School Improvement
At St Mary's, we aim to build a culture of courage; this means the courage to continually improve so that we can give the very best that we can to our children. As part of this, all leaders support others in their development and carry out regular quality assurance to both celebrate success, and to support improvement. The Senior Leadership Team also write and monitor a whole school improvement plan. Our priorities for development for 2023-24 are:
Spirituality is defined and nurtured in all. Children and adults readily engage with existential questions and make informed decisions on how, then, to live and learn together.
Assessment is timely and accurate; policies, procedures and programmes mean teachers and leaders use purposeful strategies to regularly check pupils' understanding and make direct changes to future provision where necessary.
The curriculum is academically and spiritually enabling for all pupils: focussed and clear planning ensures that it is delivered with consistency to a high quality.
Pupil progress is prioritised and enabled through strong teaching; as a result, attainment in each cohort is high (80%+), or rapidly improving.
Physical environments are of the highest quality: as a result, they enable deep learning and spiritual development
Leaders act as talent architects, actively and deliberately developing staff members' knowledge and skills in response to need. As a result, adults thrive, staff retention is high and recruitment is fruitful
As part of our work with SNMAT, we are also visited twice per term by the Academy Improvement Director and/or the CEO. These are partnership days with governors and senior leaders that celebrate areas of success and identify next steps for development. Feedback from the day is then given directly to our governors through a 'Governor Keeping in Touch (GKIT) meeting. You can find out more about this process on the MAT website link below.