Who is this template for?
This template is designed for English Subject Leaders and teachers in England who are responsible for leading, managing, and improving the quality of English education within their school. It provides a structured framework to support deep, evidence-based evaluation and strategic planning.
Why use this template?
- Promote an Evidence-Based Culture: Ensure that judgements about the quality of your English provision are backed by reliable data, observations, and insights, moving beyond anecdotal evidence to create a robust and defensible evaluation.
- Align with Ofsted's Research: Structure your department's self-evaluation around the key factors that Ofsted has identified as contributing to high-quality English education, ensuring your improvement efforts are focused on what matters most.
- Drive Strategic Improvement: The template guides you through a logical process of identifying strengths (helping factors) and weaknesses (hindering factors), which directly informs the creation of a targeted and effective departmental action plan.
- Enhance Curriculum Cohesion: Evaluate the intent, implementation, and impact of your English curriculum, ensuring it is ambitious, well-sequenced, and meets the needs of all pupils.
- Foster Team Collaboration: Use the template as a focal point for departmental meetings, inviting colleagues to contribute their perspectives and build a shared understanding of priorities and a collective sense of ownership over the improvement plan.
- Clarify and Simplify Complexity: Distil the comprehensive findings of the Ofsted research review into a clear, manageable, and actionable framework, saving you time and focusing your team's energy.
How does it work?
This template follows the standard, intuitive iAbacus process: make a judgement, verify it with criteria, provide evidence, analyse the helping and hindering factors, and create a targeted action plan. The evaluation is structured around four key areas identified in the Ofsted research review:
- Curriculum
- Pedagogy
- Assessment
- Systems at subject/school level
Gaining Strategic Insight
For senior leaders, gaining a clear overview of curriculum quality across the school is essential. A Headteacher can use the iAbacus 'Overlay' feature to combine the completed departmental review abacuses from all Subject Leaders. This provides an instant visual 'heat map' of curriculum strengths and weaknesses across the school, helping to identify common CPD needs, highlight subjects that require targeted support, or share pockets of excellence.
Clear, Professional Reporting
Once your evaluation and action plan are complete, iAbacus generates a polished, visually compelling PDF report with a single click. This is perfect for distribution to your subject team at a departmental meeting to ensure every member is clear on the agreed-upon priorities, responsibilities, and success criteria in their action plan. It also serves as a clear and professional summary for sharing with senior leaders and governors.
References / Source Material
How to Get Started
New to iAbacus? Discover how this template can support your improvement strategy. Book a personalised demo or start a free trial to explore the full platform. Visit www.iAbacus.com to learn more.
Already a subscriber? You can find this template in the template library within your iAbacus account. Simply log in, create a new abacus, and select it from the list to get started.
