Introduction
Monitoring is an essential component of current primary practice. Effective monitoring will ensure that standards of pupil attainment continue to rise, that curriculum coverage is appropriate, that planning, marking and assessment policies are followed, that pupils receive a broadly equal entitlement to the same curriculum and that the quality of teaching is addressed on a regular basis.

Rationale
Monitoring can be a sensitive issue within school as it reaches the heart of teachers' practice and pupils' learning. It is therefore intended that monitoring should be carried out with sensitivity, that it should involve as many people as possible and that it should be carried out within structured yet supportive framework of a team that is working together to improve standards. It should not take place in a competitive atmosphere and we should not consider ourselves to be inspectors. The information gathered from monitoring procedures must be used to carry the school, its staff and its pupils, forwards. This policy sets out suggested procedures in five areas of monitoring, an appropriate timetable for stages of implementation of the policy and examples of possible formats for the reporting of monitoring exercises.

Testing
Testing procedures monitor children's progress and attainment at various stages through the curriculum (see Assessment Policy). In addition to the legal requirement to test all pupils in the core subjects at the end of Key Stage 2 and the local requirement to conduct annual NFER tests, testing will become increasingly an internal mechanism for providing benchmarks and tracking progress through the curriculum. Annual SATS tests will take place across each year group in the core subjects and as planning becomes more developed it is expected that each half-termly unit will be accompanied by a task or a test in order to monitor pupils' attainment. This will begin in the core subjects of English, maths and science and if it proves successful will spread to other subjects. The information yielded from testing will enable teachers to monitor progress in their own and parallel classes, and subject leaders to view how their subject develops through the school.

Teacher Assessment
Where testing fails as a procedure for monitoring pupil progress is in its blanket application and content derived information. Therefore teacher assessment (see Assessment Policy) is also seen as a useful monitoring tool. As stated in the assessment policy annual teacher assessments of children's progress will be made backed up by regular moderation exercises in order to arrive at uniform consistency. This will enable teachers, subject leaders and senior management to track pupil progress in a similar way to the above forms of testing.

Individual Education Plans will continue to be an effective tool for the tracking and monitoring of the progress of children with special educational needs.

Monitoring of planning
Planning systems are currently undergoing much change at all levels. With these changes the monitoring of planning will play an important role. Much of the planning specifies exactly what should be taught in each subject and when the lessons should be taught. It is therefore expected that these plans should be followed. Where a plan is not followed it is expected that a suitable alternative should be used that addresses the same learning objectives. Where children are at an inappropriate level (too high or too low) to address the learning objectives of a plan it is expected that the teacher will modify those objectives. In some cases it may be necessary to differentiate lessons to different children's ability levels within a class. Where this is done it is expected that the teacher will demonstrate how the lesson has been differentiated. All of this forms the basis of teachers' short term planning, a previously cumbersome requirement that, though substantially reduced by the medium term plans should still be in evidence to show how teachers are organising their days and weeks, how they are approaching different lessons and where they are deviating from plans, if at all. In some areas of the curriculum there may not be medium term plans yet available for teachers to use. In these cases short term planning should be used as a substitute.

Teachers will be given schemes of work and medium term plans in colour coded subject folders. These are teachers' resources and will be updated as new parts are written. Teachers will also have half-termly planning folders in which will be kept the relevant medium term plans for all the subjects for that particular block of work. In addition to this teachers will be supplied with a format for short term planning. These folders will be monitored by the year group leader / Deputy Headteacher / Head Teacher regularly to track the effectiveness of planning.

Monitoring of books
Book monitoring is an essential tool to ensure that high standards are maintained, that planning, assessment and marking policies are followed and that children receive a broadly similar experience across each class in a year group with approximately the same standards of marking and assessment being applied. It is proposed that subject leaders and the senior management team will have a role in book monitoring.

Informally book monitoring may take place when teachers swap classes, cover classes, team teach or monitor in class. More formally subject leaders in English, maths and science will collect 6 books from each class every half term on the basis of 2 books from high ability pupils, 2 from average ability pupils, and 2 from low ability pupils. Leaders in History, Geography and R.E, will receive six books on the same basis once a term. Leaders in art, D.& T. and I.T. will have the opportunity to view a selection of work in those subjects. Each book monitoring session will take roughly half a day and the leader will be expected to fill in a book monitoring form. (See accompanying book monitoring form). These forms will then be submitted to the Head Teacher or Deputy Headteacher and if any action is to be taken as a result from the book monitoring session this will be a management responsibility following consultation with the subject leader.

Monitoring in class
Monitoring in class will be undertaken by subject leaders and senior management. It needs to identify two distinct areas: that of good practice and that of weakness. Where good practice is identified it needs to be shared across the staff as a model in a particular area. Where weakness is identified the teacher needs to be supported in a number of ways in order to raise the standard of teaching in that particular respect. Prior to any class monitoring the purpose and framework of the monitoring procedure must be discussed and agreed between both parties.

There are two distinct methods for monitoring in class; one being a 'focussed visit' where one particular issue of class management or quality of teaching is being monitored across a number of classes and the other being a more general visit where a lesson is observed in its entirety and feedback follows from what was seen.

Both types of class monitoring have a form to allow the person monitoring to provide effective feedback both to the class teacher and the Head Teacher. The monitoring procedure itself must take place as a non-threatening and supportive procedure. The person monitoring needs to provide constructive feedback that allows the teacher to recognise achievement and good practice whilst paying attention to positive suggestions that might develop the teacher's skills further. It is expected that both subject leaders and senior management will provide feedback to the class teacher after a session of class monitoring and that monitoring forms will be collected by the Head Teacher. If there are 'quality of teaching' issues or cases of planning or policies not being followed, these should be discussed with the Head Teacher or Deputy Headteacher before feedback is given to the class teacher.

The spirit of monitoring is to enable teachers to receive views on their own practice and the opportunity for constructive advice and action to improve practice. We should never be complacent about our own practice. Staff must trust their colleagues to support work in the classroom. Monitoring is also essential to achieve the goal of increasing pupil attainment.

Consequences of class monitoring:

Where good or excellent practice is identified the following options should be considered:

1. The teacher provides whole school INSET if appropriate
2. Other members of staff are given an opportunity to observe / team teach with that person.
3. The teacher identified is released to provide support in a colleague's class
4. The teacher identified is given the opportunity to feed their ideas into planning / assessment / other policies if appropriate

Where an example of weakness or poor teaching occurs the following support procedures should be utilised as appropriate:

1. The teacher is given an opportunity to discuss the issue
2. The teacher is released to observe an example of good practice in that area
3. The teacher is given support in class by a colleague
4. The teacher is given a chance to attend a course or INSET that might benefit them in this area.
5. The teacher is given time and support to enable them to improve their practice
6. The teacher is monitored to track progress in this area

• September 1998: Monitoring of planning to commence
• General monitoring in class to commence in core subjects
• October 1998: Book monitoring of English, Maths and science to take place
• December 1998: Book monitoring of History, Geography and R.E to take place
• Spring 1999: Focussed class monitoring to commence in core subjects
• Book monitoring in all subjects to take place
• Summer 1999: Monitoring policy fully implemented as class monitoring extends to all subjects.