Collaborative Improvement Framework

A draft framework has been approved at The Highland Council's Education Committee which will help to guide and support all staff at all levels to raise attainment in schools through a focus on continuous, collaborative improvement.

Education Chair, Cllr John Finlayson said: “The Collaborative Improvement Framework underpins the support and challenges in our schools and how we can work together to have more consistent expectations and guidelines for all involved in supporting our Education & Learning improvement agenda. The framework has already received valuable insight and support at a recent Members workshop where staff provided examples of aspects of the framework in practice. I would like to express my thanks to our Collaborative Lead Officers (CLO) and Head Teachers who have been working hard to continue to support our pupils and raise attainment in schools. No other Local Authority in Scotland has improved at such a significant rate from base line Covid recovery data.  I would also like to thank Members who attended the workshop where good discussion took place framed by Members questions.”

The CIF has undergone engagement with Head Teachers and colleagues belonging to the Association of Directors of Education in Scotland (ADES), including Education Scotland. Head Teacher consultation and feedback on the draft CIF document took place at various Primary and Secondary Head Teacher meetings. Primary Head Teacher engagement took the form of January Attainment Summits when consistent expectations and relentless routines linked to the Raising Attainment Strategy set out within the CIF were discussed and agreed.

The CIF although evolving, sets out the wider considerations over statutory responsibilities, approaches to self-evaluation and improvement activity alongside scrutiny and review from the Care Inspectorate, Education Scotland and Local Government Benchmarking Frameworks which provide national points of reference.

Encouraging results are already being receive despite the framework being in its infancy as current targeted predictive attainment data indicates progress and positive impact so far this session. The support around this area has included:

• Data tools provided to all schools to support effective analysis of attainment to support target setting and planned interventions.
• All schools completed common attainment review and target setting templates.
• CLOs carried out robust attainment meetings with all schools where individual pupils were discussed and, in many cases, additional pupils identified for intervention to achieve expected levels by the end of the year.