Background
School improvement is a central aspect of the governing body's overall responsibility to raise educational standards irrespective of the absolute levels of achievement at the school.

In many schools, the main focus for school improvement will probably be the school improvement plan (or school development plan). This plan outlines the improvement or development opportunities that the stakeholders in the school have identified as being the main priorities to be addressed in order to raise standards. The plan will identify the actions, resources, responsibilities, time-scales and success criteria associated with each opportunity and will prioritise them to make best use of available funding or resources.

In schools facing challenging circumstances (SFCC) and schools causing concern, school improvement will be part of a more formal and extensive set of measures aimed at tackling the underlying issues needed to raise standards at the school. This will be in line with Government initiatives that have been developed to help raise standards in under-performing schools.

Responsibility
Although there is no legal requirement, the Governors guide to the law states that "A good governing body will ensure that the school has in place an effective process for reviewing performance, identifying priorities, taking action and monitoring progress". This is normally referred to as the school improvement plan or school development plan.

In schools that have been identified as being:

• Schools facing challenging circumstances
  - secondary schools which are not meeting the Government's floor targets at Key Stage 4
• Schools causing concern:
  • schools with serious weaknesses
    - schools which Ofsted have identified as having serious weaknesses in one or more areas but which are providing an acceptable level of education overall
  • schools in special measures
    - schools which Ofsted have identified as failing to provide an acceptable standard of education to its pupils.

it is likely that the governing body will be involved in more formal procedures and activities focused on addressing the need to raise standards at the school. These initiatives could include any number of the following:

• Excellence in cities
  - a programme of support for schools in deprived areas of the country providing resources and a coherent programme of strategies focused on teaching and learning, behaviour and attendance, and leadership.
• Fresh start
  - a school which is closed and then re-opened on the same site with additional funding and support.
• Interim executive boards
  - a specially constituted governing body to replace the existing governing body in exceptional circumstances
• Leadership incentive grant
  - funding of £125,000 per annum for 3 years for 1,400 schools to help ensure that the leadership teams are able to transform the delivery of education.
• School improvement advisers
  - advisers working within local authorities (LAs) to devise and implement strategies for schools facing challenging circumstances
• Leading Edge programme
  - a programme that supports groups of secondary schools to tackle the most critical learning challenges

Guidance
There is no formal guidance on the creation and management of the school improvement plan.  Calderdale LA's governor services have developed a useful guide to preparing a school improvement plan which can be downloaded from their website by following the link in Web Links below (please note this is a .pdf file).

There are a range of resources that will be important tools in helping the governing body and school leadership team devise the School Improvement Plan including:

• the Autumn Package
  - produced jointly by DCSF, Ofsted and QCA, the Autumn Package provides each school with benchmarking information relating their performance to similar schools (the PANDA) as well as to national summary and value-added information.  Follow the link in Web Links below to the Standards Site - Autumn Package.
• the Audit Commission Financial Benchmarking
• Ofsted Enhanced Data Collection and Self-Evaluation Tool.

The following GovernorNet Articles provide additional information, guidance and links on benchmarking and self-evaluation as part of school improvement and can be viewed by following the links in Background Reading below:

• Ten tips for successful benchmarking
• A self-evaluation service for all state sector schools.

The Standards Website (see Web Links below) has a section devoted to school improvement for schools causing concern and facing challenging circumstances. This area provides detailed information, guidance, good practice and an extensive list of publications. More information is available in the GovernorNet Article on schools causing concern (follow the link in Background below).

Chapter 22 of the Guide to the law for school governors provides detailed information on the formation and role of interim executive boards. Follow the link in Background below.