Action Planning….

1. LENGTH OF TIME FOR THE PLAN…..Decide what is best for your school in its current circumstances?A year? Longer?Maybe even a short one term plan to really tackle an issue rapidly? What time period is best for what you are trying to achieve...?


2. DECIDING ON PRIORITIES….. Keep your priorities to a minimum. Often, the sections of the Ofsted framework or the key issues from the last inspection are helpful.Make sure your priorities are the KEY things that will make your school / department get to the next level…


3.ACTIONS…..Are the actions that you have chosen truly 'high impact actions'?For example, 'Make sure that Shakespeare displays are put up during the period of studying the text' may well be desirable, but with the best will in the world, is it really going to meet the target of 'Improve outcomes in Reading'....? Test: By doing this, will it raise standards…?


4. NEW DEVELOPMENTS…..Keep the plan focussed on new actions and developments. Having loads of 'maintenance' actions simply clogs up the plan, makes it too long, encourages slippage and makes it flabby instead of sharp…!


5. FORMATTING…..Make sure that you number the Priorities and Actions and Pages (don't just bullet point them). This makes it easier to reference actions and monitor what has been completed and achieved. Talking about the sixth bullet point down on the fourth page from the back after the bit on Maths is infuriatingly inefficient!However, talking about 4.3 on page 5 shows clearly that we are talking about Priority 4, Action 3 on Page 5. It also lets you do a little monitoring grid showing coverage/ impact....!

Oh, and don’t use Comic Sans!Use a professional and adult font…


6. TARGETS…..Don't forget, keep your targets SMART: Specific. Manageable. Achievable. Relevant. Time-related....


7. SUCCESS CRITERIA…..Have a few big picture Success Criteria for each Priority; don't get bogged down with Success Criteria for every single action - it's too much and makes monitoring painful...!


8.COMMUNICATION…..Let's be honest, most people won't even look at the plan, however proud we are of it!To communicate the key Priorities and the key Actions, why not do a summary sheet, blown up to poster size, to put on the staff room wall and to issue to key stakeholders...? This way you can clearly distil the key messages without all the waffly bits...!


9. MONITORING…..Leave a column on the plan for your monitoring notes. An Action Plan should be a working document and so any notes and scribbles and updates show that you are tracking the plan and monitoring the outcomes....


10. LESS IS MORE….. In nearly all circumstances, LESS IS MORE! Sharp, focused, tight…