Introduction
What is ‘quality improvement’?
“To improve is to change; to be perfect is to change often.”
- Winston Churchill
”Quality is never an accident; it is always the result of high intention, sincere effort, intelligent direction and skillful execution”
- John Ruskin
Quality improvement is the relentless pursuit of excellence, an unwavering commitment to refining processes and enhancing outcomes. It is the bridge between aspirations and achievements, ensuring that everything we do reflects the highest standards and contributes to the continuous raising of the bar of what is possible. It implies a cyclical process of checking
how well things are going, fixing problems along the way and preventing future problems before they occur.
Quality improvement in education is about having systems in place to continuously monitor and improve all aspects of provision for students, not just the outcomes that they attain.
Why is it more than quality control or quality assurance?
The concept of quality improvement encompasses both quality control and quality assurance, which are two integral components of ensuring and enhancing overall quality.
Quality control:
• seeks to find problems, often after they have occurred usually takes place at the end of something and is therefore reactive
• is measuring something against a standard, so is arguably quantitative
This is the opposite to quality assurance, which is proactive.
Quality assurance:
• is an ongoing process to avoid problems before they occur
• involves creating and implementing processes and standards to ensure that what happens in future meets established criteria, so is arguably more qualitative.
Quality control identifies problems, whereas quality assurance seeks to avoid problems. However, the processes of quality control and quality assurance are both aimed at ensuring certain criteria are met, with a view to improving the quality of what is offered.
Therefore, an organisation needs to have defined what success will look like when achieved. There needs to be an agreed conception of quality.
Our conception of quality at Windsor Academy Trust
The School Transformation Model
At Windsor Academy Trust (WAT), our conception of quality is set out in the School Transformation Model (STM). This captures our expectations for high quality with regard to:
• Alignment to culture and codified approaches
• Leadership Great People
• CPL
• Personal Potential
• Safeguarding
• Attendance
• Engagement (inc. Behaviour)
The School Transformation model: School Improvement Pyramid
• Curriculum
• Teacher Effectiveness
• Learner Effectiveness
• Outcomes
• Sustainability
• Civic Leadership (Including parental partnerships)
Each box contains a definition of what quality looks like at different stages on the journey to a school being securely and consistently ‘synergised’, as in the example below. ‘Synergise’ is our conception of what high quality looks like.
Observable Features Stabilise Build Foundations Grow Synergise Alignment to culture and codified approaches
Leaders are not sufficiently aware, or committed to, the WAT culture, values and moral purpose. The lack of foundation for improvement means that codified approaches cannot be implemented effectively.
Leaders are committed to the codified approaches, WAT culture, values and moral purpose. They are beginning to embed these at pace through a highly strategic planning process with support from the MAT.
Through the agreed codified approaches, WAT culture, values and moral purpose are modelled by leaders and are becoming increasingly embedded.
Through the agreed codified approaches, WAT culture, values and moral purpose are modelled by all staff and pupils. They are embedded and are readily observable through all stakeholders’ participation in school life.
Sitting beneath this strategic set of descriptors, we have our codified approaches. These set specific expectations for what we do across a range of aspects of provision, the processes that we go through to achieve the high quality set out in the STM.
At WAT, we have developed an approach to school improvement that focuses on moving our schools through the phases of the STM towards synergise in each area listed above.
The WAT approach to school improvement
Our school improvement pyramid sets out the factors that are key to unlocking students’ academic and personal potential. These are set out in the STM. Fundamental to the model is the line that says ‘diagnosis to improvement’.
1. The school improvement pyramid
2. Diagnosis Improvement
This is because we believe that accurate diagnosis is essential to successful school improvement.
This model of ‘diagnosis to improvement’ guides our decisions about what needs to change and in making sure that the change happens.
3. The WAT mental model of school improvement
- what is the problem/why? - sustainable solutions - take action - has it worked as intended?
We recognise that the journey from diagnosis to improvement is complex and multi-faceted.
Therefore, we use this simplified mental model to deliver the process of diagnosis to improvement.
The ‘quality improvement’ cycle as the driver of WAT school improvement
As indicated in the introduction, quality improvement continuously seeks to answer these questions:
• How are we doing in ‘xxx’?
• Why are we doing as we are?
• How do we know?
Is change needed? If so, what?
• What are we going to do now?
How well did it work? Did the actions achieve the intended impact?
Have our actions: been carried out as planned?
• been the right ones?
• led to the desired change?
What are we going to do? What actions are we going to take?
Have we considered:
• Who?
• When? How?
Then, after the actions have been completed: How well did it work? …
… and the process starts again. This is the Quality Improvement Cycle
How are we doing?
What are we checking, and for what?
What are we measuring against?
• STM? Codified approaches? Other?
• Measuring against a standard (QC) or examining processes (QA)?
Why are we doing as we are? How do we know?
Have we: looked at enough
• scrutinised it well enough
• measured against the right indicators
What needs to happen? Is change needed? If so, what?
Have we identified:
• What part of the process, not just the outcomes? What will it look like when it is fixedthe intended impact?
Asking these questions about the right things at the right time (as set out in the SI pyramid) and using the mental model of school improvement as the guide to planning and taking actions means that we are in a better position to be looking for the cause of potential problems and so more likely to take remedial action early enough to prevent the issue becoming embedded.
Thus, the principle of having a quality improvement cycle drives school improvement activities in the right direction and focuses on creating success.
The WAT Quality Improvement Toolkit aims to ensure that this happens consistently well in all our schools.
References
Balch et al. (2012). MET Project - Asking Students about Teaching.
Creemers.B and Kyriakides (2006). A dynamic approach to school improvement: main
Education Scotland (2015). How good is our school? Edition 4.
Edwards Deming (1982). Quality Productivity and Competitive Position