Who is this template for?
This template is designed for Headteachers, Senior Leadership Teams (SLT), and Early Years setting leaders in England. It provides a clear and robust framework to guide your whole-setting self-evaluation and strategic improvement planning.
Why use this template?
This template helps you create a single source of truth for your Improvement Plan, consolidating all judgements, evidence, and actions in one accessible place. It provides a clear structure to guide your thinking and ensures your judgements are consistent, evidence-based, and ready for inspection.
- Inspection-Ready Framework: The template’s structure directly mirrors the Ofsted Early Years Inspection Handbook, ensuring your self-evaluation is comprehensive, relevant, and covers all key judgement areas.
- Strengthen Professional Judgement: The process starts with your professional insight, then uses the official criteria to help you verify and strengthen your judgements, building confidence in your evaluation.
- Create a Robust Evidence Base: Link every judgement to specific evidence by attaching files, notes, or data. This creates a single, organised evidence repository, perfect for demonstrating the impact of your work.
- Drive Meaningful Action: The built-in analysis of ‘helping’ and ‘hindering’ factors helps you understand the root causes behind your performance, leading to targeted, effective action plans that drive real change.
- Foster Collaboration: Invite your leadership team to contribute to a single, shared abacus, building a collective view of performance and fostering a culture of shared ownership for improvement.
- Save Time and Reduce Workload: Unify your evaluation, evidence, and planning in one place. This streamlines the process, avoids duplication, and makes it simple to track progress over time.
How does it work?
This template uses the standard, intuitive iAbacus process: make a judgement, verify it against the criteria, provide your evidence, analyse the helping and hindering factors, and build your action plan. The evaluation is structured around the five key areas of the Ofsted Education Inspection Framework (EIF):
- Overall Effectiveness
- Quality of Education
- Behaviour and Attitudes
- Personal Development
- Leadership and Management
Gaining Strategic Insight
For leaders overseeing a group of Early Years settings or a Multi-Academy Trust (MAT) with Early Years provision, this template provides a powerful strategic overview. By using the iAbacus 'Stack' feature, a CEO or Director can instantly view the self-evaluation abacuses from all settings in the group on a single screen. This creates a panoramic view of performance, making it easy to compare progress, identify settings that may require targeted support, and pinpoint successful strategies in high-performing settings that can be replicated across the group.
Clear, Professional Reporting
With a single click, you can export your entire evaluation into a polished, professional PDF report. This is ideal for sharing with governors or presenting to an inspector as a clear summary of your setting's self-evaluation. The report showcases a robust and transparent approach to improvement planning, with all judgements backed by clear evidence, demonstrating your commitment to providing the highest quality of education and care.
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.
