Who is this template for?
This template is a powerful self-evaluation tool designed for anyone involved in strategic school leadership in Northern Ireland. It is primarily for the Board of Governors (BoG), including the Chairperson, and is also highly valuable for Principals, Vice-Principals, School Senior Leaders, Managing Authorities, and Education Authority Representatives who wish to assess and support school governance.
Why use this template?
This template is essential for ensuring your school's governance is not only compliant but also proactive and impactful. Here are the key benefits:
- Aligns with ETI Expectations: This self-evaluation tool directly mirrors the language, structure, and quality indicators used by the Education and Training Inspectorate (ETI), ensuring your board is prepared for an inspection and focused on the right areas.
- Facilitates Strategic Self-Reflection: It enables the Board of Governors to objectively assess its own performance and impact on the school's effectiveness, identifying areas of strength to build upon and areas needing development to address.
- Creates a Clear Action Plan: By highlighting areas of "Limited Effectiveness," the template helps the board to prioritise and develop a focused action plan to enhance their governance practices.
- Enhances Collaboration: It provides a common, evidence-based framework for discussion and collaboration among governors and school leadership, ensuring everyone is working towards the same strategic goals.
- Demonstrates Accountability: The completed evaluation serves as clear, demonstrable evidence for the ETI and other key stakeholders that the Board of Governors is actively engaged in quality assurance and continuous school improvement.
- Informs Resource Allocation: By evaluating the 'Resources' indicator, the board can make more informed decisions about budget and staffing, ensuring resources are strategically deployed to support key school priorities.
How does it work?
This template guides you through the intuitive iAbacus process, helping your board to move from initial judgement to a robust, evidence-based action plan. The evaluation is structured around the five key areas of effective governance:
- Strategic Leadership
- Action to Promote Improvement
- Resources
- Quality of the Provision for Learning
- Achievements and Standards
Gaining Strategic Insight
For Managing Authorities or Principals overseeing multiple schools, this template provides a powerful tool for strategic oversight. By using the 'Stack' feature, you can combine the evaluations from different schools' Boards of Governors to create a single, high-level view of governance effectiveness across your entire group. This allows you to easily identify system-wide strengths and pinpoint specific areas, such as Strategic Leadership or Resources, where some boards might need additional training or support.
Clear, Professional Reporting
Once your evaluation is complete, the iAbacus platform can generate a professional, customisable PDF report with a single click. This report is ideal for sharing with the Education and Training Inspectorate (ETI) as part of an inspection, for formally recording your self-evaluation at Board of Governors meetings, and for providing the Principal with a clear overview to align school development priorities with the board's strategic direction.
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.
