Reflection and planning tool

Monitor the impact of approaches

Monitoring the effectiveness of an approach will help you understand whether it is being delivered with high quality and success, or whether (and how) it might need to be changed to improve processes and outcomes. To support effective monitoring, you should think about the outcomes you want to achieve and develop an appropriate set of measures. Data collection processes need to fit with school routines and be sustainable for staff to use in a busy working environment.

1. Track your attendance data

Schools will be using a range of tools and measures to monitor attendance, both for the headline and for more granular details that might otherwise be hidden (for example tracking sibling attendance, and attendance patterns on different days of the week). You may find it helpful to benchmark your attendance against other similar schools, for example by using the DfE’s monitor your school attendance tool.

There is some useful guidance and nuance about monitoring throughout A School’s Guide to Implementation, and particularly on p.31-33.

At Pembroke Park, we have achieved a significant improvement in attendance by ensuring everyone has eyes on the “monitor-evaluate” part of the EEF cycle. This is often the part that drops off and we can end up doing things “just because” - without being entirely sure of the impact. Personally, I am a huge fan of a spreadsheet so we have trackers set up to monitor our impact rigorously and regularly. We celebrate with our families when things are on the up and intervene swiftly when they wobble. By having a sharp eye on impact, we can be wholly confident that we are doing all we can to keep positive strategies going and to tweak, refine or ditch those that aren’t working. Of course, what works for one family may be entirely different to another and so it really has to be a team effort with monitoring to ensure that it is sustainable.

Toni Hayzen

Headteacher of Pembroke Park Primary School and Nursery

2. Consider how an approach will be monitored, before you implement it.

Questions to support effective monitoring

What information will we gather to monitor and evaluate the impact of approaches?
Does the recording and monitoring of information add to anyone’s workload? If so, is this workload reasonable within their role(s)? Is it possible to remove something else to make the time for this new activity?
What will be the signals that the approach is being implemented as we intend?
What will be the signals that the approach is having the intended impact on pupil attendance?
How will we know if problems are emerging with our approach?
Is any training or follow-on supported needed for staff beyond initial communication and training?
When and how will we respond to implementation data to tailor and improve our approach?

How do we adapt and refine our strategy? Even the best designed development plans require adaptation in practice. Being clear about the intended outcomes in the short, medium and long term will help to identify where things have gone wrong and where amendments are needed, such as more follow up training or providing increased time to sustain change.

Phil Stock

Director of Greenshaw Research School

Key guidance report

This guidance is aimed primarily at school leaders and other staff with responsibilities for managing change, such as heads of departments, phase leads, professional development leads, and members of implementation teams. This update further adds to the evidence on effective implementation, building on the recommendations of the previous guidance by incorporating lessons learnt from a new review of the evidence.