Step 4

The success of the Action Plan is often dependent on how the action is sequenced over the time available. Most Bronze plans are sequenced over 12 months. Longer timescales can lead to a loss of momentum and a lack of coherence. Silver and Gold plans are usually sequenced over about eighteen months each.

A practical tip for sequencing

A simple but useful tip for sequencing a plan is to think through the different aspects of the action projects – break them up into separate actions – and write each aspect of a project onto coloured sticky notes. Keep all the aspects of one action project on the same colour note. Use different coloured notes for different projects. You can then move the notes around on a year planner until you find a sequence that is realistic.

Make sure the sequence:

• takes into account the other action plans the school is working through, e.g OFSTED action plan. Avoid overload in any one term and dovetail any related actions from other plans.
• starts major strategic projects early in the plan, e.g creating a vision.
• takes account of the content of any LQS training or support programmes which you may want to be following. Make sure you know what is coming up when in such a programme before you sequence your Action Plan. It would be a pity if you worked on the school’s learning framework in one term only to discover better ideas in a training course the following term.
• maps in with the usual planning cycle of the school.
• leaves about 3-4 months free before an anticipated external review date. This time can be used to fill any remaining gaps in practice as revealed by your self-review.

Gold Phase Action Planning

Where to start:

There is an assumption that all of the Indicators at Bronze and Silver level are secure. If any Bronze/Silver Indicators still require attention, consider doing these first before embarking on:

• Dimension 1 Commitment: ensure that Indicators 2.2(g), 3.1(g) are addressed first. Both require a long timescale, especially as 3.2(g) necessarily follows 3.1(g), and 3.2(g) is a necessary condition for 11.2(g) and 11.3(g).
• Dimension 2 Planning: ensure that Indicators 4.3(g), 5,4(g) are secured – they open the path for the other Indicators in Dimensions 2 and 3.
• Dimension 3 Action: As at the Silver phase, enable and support small scale enquiries in any of the Indicators 7.1(g) through to 9.2(g).   The Gold phase is about both quality and quantity, both improving existing good practice and spreading it ever more widely across the school.
• Dimension 4 Evaluation: Indicator 12.1(g) is the key to this phase – it is where the concept of the school as a learning organisation comes into sharp relief. Indicators 11.2(g) and 11.3(g) are important but difficult to achieve – they depend on developments in Indicators 3.1(g) and 3.2(g).

The Action Plan Shaping Tool is laid out thus:

In the following Action Plan Shaping Tool, the dark green Indicators in the left hand column are the ‘must start with‘ Indicators, the lighter green ones flow from the darker green ones, and the uncoloured ones will come on stream later in the process.

Download it as a pdf or as a spreadsheet:

Being faced with 32 indicators that all need attention can seem daunting. It calls for some clear thinking to distil it down to a manageable Action Plan.

These key questions will start you off on the process:

• Which indicator will take the longest to achieve?
• Which indicator will be the trickiest to achieve? ( in your circumstances)
• Which indicators are dependent on others being started first?
• Which indicators naturally cluster together?

Your first Action Plan for any level is unlikely to include all the indicators. As you get going and see more clearly how things fit together you will add more action projects to your plan. However there are indicators which, if they need attention, should be considered first because they take longer to implement, or they open the path for others or they are key to that principle or dimension.

Here are our ‘starters for ten’

Typical action projects linked to the indicators

Key Tasks

1. Use the outcomes of your Audit to populate the Action Plan Shaping Tool.
2. Once complete, use the completed Action Plan Shaping Tool to generate an Action Plan – you may choose to use your existing Improvement Plan format, or download the generic one below.

The Action Plan Shaping Tool is laid out thus:

Bronze Phase Action Planning

In the following Action Plan Shaping Tool, the dark green Indicators in the left hand column are the ‘must start with’ Indicators, the lighter green ones flow from the darker green ones, and the uncoloured ones will come on stream later in the process.

Download it as a pdf or as a spreadsheet:

Where to start:

• Dimension 1 Commitment: ensure that Indicators 1.1(b) and 1.2(b) are addressed first – it is not possible to make much progress with Principles 2 and 3 until Principle 1 is well established.
• Dimension 2 Planning: ensure that Indicator 4.1(b), which flows from 1.1, is addressed, moving on to Indicator 4.2(b) – it is how teachers are engaged in the discussions about learning and sets the scene for establishing small scale learning enquiries (Indicator 5.1(b)) in the context of a teacher learning community (indicator 5.2(b)). Together 4.1, 4.2 and 5.1, 5.2 combine to drive Dimension 3 forward.
• Dimension 3 Action: At this stage, enable small scale enquiries in any of the Indicators 7.1(b) through to 9.2(b) – no need for complete coverage at this stage, and gains in one often spill over into others. In particular changes in Principle 7 frequently have a pay off in the linked Indicator in Principle 8. Do not worry too much about Principle 6 and Principle 10 at this stage – both can be addressed further down the line.
• Dimension 4 Evaluation: Indicators 11.1(b) and 11.3(b) are linked and form a good starting point, but both can be delayed while necessary progress is made in Dimensions 1, 2 and 3.

What’s next?

Armed with the results from your audit you could now just use your existing improvement planning formats and create an Action Plan. However, we have created a phase related tool that identify important indicators and offer a suggested order for indicator threads.

The Action Plan Shaping Tool

This Action Planing Shaping Tool does what it says on the tin. It helps you to shape an Action Plan based on clustering indicators rather than one that slavishly follows 32 indicators separately.

This tool is available electronically and in a paper version and is concerned with only one level of the framework. It offers the indicators and an expansion of the indicators together with where to find more information in the Development Guide.

Each section begins with a suggested order in which you might tackle the Indicator threads, as improving in some indicators is dependent on others having already been addressed, and starting on 32 threads simultaneously is evidently impossible.

The right hand columns headed Starter Indicator or Linked indicator give useful information about important indicators or how they link together. So before tackling what action you need to take get a sense of which indicators are best started first and how indicators might cluster or fit together.

Using analysis codes

The electronic version has a couple of analysis-code columns at the end. When you have decided what is to be done start looking for patterns and relationships and use the analysis codes to physically group things together.

These columns allow you to classify your action statements, using any scheme you like for grouping the statements together.

Once you have entered codes in a column, you can use Excel’s feature for filtering data in the table, according to the codes. You can request a sort on up to two columns that are already filled in. These will be of use in creating meaningful arrangements of the indicator / actions. We leave you to decide the details of how and when to use this possibility, but offer some suggestions  for categories.

• actions or clusters of actions that naturally fit into one or more of the school’s current long term strategies
• actions that are identified as being in their early stages
• actions that you have designated funding for
• actions that are urgent and need dealing with swiftly
• actions that will need to work with one another

The paper version won’t of course perform these tricks but can be useful when groups first get together to look at the indicators, tease out meaning and begin to look at relationships.