The importance of Governors speaking ‘Alps’

Whether you use Alps at Key Stage 4, 5 or both, I am sure that we can agree that it is vital for all our Governors to be well versed in the language of Alps and in the basic methodology used. Effective training for governors is part of a strong leadership team, and will make progress meetings run smoother, share the culture of ambition and aspiration, and ensure that Alps is truly embedded across all stakeholders in the school or college.

A strong leadership team will always ensure that their governing body is able to talk knowledgeably about their progress data, empowering them to hold school leaders to account.

Alps analysis offers a powerful insight into your progress data, and directly relates to aspects of the Ofsted criteria which should be considered by a strong Governing Body. This can be summarised in the following points:

• How effectively do you work with leaders to develop a culture of ambition?
• Do you provide a balance of challenge and support to leaders?
• Do you understand the strengths and areas for improvement?
• Do you provide support because you have an understanding of the issues?
• Do you understand the impact of teaching, learning and assessment on the progress of pupils?
• Do you ensure that assessment information from leaders provides governors with sufficient and accurate information to ask probing questions about outcomes?
• Do you evaluate how the school is using the pupil premium, and special educational needs funding?

Addressing these points requires governors to be able to ask pertinent and timely questions of the Senior Team on progress data. A skilled governing body will be able to analyse both examination and in-year tracking data at a strategic level and hold leaders to account on progress towards aspirational and challenging targets.

In order to support leadership teams, we at Alps have created training options designed specifically for governors. Their purpose is to provide an overview of the methodology of Alps and the headline strategic indicators, facilitating the work that you do with your governing body.

The first is a webinar which you will find on the Training Hub page of our website. Do share this link with your governors – Governors training recorded webinar. They can watch the webinar by clicking onto the link at any time.

Alternatively, you may want one of our Education Team to train your governors using your own school / college data. These sessions can run as twilights and can be booked via our website – Training courses, or by calling our offices on 01484 887 600.

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