Who is this template for?
This template is designed specifically for the leadership teams in post-primary schools in Ireland. It is an essential tool for the Principal, Deputy Principal, Assistant Principals, and the Board of Management undertaking the crucial process of School Self-Evaluation (SSE). It provides the definitive structure to evaluate your school's performance against the official standards and prepare for inspection.
Why use this template?
Moving beyond static documents, this iAbacus template transforms the Looking at Our School 2022 framework into a dynamic, collaborative, and continuous improvement process.
- Ensure Inspection Readiness: The template is a direct reflection of the LAOS 2022 framework, structured around the two key dimensions and eight domains.This ensures your self-evaluation is comprehensive, directly aligned with Inspectorate expectations, and leaves no stone unturned.
- Create a Single Source of Truth: Consolidate all your evaluative judgements, supporting evidence, analysis, and resulting actions into one clear, accessible, and up-to-date School Improvement Plan (SIP).
- Promote an Evidence-Based Culture: Move from subjective statements to objective analysis. The iAbacus process prompts you to link qualitative and quantitative evidence to every judgement, creating a robust and defensible evaluation ready for scrutiny.
- Foster Meaningful Collaboration: Easily involve your entire leadership team and relevant staff in the evaluation process. By assigning roles and permissions, you can build a shared understanding of priorities and foster collective ownership of the improvement journey.
- Save Valuable Leadership Time: The template provides a ready-made, official structure for your SSE. This removes the significant administrative burden of designing a process from scratch, freeing you to focus on the high-impact work of analysis and strategic planning.
How does it work?
This template guides you through the intuitive iAbacus self-evaluation workflow: make a judgement, verify it against the LAOS criteria, attach your evidence, analyse the helping and hindering factors, and create a targeted action plan.
The evaluation is structured across the two dimensions and eight domains of the Looking at Our School 2022 framework:
- LEARNING AND TEACHING
- 1: Learner outcomes
- 2: Learner experiences
- 3: Teachers’ individual practice
- 4: Teachers’ collective / collaborative practice
- LEADERSHIP AND MANAGEMENT
- 1: Leading teaching and learning
- 2: Managing the organisation
- 3: Leading school development
- 4: Developing leadership capacity
Gaining Strategic Insight
For leaders at a Patron or Education and Training Board (ETB) level, this template provides a powerful tool for strategic oversight. By using the iAbacus 'Overlay' and 'Stack' features, you can compare self-evaluations from multiple schools that are all using the same consistent LAOS framework. This allows you to instantly visualise performance across the group, identify schools that may require targeted support, and pinpoint successful strategies in high-performing schools that can be shared and replicated across the entire network.
Clear, Professional Reporting
With a single click, you can export your entire self-evaluation into a polished, professional PDF report. This report is invaluable for a range of audiences:
- The Inspectorate: Present a transparent, comprehensive summary of your SSE process, demonstrating that your judgements are robust, evidence-based, and directly aligned with the LAOS 2022 framework.
- Wider School Staff: Provide a clear overview of the agreed-upon improvement priorities, ensuring every staff member understands their role and responsibility within the School Improvement Plan.
- Parents: Share a reader-friendly summary of the school's improvement goals and priorities, keeping them informed and engaged in the school's development.
- The SSE Coordinator: Maintain a detailed and organised record of the self-evaluation journey, which is essential for tracking progress and informing the next cycle of improvement planning.
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.
