Focus can offer you a number of options supporting your Self Evaluation:

1.  Consultant Visit to your School: One to One Support

The consultant will work with you to ensure that your self evaluation accurately reflects your school.  This day will help you to improve your self evaluation skills.  By the end of the day you will have your self-evaluation, almost if not completely, written.

The main points covered are:
• The context of your school
• How seeking views links with leadership
• How to make judgements about attainment and achievement using  RAISE online and other in-school data
• How to make judgements about attainment and achievement in the non core subjects
• How to measure children’s personal development and well being
• How the evaluation of the quality of provision needs to ‘stack up’ to the outcomes reached by children
• The impact of leadership focusing on ambition and drive

2.  New Publication to support 'Simple Self Evaluation: Replacing your SEF'
This publication supports school leaders to show their self-evaluation in line with the new inspection framework (from January 2012). It provides leaders with a simple format that they can use to link the Ofsted criteria to their evaluation.
It has been trialled in a range of schools; including schools inspected as part of Ofsted’s piloting of the new framework. Feedback from headteachers has been hugely positive… ‘It is so simple but yet does everything it needs to. I wish I had used this instead of spending hours on the SEF’.
For further information or to order your copy at £55, click here.

3.  Simplifying your RAISE online
This activity is designed to take place away from the school by a Focus Education Consultant trained to lead inspections.  You will be required to send your RAISE-online to the Focus Centre.  This will be passed to one of our consultants who is a qualified inspector who will then work on your RAISE, making it accessible to governors and staff.  You will be provided with a power-point booklet which will help you to explain the main issues. It can be used as a book to be distributed or as a presentation for you to work through with people.  Click here for more information

"Your consultant recently came to us to help us to write a new SEF.  We were OFSTED -ED just before half term.  The inspector praised the SEF and said it was one of the best he had come across.  This made a really good start to a successful inspection.  Please pass my thanks on."

To find out information on prices, dates and availability for any of the above, telephone the Inservice department on 01457 872427 or email This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

4.  New Publication on 'Evaluating your RAISE online' (Revised 2012)
This publication breaks RAISE online down into bite sized chunks. It explains what each section is or isn’t telling you and gives key questions to ask when analysing your RAISE. Throughout the book there are tips and pointers to make your life easier.  The book also contains photocopiable templates which will help your analysis of RAISE and ensure that you are covering all the important points for your own evaluation and also for inspection. This book will be of use to school leaders and staff who want to be ahead of the game in using and understanding whole school data to write evaluations and decide areas for improvement.  For further information or to order your copy at £25, click here.