Developing a shared vision with BlueSky

REAL STORY
Secondary School Real Story
Garnock Academy, North Ayrshire
Developing a shared vision with BlueSky
At Garnock Academy, reflecting on the Standards of Registration is an ongoing
process that supports professional engagement and whole school improvement.
About the school
Garnock Academy is a semi-rural school in the heart
of the Garnock Valley in North Ayrshire. The school
has seen significant improvements in recent years
and Alan Dick joined as Headteacher in 2014. The
school has 120 staff and the majority of its 1,000 pupils
travel to school by bus. At the time of writing, the
school had recently been inspected.
What were the challenges?
Alan Dick, Headteacher, explains “On arrival at
Garnock, I wanted to bring together elements of the
Professional Review and Development (PRD), such
as, lesson observations, professional objectives
and professional update, and triangulate them with
school improvement. This is a great school with great
staff and, as well as involving them with the school’s
improvement, I wanted to give them an easy way to
record their progress and CPD whilst supporting their
development needs. As an example, at the
time, lesson observations only gauged individual
teacher performance and there was no analysis or
relationship with school improvement.
“I also wanted to keep the school improvement planning
live and ongoing and not simply a tick-box exercise.”
I wanted to bring together
elements of the Professional
Review and Development (PRD),
such as lesson observations,
professional objectives and
professional update and
triangulate them with school
improvement.
Alan Dick, Headteacher
We are currently using BlueSky
with the teaching staff who
find it intuitive and easy to use.
Johana House, Depute Headteacher
How is BlueSky helping?
What is the impact?
Johana House, Depute Headteacher explains,
“We are currently using BlueSky with the teaching
staff who find it intuitive and easy to use. Staff
can review themselves against the Standards for
Registration and then identify their professional
update needs, all within BlueSky. Some of these
needs are met within school, such as working with
“Most recently BlueSky impacted on our ability to engage
inspectors and demonstrated our commitment to selfevaluation at all levels. Using BlueSky provided clear
pathways on the journey to excellence and comments
from inspectors strengthened our belief in BlueSky.
colleagues, and this is logged within the system to
form part of their 35 hours of directed time.
nature and assists the development of our shared vision.
There is a clear articulation towards improvement and
everyone can see their role in the future of Garnock
Academy. Teachers reflect on the Standards of
Registration throughout the year which is supporting their
engagement with the PRD process, professional update
and developing them as professionals. I can quickly see
where our strengths are and where staff need support
which in time will influence our CPD provision.
“We reviewed our lesson observations and, as a
school, agreed four observation areas that would
apply to all staff, regardless of role. Our observation
form is in BlueSky and staff can choose if they use
a printed version or add their observations directly
into the software. The four elements we observe
on all link to school improvement make analysis of
progress and development need straightforward.”
Alan Dick continues, “Before our inspection, the
senior team rated themselves, and the school,
against the HGIOS (How Good Is Our School) quality
indicators. This really helped us to prepare for the
inspection and provided specific reports for the
inspectors.
“Embedding BlueSky with all staff supports our inclusive
What’s next?
“We are planning to develop bespoke CPD based on
needs analysis reporting and staff strengths. This will
raise the quality of CPD, bring more of it in-house and
further develop a collegiate staff. We have trialled the
BlueSky Projects area and plan to develop this to introduce
action research across the school. Another area we are
considering is 360 reviews, using this with senior staff will
help us in our self-evaluation.”
BlueSky impacted on our ability
to engage inspectors and
demonstrated our commitment to
self-evaluation at all levels.
Alan Dick, Headteacher
© BlueSky March 2015
Tel: 01483 880004 | Email: info@blueskyeducation.co.uk
Twitter: @BlueSkyMatters | www.blueskyeducation.co.uk
RS-09-0315
National Association of
School Business Management