NPQSL Cycle 4: Leading Organisational Effectiveness
Formative Assessment Task Options
Option one: Keeping children safe in education
Programme framework statements covered
Organisational management
Learn that…
7.1. Leaders have a duty of care to pupils and staff.
7.2. All staff have a responsibility to provide a safe environment in which children can learn.
7.3. Schools and colleges and their staff are an important part of the wider safeguarding system for children.
Learn how to…
Contribute to the protection and safety of pupils and colleagues, including by:
7.a. Ensuring safeguarding is the first priority of every colleague in the school.
7.b. Understanding and complying with the law and statutory guidance related to safeguarding (including Keeping Children Safe in Education) and health and safety.
7.c. Working with other agencies (e.g., children’s social care teams) to share information and support wider child protection work.
7.d. Contributing to clear, effective safeguarding and health and safety policies, processes and systems within the school.
Introduction
The necessity for schools to have robust systems and processes in place to ensure that children are safe in education, and what this entails, is described in ‘Keeping Children Safe in Education 2021: Statutory Guidance for Schools and Colleges’. All senior leaders have a role to play in ensuring that their school adheres to this statutory requirement, although the nature of their engagement will vary according to their specific role within their school.
This task will be of particular value to (a) senior leaders who wish to review their school’s current policies and procedures in order to ensure that their school is meeting statutory guidance, and (b) senior leaders who wish to develop their own knowledge and understanding in order to better fulfil their role as a senior leader.
To complete this task, you should first download a copy of ‘Keeping Children Safe in Education 2021: Statutory Guidance for Schools and Colleges’ from the Resources section below.
Resources
▪ Department for Education (2025). Keeping children safe in education 2025: Statutory Guidance for Schools and Colleges. https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/68add931969253904d155860/Keeping_ch ildren_safe_in_education_from_1_September_2025.pdf
▪ NSPCC (2021). Safeguarding and child protection self-assessment tool. Safeguarding and child protection self-assessment tool | NSPCC Learning.
Task: Keeping children safe in education
For this task, you should access the NSPCC’s ‘Safeguarding and Child Protection Self-Assessment Tool’ using the link in the Resources section above.
Step
one: Quick overview
1. You will need to register in order to use the tool. Registration is free and requires some basic information about you and your school.
2. You will then work through a series of questions which require ‘yes’, ‘no’ or ‘partially met’ responses. There is also a facility to comment.
3. When you have completed the self-assessment, an Action Plan is generated based upon your responses.
4. There is the facility to complete the self-assessment in stages; i.e., any information you have entered can be saved if you leave the programme and return at a later stage. If you do this, you must click on ‘saved assessments’, otherwise the programme assumes you wish to begin the process again.
Step
two: Approaching the self-assessment tool
The questions take the form of ‘Do you carry out all the appropriate checks before staff and volunteers start in their role?’, etc. You can choose to respond to the questions from one of two perspectives:
▪ If you are the person with overall responsibility for keeping children safe, then ‘you’ in this instance should refer to yourself.
▪ If you do not have a specific responsibility, then ‘you’ may refer to your school; i.e., does/does not the school have a particular process in place?
It is for you to decide which perspective, but it is important to be consistent and maintain the same perspective throughout.
Step three: Completing the self-assessment tool
1. Before starting it will be helpful to have the following documents available: Keeping Children Safe in Education; relevant policies drawn up by your school.
2. There are three options for each question: ‘Yes’, ‘No’, ‘Partially met’.
3. There is also a notes function. You should use this when you have responded ‘No’ or ‘Partially met’. For example, you might record ‘School guidance needs updating’ or ‘I need to research detecting signs of abuse’. These comments will appear in the Action Plan.
Step four: The Action Plan
When you are satisfied with your responses to each of the sections, you should download the Action Plan.
Use your Action Plan to write a report titled ‘Keeping children safe in (insert name of school)’ (maximum 600 words). Your report should cover the following:
▪ outcomes from self-assessment audit – strengths and areas to address
▪ implementation plan to address areas of weakness, e.g., policies that need updating, staff training that may be required, improved links with external organisations, including your rationale for the actions you propose
When you have completed your report, upload it in Canvas to your leadership performance coach within the timeframe identified.
Option two: Supporting staff with parental engagement
Programme framework statements covered
Working in partnership
Learn that…
9.1. Good relationships and partnerships are a foundation of a good school.
9.2. Building effective relationships with parents, carers and families can improve pupils’ motivation, behaviour and academic success.
9.3. There is an established link between the home learning environment at all ages and children’s performance at school. However, evidence on effective strategies that schools can use to engage parents/carers in their children’s education is mixed.
9.4. If the aim is solely to improve academic outcomes, classroom interventions working directly with children currently have more evidence of effectiveness at improving educational outcomes than parenting interventions with the same aim.
9.5. Working effectively with parents/carers can be challenging and is likely to require sustained effort and support.
Learn how to…
Work in partnership with parents and carers, including by:
9.a. Providing practical approaches to support parents and carers to help their children with learning at home including promoting reading; establishing a regular routine; good homework habits; setting goals, planning, and managing their time, effort, and emotions.
9.b. Communicating carefully to encourage positive, two-way dialogue about learning, focussing on building parents/carers’ efficacy and avoiding stigmatising, blaming, or discouraging parents/carers, and ensuring staff communicate in the same way.
Introduction
“According to recent surveys of schools in England, the majority (80%) of school leaders believe that engaging parents is the responsibility of all staff, and almost all teachers believe that parental engagement has a positive impact on their school. However, relatively few (28%) school leaders report that they currently provide staff with any training about how to engage parents or have a plan for how they would like staff to work with parents ” (EEF, 2019, Working with Parents to Support Children’s Learning, p. 11)
This task explores how senior leaders can support staff in their efforts to promote effective parental engagement through their leadership of, and support for, all colleagues involved in working with parents. It focuses on:
▪ having a clear expectation of what is, and is not, expected of different staff members in relation to parental engagement and communication, and ensuring corresponding amounts of time are available
▪ being clear about how parental engagement is intended to contribute towards overall school improvement priorities so that all staff understand the potential benefits for both the school and pupils
▪ ensuring an understanding of both the barriers to parental engagement and the strategies to address these
▪ providing leadership support and training for individual staff members where parental engagement becomes challenging or difficult
Before beginning this task, you should access the resources below.
Resources
▪ Education Endowment Foundation (2021). Working with parents to support children’s learning. Working with parents | EEF (educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk)
Essential reading. This task is based around the evidence presented in this report.
▪ Education Endowment Foundation (2018). Toolkit: Parental engagement. Parental engagement | EEF (educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk)
Useful background.
▪ Harris, A., & Goodall, J. (2007). Engaging parents in raising achievement: Do parents know they matter? London: DCSF. DCSF-RW004.pdf (ioe.ac.uk).
Useful for insights into the challenges of engaging with ‘hard-to-reach’ parents.
Task: Supporting staff with parental engagement
Step
one: Review of practice
Ask two or three appropriate staff to assist you in reviewing your school’s current practice. For example, if you work in a special school, this might include a classroom teacher and a homeschool liaison worker; if you work in a secondary school, this might include a head of year and a form tutor; if you work in a primary school, this might include a receptionist and a classroom teacher.
Download the ‘Parental engagement and communication’ proforma below, and use this as a basis for your discussions with the staff you have identified. You could complete the proforma either as a group or you could complete the proforma with each staff member individually.
Step two: Reflection and review
Reflect on the feedback from your colleagues and your learning from the resources listed above to identify two or three key areas for development for your school.
When you have completed these activities, produce a report titled ‘Supporting staff with parental engagement’ (maximum 600 words). The target audience for your report should be your school’s senior leadership them, although it is not a requirement that you submit it to them.
In producing your report, you may wish to consider the following:
▪ current policies – are they adequate?
▪ expectations of staff – are they clear, comprehensive, etc.?
▪ barriers our staff face
▪ support for staff – current practice
▪ recommendations – specific actions to improve practice, together with a rationale for each proposed action and an analysis of any implementation challenges
When you have completed your report, upload it in Canvas to your leadership performance coach within the timeframe identified.
Proforma: Parental engagement and communication
Prompts Observations
Purpose
Is it clear to all staff how parental engagement is intended to contribute towards overall school improvement priorities so that all staff understand the potential benefits for both the school and pupils?
If so, where, when and how is this articulated?
Consider:
▪ mission/vision statement
▪ development plan
▪ key documents, e.g., a policy statement
▪ meetings
Expectations
Where are the school’s expectations of those engaged in working with parents articulated?
Consider:
▪ classroom teachers, e.g., how they should communicate with parents
▪ receptionists, e.g., the style to be adopted when parents visit the school
▪ teaching assistants, e.g., how they should work with teachers to ensure effective communication
▪ parent support workers, e.g., how they should behave on home visits
Barriers
In your context, what are the main barriers to parental engagement?
What guidance does the school provide to staff on strategies for overcoming these barriers?
(See pages 27–31 of Harris & Goodall, 2007, for examples of common barriers. The list is not exhaustive and there may be others specific to your context.)
Support
What leadership support and/or training does the school provide for individual staff members where parental engagement becomes challenging or difficult?
Consider:
▪ written guidance
▪ training, including coaching
▪ senior leaders sitting in on meetings led by less experienced staff
Option three: Understanding effective governance
Programme framework statements covered Governance and accountability
Learn that…
10.1. High quality effective and ethical governance is key to success in our school system.
10.2. Different types of school structures have different governance and accountability arrangements. Each set of arrangements has different regulations and statutory duties and therefore different policies, processes and systems associated with it.
Learn how to…
Begin to appropriately participate in governance, and fulfil obligations to give account, be challenged, and accept responsibility, including by:
10.a. Understanding the governance arrangements of the school, the respective roles (including the chair and the clerk), and the policies, processes and systems associated with it.
Introduction
This task is designed to develop participants’ knowledge and understanding of governance structures and key roles and responsibilities. It will be of particular value to those with limited experience of governance arrangements.
The DfE’s guidance on governance in maintained schools and governance in academy trust sets out the statutory functions of all governing boards, no matter what type of school or how many schools they govern:
▪ that the vision, ethos and strategic direction of the school are clearly defined
▪ that the headteacher performs their responsibilities for the educational performance of the school
▪ the sound, proper and effective use of the school’s financial resources
Maintained schools and academies
However, whilst the core functions of the boards of maintained schools and academies are the same, the governance structures of the two types of school are different. These functions are laid out in guidance for governance of maintained schools and governance of academy trusts (see links below).
If you wish to refresh your understanding of the differences between types of schools, you should access ‘Types of Schools’ from the link below.
Effective governance
The ‘Governance in maintained schools’ (DfE) provides an overview for school leaders of the key features of effective governance in section 1. You should study these pages and bear them in mind as you complete the task below.
Resources
▪ Department for Education (2025) https://www.gov.uk/guidance/governance-inmaintained-schools
Guidance on the strategic leadership and governance of local-authority-maintained schools. This non-statutory guidance replaces the governance handbook 2019. This is a reference document for those involved in local-authority-maintained school governance. It brings together essential information from a range of sources on the governing body’s roles and legal responsibilities.
▪ Department for Education (2025) https://www.gov.uk/guidance/-governance-in-academytrusts
Guidance on strategic leadership and the governance of academy trusts. This non-statutory guidance replaces the governance handbook 2019.
This is a reference document for those involved in trust governance. It provides essential information from a range of sources on the trust board’s roles and legal responsibilities.
▪ Department for Education (n.d.) Types of schools. https://www.gov.uk/types-of-school
Task: Effective governance in maintained schools and academies
This task requires you to explore the resources referred to above in preparation for completion of the task below.
Step one: Background reading
Download, read and make notes on the resources cited above. Before starting your reading, analyse the requirements of the task, outlined below, in order to focus your reading on the most relevant section of each document.
Step two: Meet with key personnel
Arrange, if possible, to meet with two or three of the following:
▪ chair
▪ clerk
▪ a parent governor
▪ the staff governor
Discuss with each of them:
▪ their view of their role, i.e., what do they see as their key functions?
▪ the main challenges of their role
▪ changes that might help them to carry out their role more effectively
When you have completed these activities, reflect upon your findings and then write a paper titled ‘Effective governance in maintained schools and academies’ (maximum 600 words).
Your paper should address the following:
▪ the rationale for having governing boards
▪ features of effective governance
▪ the different governance arrangements for academies and maintained schools, and why these exist
▪ suggestions for improvements to your school’s current practice, including your rationale for your proposals
When you have completed your paper, upload it in Canvas to your leadership performance coach within the timeframe identified.