Step 3

In Step 3 we offer two Audit Tools:

• the first is a fairly basic one that will rapidly give you a feel for how your school interfaces with the Standard
• the second is a much more rigorous tool that will lead you into a deep analysis of your school and the evidence that you have to support your view.

You may choose to start with the Basic Audit and come to the Deep Audit later, maybe at a progress review point. Alternatively or you may prefer to begin with the Deep Audit to gain a more solid baseline measure from which to action plan – the choice is yours.

Whichever of the Audit Tools you choose to use . . .

The auditing process is probably best led by a member of the leadership team but shouldn’t be left to the leadership team alone. The Standard penetrates many aspects of school life so it’s a good idea to involve a representative group of staff, covering different roles and responsibilities.

Some audit teams work through the Audit Tool together as a group while other teams work through it individually first before coming together to question, challenge or support each others’ views.

The audits invite you to look at the whole Standard and identify the indicators (bronze, silver, gold) that are:

• secure
• partly there
• or need starting from scratch.

The point about these audits is to get a feel for your strengths and, from this, decide which level you wish to make secure . Your audit may show a smattering of secure indicators across all the levels but unless almost all of the bronze indicators are met you should opt to secure this level first.

Bronze level forms the foundation for the development of the whole Standard.

This is the shape of the Basic Audit Tool

Using the Basic Audit Tool

The Basic Audit Tool shows the whole Standard and invites you to identify any indicator you think is secure or otherwise.

Look first at the explanation column – each cell gives you a flavour of what the line or thread of indicators is about. The first line 1.1, for instance, is about how the school grows and uses its (new) vision for learning. For each indicator roughly judge the extent to which you believe that your practice is ‘secure’, ‘partial’ or one for ‘development’, using the criteria below:

• Secure (S) – this indicator is in place / established / embedded and could be confirmed by interview, documentation or observation.
• Partly (P) – some evidence exists for this indicator, but some work needs to be done to improve / refine practice and make it more secure.
• Development (D) – this indicator is not yet evident in our practice, or in the very early stages of development, and requires substantial investment.

About levels

Each level or stage of the indicator thread grows from the one before. If you are claiming an indicator to be secure at say, Silver, then it must also be secure at Bronze. The indicator threads capture progression in several ways. Sometimes progression is about doing things more often, in more places [some teachers or many teachers]. Sometimes the progression is about getting better at something, becoming more sophisticated, or fluent.

Use the School Development Guide

We recommend you use to the LQF School Development Guide for more information on all the Bronze, Silver and Gold Indicators; they may be trickier than you think. As the Audit is being completed you will quickly start to get a sense of the strength of your practice against the Standard. Equally you will be gaining a sense of the development points and progression necessary to move upwards through the Levels of the Standard.

Downloads

You can choose to work on either:

• a PDF version of the basic audit tool…download and print sufficient copies.
• or a spreadsheet version…

Big decision

After completing the audit you have a big decision to make. Which level of the Standard do you want to make secure? If you have hardly any indicators secure then the obvious place to start is Bronze. If however you have much of Bronze in place plus a smattering of Silver you may opt to work on Silver level knowing you will need to secure the last few bronze indicators as you work out your Action Plan.

The Deep Audit Tool can be used to:

• Achieve a baseline measure of where the school is as it begins its development;
• Identify key indicators that need attention in order to formulate action plans;
• Monitor ongoing progress and check progress towards the desired level of practice;
• Provide evidence to support self-certification and/or in advance of external verification.

The deep audit tool provides a searching analysis of the school’s practice against the 32 indicators of the LQS. At each phase of development the indicator is broken down into three and frequently four component parts.

Navigating the audit tool

• The 32 indicators in the Learning Quality Standard each have a double page spread [pages 1a to 32a and 1b to 32b] For example, the audit for Indicator 3.2 looks like this:

• The ‘b’ pages are prompts relating to each of these statements and an indication of the documentary evidence that the school should be building for verification. The page gives the questions you might ask yourself and the evidence you might consider in arriving at your judgements:

• And there is a score sheet to record your self-assessment[The score sheet has been completed for illustrative purposes. The overall score for this indicator is 4 because the school has answered:
  • No to 1.1 and 1.2 AND
  • Yes to all phase 3 statements AND
  • Yes to at least half of the phase 5 statements.]

   

• Detailed instructions for scoring the audit, and a brief definition of terms used are on page 66
• There are two sets of recording/scoring sheets. Eleven sheets that enable you to record your judgements against all of the indicators and statements, and to arrive at a score for each indicator [pages 67 to 77], and one audit summary sheet to check readiness for verification [page 66]

See download instructions below

Undertaking an audit:

• Decide who should be involved. 4-5 people. At least 3 senior leaders. Be aware this may take 3-4 hours to complete.
• Make a copy of all of the recording/scoring sheets and the summary sheet, and date them
• Work through the 32 indicators in order, answering yes/no to each of the statements – refer to page 66 in the audit if necessary;

Scoring the judgements:

• The ‘rules’ for converting your judgements into a raw score are on page 66;
• Read these carefully as they are not straightforward.
  • [Statements 1.1 and 1.2 are negatives and hence a positive response is ‘no’
  • all other statements from 3.1 onwards are positives and hence a positive response is ‘yes’.
  • This impacts on the scoring, as does the proportion of positive responses at each of the other three statement levels]
• Refer to The School Development Guide for further support and guidance
• Score each indicator and circle it in the ‘Score’ box to the right of the recording sheet
• Do this for each indicator in turn
• Transfer your scores on to the Audit Summary sheet, page 66.

Interpreting the Audit Summary sheet:

• A completed Audit Summary  gives a quick visual picture of the school’s current position in LQF.
• Use it to check progress
  • since the last audit
  • to refine action plans
  • as the basis of the school’s first LQF action plan
• The boxes that are ‘grey’ are considered to be essential if a particular level is to be considered secure
• To be considered secure at Bronze level, the school needs to have scored ‘3’ or higher in at least 29 of the LQF indicators, and not scored less than 3 in any of the essential ‘grey’ indicators at Bronze level
• To be considered secure at Silver level, the school needs to have scored ‘5’ or higher in at least 29 of the LQF indicators, and not scored less than 5 in any of the essential ‘grey’ indicators at Silver level
• To be considered secure at Gold level, the school needs to have scored ‘7’ in at least 29 of the LQF indicators, and not scored less than 7 in any of the essential ‘grey’ indicators at Gold level.

Big decision

Having completed the audit you have a big decision to make.

Which level of the Standard do you want to make secure?

If you have hardly any indicators secure then the obvious place to start is Bronze. If  you have much of Bronze in place plus a smattering of Silver you may opt to work on Silver level but knowing you will need to secure the last few bronze indicators as you work out your Action Plan.

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If using Deep Audit to prepare for Action:

• Go to the next section (4) which helps you through the action planning process;
• Without taking action, the completion of the audit tool will have been a waste of time – knowing what needs doing and doing it are quite different.

If using Deep Audit to prepare for Verification:

• Complete a thorough audit as outlined above;
• Check that your audit summary is consistent with the level of verification you are seeking;
• If you are going to self-verify i.e. Bronze, use the Level Assessment Chart in section 6  to gather/record your evidence base.
• If you are seeking external verification i.e. Silver and above, contact TLO to initiate the verification process using the form in section 6.3.

Downloading and printing the Deep Audit

Experience suggests that printing a hard copy of the audit tool for each person taking part in the audit is essential.