School Development Plan - 2023-24

The School Development Plan (SDP) is a strategic plan for improvement. It should bring together, in a clear and simple way, the school priorities, the main measures it will take to raise standards, the resources dedicated to these, and the key outcomes and targets it intends to achieve.

At St Gerard's Catholic Primary & Nursery School, we work collaboratively with Senior Leaders, Governors, teachers and pupils to determine what our key priorities are for the coming academic year.  We follow a clear process to determine what areas of the school need to be further developed as well as identifying areas of strength within the school.  By consulting all of our stakeholders within the school, the document is one that we all identify with and acts as a common goal that we are all striving to achieve.

The School Development Plan is not a fixed document rather it is one that is flexible and adapts based on the needs of the school. The SDP is reviewed by Senior Leadership Team (SLT) on a regular basis and updates are provide to staff to ensure that we are all aware of any outstanding actions.

Our School Development Plan:

• Allows the whole school community to understand the school’s areas for development within the context of our Catholic vision.
• Provides everyone with a clear understanding of the school’s aims and objectives and how they will be achieved.
• Contains timescales for implementation to ensure accountability across the school.
• Allows the school to determine how to effectively use resources to meet goals.
• Helps the school to budget and determine spending priorities.
• Clarifies the key priorities the school believes are the most important to address at this time.

We constantly review everything we do based on self-evaluation (SEF), assessments, observations, feedback and the needs of the children within our care. Our monitoring cycle helps us to identify priorities and form the core of our School Development Plan. We believe it’s important to allow everyone the chance to contribute ideas for school improvement. We ask parents, staff, governors and our children to share their ideas through action planning, questionnaires and via the school and Pupil Parliament.

All staff members play a key role in determining our priorities and ensuring their success. Staff development forms a large part of our school improvement process, with staff encouraged to undertake training throughout the year, both internally and externally, and INSET days are planned to enhance teaching and learning. Once the SDP is agreed, we review it at least termly to ensure we are meeting expectations and are on course to deliver our promises.  Our Headteacher (Mr Landrum) and our Assistant Headteacher (Mr Naylor) report to the Governing Body to allow the Governors to understand the progress that is being made.

Subject leaders’ Action Plans are also to be considered alongside this document. As a Catholic School, we have an addition Action Plan in order to monitor the impact the catholic life of our school has on our pupils. Individual linked Governors work alongside staff members to allow progress in individual subjects or areas of responsibility to be identified.