Throughout this assignment, I will be focusing on one aspect of a school’s School Development Plan (SDP). For the purpose of this assignment and in accordance with the British Educational Research Association (BERA) guidelines, the school will be referred to as ‘School X’ in this report to ensure anonymity and confidentiality. It is recognised that both individual participants and institutions are entitled to privacy when research is conducted and this should ‘accord them their rights to confidentiality and anonymity’ (BERA, 2018, p.21). The aspect of School X’s SDP I have chosen to write about is ‘improving standards and progress in Welsh across the whole school’ (See Appendix A). 

School X is a large primary school which is situated in South Wales and has approximately 385 pupils. ‘Around 39% of pupils are eligible for free school meals (FSM)’ (Estyn, 2014). This is much higher than the average number of pupils who are eligible for FSM in Wales which in January 2019 was ‘19.9%’ (Welsh Government, 2020). Estyn (2014) has also stated that approximately ‘11%’ of pupils speak English as an additional language or as a second language and there are not any pupils who speak Welsh as a first language in School X. 

The Welsh Government (2014) state that a SDP will contains details of a school’s strategic plan in order make improvements. The SDP is vital as it allows stakeholders to explicitly set out specific actions that a school will take to aid pupil outcomes. Within a SDP, priorities are identified by stakeholders, objectives are then created and strategies are set out in order to address and meet each priority in the SDP. The overall plan should be set out over a three-year period within the SDP, the current academic year should include precise detail in relation to the priorities that need to be addressed currently. Within the plan, ‘high level priorities and targets’ will be set out for years two and three (Welsh Government, 2014, p.3). 

After a clear vision has been established for a SDP, there is a cycle in which a SDP undergoes in order to develop the schools vision. The four stages include: self-evaluation, strategic planning, making improvements and reviewing the impact (Welsh Government, 2014). Each stage is vital as without all four stages, the cycle would not be completed to the specified guidelines of a SDP. 

Self-evaluation is a key part of creating a SDP as it is crucial that the school is able to honestly self-reflect on the schools performance. In order to self-evaluate the school’s progress, both qualitative and quantitative data is analysed. Qualitative data could include an inspection report from Estyn and quantitative data could include tracking information on pupils’ progress. This process involves evaluating the strengths and weaknesses of how the school is currently performing, professional learning and learner outcomes in order to set targets and priorities. During this stage of the SDP, the actions that need to be taken in order to make improvements also need to be addressed (Welsh Government, 2014). Sharing good practice and celebrating successes that the school has achieved is also an essential part of the self-evaluation process. 

It is important to remember that ‘learner participation in self-evaluation and school improvement planning is fundamental to ensuring children’s right within the school context’ (Education Scotland, 2018, p.5). By including the pupils in the self-evaluation process, it allows pupils to voice their views and opinions. This supports Article 12 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) which states that any ‘child who is capable of forming his or her own views the right to express those views freely in all matters affecting the child’ (Unicef, 1989, p.5).

Strategic planning, which is the next part of the process involves all school partners and stakeholders in order to be effective. Stakeholders involve various people who are involved in school life such as: staff, parents/carers, pupils, governors and some schools involve the wider community locally. Schools only need one strategic improvement plan and a SDP should be a single means of streamlining each school’s improvement priorities and strategies. (Welsh Government, 2014). 

Making improvements should involve all of the actions and strategies that are outlined in the SDP, to be put into practice in the school setting. All staff should be aware of their individual responsibilities in relation to implementing the necessary actions in the SDP in order to move the school forward. 

Reviewing impact involves the SDP, which is considered as a live document to be ‘regularly monitored during the development cycle and formally reviewed at least annually’ (Welsh Government, 2014, p.17). It is essential that the SDP is monitored, reviewed and updated at least once a year or after an Estyn inspection, whichever is sooner.  

The Welsh Government have set a goal of achieving a million Welsh speakers by 2050. In order for this ambition to be achieved, the Welsh Government have identified three strategic themes. These strategic themes include ‘increasing the number of Welsh speakers, increasing the use of Welsh and creating favourable conditions – infrastructure and context’ (Welsh Government, 2017, p.4). Within the first strategic theme, which was ‘increasing the number of Welsh speakers’, statutory education was listed as one of the priorities to address the ambition. 

For statutory education to develop the Welsh language skills of pupils, a requirement of schools will be to introduce the language continuum to all learners over time. It is also crucial that the acquisition of Welsh language skills is embedded across the curriculum. The Welsh Government (2017, p.38) is aiming by 2050 for ‘at least 70% of all learners develop their Welsh language skills and are able to use the language with confidence in all aspects of their lives’ before they complete statutory education. This links well with one of the four purposes of the curriculum, which is for pupils to develop as ‘ambitious, capable learners who can communicate effectively in different forms and settings, using both Welsh and English’ (Donaldson, 2015, p. 29). 

Estyn (2021) identified that in several settings and schools when planning to develop learners’ skills, practitioners take advantage of opportunities which enable the pupils to be immersed in the Welsh language, by providing valuable activities which allows pupils to ‘use and apply familiar and unfamiliar vocabulary and syntactic patterns with increasing skill’ (Estyn, 2021, p.67). As a result of this approach from skilful teaching, pupils from non-Welsh speaking homes take the vocabulary in successfully. Estyn (2021) also identified that another way to enrich pupils’ vocabulary effectively is by using techniques such as memory aids which can be useful. For example, stories are drafted by learners and practitioners then introduce and consolidate vocabulary that is familiar and unfamiliar to aid learners to strengthen their vocabulary choices. 

Another way to enable the development of pupils’ vocabulary and understanding of words and phrases is through ‘language drilling’ activities, this has been implemented in various schools and settings, where language teaching is successful. In support of these strategies identified by Estyn (2021), Bruner (1915-2016) who was an American cognitive psychologist, believed that individuals had to be actively engaged in their learning as he did not ‘view learning as something that happens to individuals but more as a process’ (Macblain and Gray, 2015, p.133). Likewise, Vygotsky (1896-1934) who was a social constructivist, also believed that children learn through experiences and by being involved in their learning. Vygotsky also believed that children ‘develop knowledge, skills and beliefs as a result of social interactions’ (Grigg, 2015, p.139) However, although Piaget (1896-1980) who was a cognitive constructivist agreed with Bruner and Vygotsky in relation to the importance of active learning, Piaget focused on the individual unlike Vygotsky who focused on the role that social interactions have on a child’s development. 

School X’s SDP includes dates of an initial planning meeting to self-evaluate the school and two review dates within the same academic year to review the progress that the school has made. School X reviews the SDP twice each academic year usually once in the spring term and again in the summer term. Within the SDP for School X, there is contextual information such as funding information for example the Pupil Deprivation Grant. The SDP also entails information in relation to FSMs, Child Protection, Special Education Needs etc, this information is displayed in percentages for across the whole school from Nursery to Year 6. Target settings is also included in the document for both the Foundation Phase and Key Stage 2. 

Progress since the last school inspection is evident in the SDP and each recommendation has been highlighted as ‘very good progress’ (Estyn, 2014). This illustrates that the school took Estyn’s recommendations on board and acted on them to ensure progress was made under each recommendation. The first two recommendations were to ‘raise standards in numeracy and improve the performance of MAT pupils, particularly in mathematics across the school and in science at KS2’ (School X, 2019). When School X have evidenced how they have improved in relation to both recommendations, quantitative data has been analysed to track pupil progress across the school. There is also an appraisal section within the SDP which shows how the school and governing body have addressed previous priorities. 

School X have also presented an overall three-year plan in relation to their priorities, the plan is divided into five subheadings which coincide with what the Estyn inspection areas are. The current year includes greater detail than the second and third year as expected, which has been aforementioned by the Welsh Government (2014). Further on in the SDP, there are five priorities set out in tables, which also includes three or four objectives for each priority and then there are specific strategies outlined in order to address the objectives within each priority. Within each table, along with the priority, objectives and specific strategies, the appropriate UNCRC article numbers which links to the priority are included, the national and local priorities are included, which governors will be involved in the SDP are mentioned and which pupil voice group is included. This supports Article 12 of the UNCRC as aforementioned by Unicef (1989) in the report. Along with the strategies, there is information relating to who will be involved in addressing and overseeing the progress within each priority, when each strategy will take place within the school, what the intended outcomes are, who will be monitoring the progress of each strategy and when, the cost implications of each strategy and a Red, Amber, Yellow, Green (RAYG) of the progress during each term in the academic year. 

In order to make Welsh a priority in the SDP, School X would have had to self-evaluate in terms of where they were at as a school with their Welsh development. This has then led to making Welsh a priority in the SDP, there have then been three objectives agreed between the stakeholders and the one that I chose to focus on throughout this report was ‘improving standards and progress in Welsh across the whole school’ (School X, 2019). In order to address the priority, there are several strategies which include: ‘fortnightly Welsh assembly Criw Cymreig to lead with Welsh coordinator’ and ‘playground games in Welsh with Criw Cymreig leading’ (School X, 2019). As these strategies are aiming to raise the standards of the Welsh language skills of the pupils throughout the whole school, it correlates with the Estyn (2021) report that was previously mentioned. The Welsh coordinator of School X would monitor the Welsh assemblies every half term and undertake learning walks to monitor the Welsh games. Both strategies are of little cost to the school as photocopying for assemblies would be the only cost which has been included in the SDP. Both of these strategies aim to develop and embed incidental Welsh as well as Welsh language patterns and also aims to immerse the pupils in the Welsh culture, which has been identified in the SDP. 

The stakeholders who were involved in creating these objectives in the self-evaluation process included: headship team, governors, the Criw Cymraeg, the Welsh coordinator and class teachers. Although there is a mention of the Criw Cymreig in pupil voice part of the SDP, there is not a direct mention of other pupils in School X contributing to the SDP. (Education Scotland, 2018) believe that it is paramount for pupils to contribute to the SDP as it is important to allow pupils to have their rights as previously mentioned. There is also no explicit mention of parents or carers throughout the SDP in terms of planning and reviewing the SDP, although there is possibility that a couple of governors may be parents. The Welsh Government (2014) state that various stakeholders should be involved in the development of a SDP however, School X has not notably mentioned parents and carers throughout the SDP. This could have an impact on how the school will move forward as parents and carers play a vital role in pupils’ lives and their input could be very valuable in relation to creating objectives within the priorities. Parents and carers could also contribute to the SDP by working on some of the objectives with the pupils after school or by participating in after school clubs or school events targeted for example, the Welsh priority. 

School X’s SDP specifies that there has been satisfactory/strong progress in the two objectives that have been mentioned in this report. However, the SDP only shows the progress made in one term therefore, it is difficult to know whether all of the objectives in the SDP were fully met in order to move forward with a new priority or objective. As the Welsh Government have ambitions of achieving a million Welsh speakers by 2050, Welsh language development in education will presumably be a priority for the majority of English medium primary schools for years to come. 

Throughout the SDP, costs have been documented in the ‘cost’ column within each priority table however, the information as to where the exact costs as being spent is quite vague in some parts of the SDP. It would be beneficial for a breakdown as to where the exact costs are being spent. This would enable School X to possibly be able to save money as some costs may be able to be cut. 

School X could have possibly created a questionnaire or a similar research tool to gain views and perspectives from pupils and parents/carers on their thoughts of the SDP. This could have allowed input from a wider range of stakeholders and could have contributed to gaining an insight as to what the most important priorities and objectives would be to them. A copy of the questionnaire or similar research tool could have been included at the end of the SDP in an appendix to view. Various responses could have also been included as this would have given more of a perspective as to opinions and views from pupils and parents/carers who are two important groups in relation to stakeholders of the school. Questionnaires are deemed to be successful as ‘they are a useful way to get information from a large number of participants’ (Cobb, 2016, p.73).

The purpose of this report was to critically reflect on the actions, impacts and evidence base of a school’s SDP and a chosen aspect within the SDP, which was ‘improving standards and progress in Welsh across the whole school.’ I have learned that there are many factors to take into consideration in relation to developing a SDP and how there are four stages which must be undertaken in order to develop the school’s vision. I have learned the importance of self-evaluation and how this involves in depth data analysis in order to develop appropriate priorities, objectives and strategies to move a school forward. Strategic planning is also an aspect of the SDP process in which I have become much more aware of in regard to the stakeholders that are involved in the planning of the SDP. The stakeholders have much more of an input into the SDP than I originally anticipated as they also play a vital role in making the improvements in relation to the aspects that have been identified to be put into the SDP. I have learned that SDP’s need to be monitored, reviewed and updated at least once a year or after inspection, which is sooner. Lastly, from undertaking research and wider reading, I have learned from Estyn (2021) how Welsh can be implemented in many ways through a whole school approach.