This is a very significant section of the site as it embraces so much of a subject leader’s role. As you’d expect the areas covered are:
- Purposes of monitoring
- Tracking progress against targets
- Checking progress with curriculum coverage, adherence to schemes of work etc.
- Work scrutiny
- Lesson observations
- Pupil interviews
For each there is a brief introduction linked to a longer discussion paper and examples of pro-formas that have been successfully used in schools. Particularly helpful is the monitoring tracking sheet which may surprise you with how much monitoring you actually do already.
Purposes of monitoring
There are many questions to ask yourself about monitoring. What do you want to monitor and why? What are the most helpful and reliable methods to capture the information you need? When is the optimum time to monitor specific features of the departments’ work? How will you ensure that it leads to improvement?
Tracking progress against targets
You will want to carry out a number of separate monitoring activities at set intervals e.g. formal assessments. This will not simply be a case of looking at examples of work: it will also involve setting numerical targets for specific teaching groups, based on prior attainment. This
