School self-evaluation is now an established and expected characteristic of school leadership at all levels. The practice of reflecting on, measuring and developing performance is increasingly shaping school culture and strengthening collaboration. The challenge is to make those practices work effectively to drive improvement.
In this guide, we'll cover Framework Selection, Preparation and Building your Forms.
Jump to a section here: Framework Selection | Framework Preparation | Criteria and Statements | Form Building | Evaluation Judgements
Selecting your framework
Before you can start working with this area of BlueSky you need to determine which framework you want to work with, this depends on the self-evaluation judgements you make when reporting. The framework provides the foundation for all your data collection and reporting through this module.
BlueSky provides multiple frameworks which include model statements that can be used to create data-gathering forms, or you can create your own custom framework based on your organisation's improvement plan. Our current model frameworks are listed below. For more information and guidance on building or determining your framework, contact our team to arrange a call and to ensure we activate the most suitable framework(s).
Available Model Frameworks
UK
- Model Ofsted Education Inspection Framework (EIF)
- Estyn Common Inspection Framework (Wales)
Independent
- Educational Quality Inspection Framework (ISI)
- Independent Schools Standards Regulations (ISSR) Inc. BSO
- National Minimum Standards for Boarding (NMB)
International
- British Schools Overseas (BSO) is included in the ISSR framework
- School Excellence Framework (Australia)
- DSIB/KHDA School Inspection Framework (UAE)
In our guidance, we use the Model Ofsted Education Inspection Framework.
What can I do with the framework once it’s available?
- Using the framework to gather self-evaluation data
You can create forms to capture data from a range of activities such as lesson visits, work sampling, pupil and staff voice and leadership and management reviews. The data collected can be reported on by individual form, or aggregated across forms to provide baseline evidence for your judgements against the overarching aspects of the framework (e.g. Quality of Education). - Using the framework to record and report on self-evaluation judgements and improvement planning
If you would rather just use the module for recording and reporting on your judgements (i.e. the equivalent of a ‘SEF’) you can do this without creating templates and gathering data. You’ll be able to add evaluation commentary and add a grade for each aspect of the framework. You’ll also be able to attach your own evidence to support your commentary. Once you’ve created a judgement you can add the details of your resulting improvement plan, adding specific actions, costing and people responsible.
Preparing your evaluation framework
Once a framework has been selected and switched on for your organisation the next step is to activate the sections i.e. ‘Aspects’ of the framework you want to use.
Part 1: Preparing the framework to create forms - adding criteria and statements
- Head into the Admin area and select Self Evaluation from the left-hand navigation menu.
- From the sub-menu select Framework and Forms.
- Select Manage your SE Framework in the top right-hand corner.
- If this is the first time viewing and managing your framework, your Aspects Selected tab will be empty. Click on Aspects Available.
- If you would like to review the available framework in full, including the model statements, you can see this by clicking on View available criteria and statements.
- To select an aspect, click on the desired title i.e. Quality of Education.
- Here you can view the available criteria and statements. Select Create New SE Criterion in the top right-hand corner.
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There are two ways you can create your criterion:
1. Duplicate and Edit an existing Criterion and set of Statements
2. Create your own bespoke Criterion with your own Statements
Duplicating Criteria and Statements
When you duplicate criteria, it also duplicates all of the statements within. Once the Criterion has been duplicated, you can choose to edit, remove or add your own bespoke Statements.
- Select Duplicate and Edit an existing Criterion and set of Statements
- Click on Duplicate for the criterion you wish to adopt into your framework, you can amend the title and reference now if you wish, then Save.
- Once duplicated you can edit, delete or add additional statements to the criterion. You'll need to Activate your criteria. You can do this immediately or wait until you've selected and duplicated all desired criteria and statements.
- Activation of your aspects will enable you to choose from the criteria and statements and use these in your templates.
Creating custom (bespoke) Criteria and Statements
- Select Create your own bespoke Criterion with your own Statements.
- Add a title and a reference (references are only visible to the framework creator) and press Save.
- Once created you can edit or delete the criteria and add your statements to it.
- Regardless of whether you chose to duplicate or create, your Aspect will now be available in Aspects Selected and will await activation.
- Unlike duplication which will copy over any model statements, you'll need to add your statements to your custom criteria.
- Select the criteria title and select Add New Statement in the top right-hand corner.
- Continue duplicating or creating until you are ready to activate the aspect.
Building your Forms
If you're not in the Admin > Self Evaluation area already, let's head there now and select Framework and Forms from the sub-menu.
If you've followed this guide you should already have selected the criteria, statements and activated your desired aspects. If not, head back up this article and follow along.
- Select Create Form in the top right-hand corner.
- Enter the title of the form.
- Now you can see any and all of the aspects you have activated. Work down the page and select the statements beneath each criterion and aspect.
- Press Save.
- A green confirmation banner will appear to confirm success. At this point, your form is still in a draft state. Before you publish the form and make it available to users, click on the form title and review the content then once you're happy just press Publish.
- That's it! Your form is ready and available for use.
Preparing the framework to create evaluation judgements
In order to add commentary, grades, evidence and improvement actions to your self-evaluation report you will need to activate the relevant Aspects from your framework.
Follow the steps in Part 1 above to:
- Add at least one criteria to each Aspect either by duplicating or creating your own criterion. You do not need to add any statements to the criteria.
- Activate each Aspect in your Selected Aspects tab.
Once you have activated an aspect you can add a judgement and report on it. Head to Aspect Evaluations (for group/team evaluations) or Organisation Aspect Evaluations in the Self Evaluation sub-menu.
- Select Create Organisation Aspect Evaluation
- Select the Aspect from the dropdown.
- The date fields are related to individual record evaluations, if you aren't using that feature or do not have any yet just press Next. Otherwise, you'll need to set the date range to locate any evaluations created during that period.
- If you are including records, select the ones you wish to include. If there are no records, press Create with no linked records.
- Complete the available fields, make a grade selection and press Save.