Schools, in consultation with the DEL will determine whether:

• the application provides sufficient evidence to initiate a school development review
• such an approach is likely to identify and guide the implementation of effective actions that will lead to sustainable improvement for the school.

The director, educational leadership (DEL) with line management responsibility for the principal determines (in consultation with the Executive Director, Public Schools) the size and composition of the review team and leads the review (unless the Executive Director, Public Schools determines otherwise).

There are several tasks that must be completed before the review begins, including formally notifying the NSW Teachers Federation a minimum of 5 weeks before the review. The Deputy Secretary, Public Schools notifies the General-Secretary, NSW Teachers Federation through a letter announcing the review.

The school development review team:

• consists of 3 to 5 members
• spends up to 5 days at the school to consider the issues impacting the school’s ability to achieve sustained improvement and determine appropriate strategies to address the identified issues.

The review team must:

• allocate time at the start for the principal to brief the review team
• remain responsive and flexible to respond to unanticipated and emerging issues
• schedule interview relevant staff and school community members, including parents, students and local NSW Aboriginal Education Consultative Group (AECG) members
• include observations of lessons and other school activities, as relevant
• include time for analysis of performance data, other evidence, and relevant school documentation
• allow for individual reflection, synthesis time, review team discussion and flexibility
• include time to meet separately with the principal each day to discuss emerging issues
• include time for team reflection before debriefing
• allocate time at the end of the review for validation, synthesis and the writing of draft findings, recommendations, and strategies
• allocate time for an exit presentation with the principal of draft findings, draft recommendations, and possible strategies, and advise that monitoring visits will be conducted over a 12 month period.

In the 2 weeks following the school development review:

• the review team must provide the school with a final report that includes time-specific, explicit actions and strategies for mandatory implementation by the school
• a variety of support mechanisms will be considered to help schools implement the identified actions and strategies. This can include other business units within the department providing specialist support where appropriate.

In the 12 months following the school development review:

The DEL (unless otherwise determined by the Executive Director, Public Schools) will:

• conduct monitoring visits to the school each term for one year to assess the effectiveness of implementation of the strategies
• update the Executive Director, Public Schools each term, and subsequently the Deputy Secretary, Public Schools.

Where the school does not meet strategy implementation and timeframes, the Executive Director, Public Schools (in consultation with the appropriate Deputy Secretary, Public Schools) will consider further action or support.

• About the School Excellence Framework (staff only)
• School Excellence (staff only)
• Implementation and progress monitoring (staff only)
• External validation guide (staff only)

• Aboriginal education policy
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