School improvement partners
New Relationship with Schools: School improvement partners
The New Relationship with Schools (NRwS) is a systematic change to the relationship between schools and central and local government. The main purpose of this new relationship is to improve standards in all schools by giving greater autonomy and responsibility to schools within the context of more intelligent accountability and reduced bureaucracy.
The NRwS comprises several strands, including an increased emphasis on self–evaluation, which informs the new, lighter-touch Ofsted inspection process; a reduction in unnecessary bureaucracy by streamlining funding processes; replacing the governors’ annual report to parents with the school profile; and ensuring better data systems to help schools focus on self improvement priorities. An important strand within the NRwS is the school improvement partner (SIP).
The role of the SIP is to act as a critical professional friend to the school, helping to evaluate its performance, identify priorities for improvement, and plan effective change. The aim of the SIP is to build the school’s capacity to improve the achievement of its pupils.
By September 2006, all secondary schools will have a SIP. Since September 2005, 6 local authorities (Haringey, Liverpool, Manchester, Redbridge, West Sussex and part of Lancashire) have been participating in a pilot for SIPs in primary schools. The learning from this pilot is being used to ensure the effective delivery of the SIP programme at a national level. SIPs will be introduced into primary schools in four waves; the first wave being in January 2007 and the last in April 2008 (see lists below). Seven local authorities are currently trialling SIPs in special schools.
A SIP will be qualified and accredited to a national standard and will be employed and allocated to your school by your local authority. Your SIP is likely to be a serving headteacher, a school improvement advisor with significant recent experience of working in schools, or an independent consultant. A SIP will be an experienced professional who really knows the business of school improvement and the realities of school leadership.
A SIP will be well placed to identify and broker support for your school from a range of providers. Typically SIPs will work with schools for the equivalent of five days each year, although not all of this time will be spent at the school. As an average a SIP will spend three days in a school.
The SIP will also advise the governing body on the headteacher’s performance management, fulfilling the role previously taken by an external adviser. The contract for this work with Cambridge Education ends in April 2006. As SIPs will not be in place in primary schools before January 2007 and in some cases April 2008, governors will have the option to commission advice from an external adviser of their choice. The funds for the external adviser functions will be incorporated into your school’s budget from April 2006. None of this changes governors' responsibilities: headteachers should still be appraised and governors should note that their statutory responsibility to undertake performance management of their headteacher remains unchanged.
You may find the list of frequently asked questions about SIPs useful.
For further information about the role of the SIP see the following documents:
Text updated: 13 April 2006
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