Validator report
29 February 2024
SWA-Firwood High School-BL2 4HU-29/Feb/2024
Areas for further development
I hope you will decide to have another go at achieving the Award. If you do, it would also be helpful to include more specific information in you notes about your current provision and any changes you have made. To give a couple of examples you talk about how you “have carried out a range of new initiatives that have had a positive impact on staff wellbeing and help create a positive staff community” and that “staff have appreciated that SLT have consulted with staff and made conscientious efforts to improve staff wellbeing and create a team ethos”. It would be helpful if you could give brief examples of what these initiatives are and the means you have used to evaluate them.
Award term ref
Confirm the recommendation
0
Overall comments
We have discussed how the evidence you provide needs to show impact - i.e. the EFFECT of your provision or any changes you have made to it. Essentially, how do you know it is effective for all staff? There is guidance around what evidence you could include on the Awards website but I have also outlined above how I think you could evidence the impact of specific examples of provision you have included.
School ref
Validator benchmark comments
Benchmarks ref
Comments on impact identified during validation
Please also see my comments below with regard to the evidence as a whole. In terms of this particular benchmark, we talked about the individual support that you have given to staff around workload so you could include a couple of case studies here about the impact this has had on those staff. You could also conduct a brief all staff survey as outlined in the Award guidance.
Benchmarks ref
Comments on impact identified during validation
For this benchmark, you could collect feedback from staff (or produce a couple of case studies) on the impact of the buddy scheme or ask staff to evaluate the effectiveness of the wellbeing policy – what works well and what could be better. Include notes on any changes you make as a result. Also see the suggestions in the Award guidance.
Comments on impact identified during validation
You could include examples of your own surveys with examples of how you have acted in staff feedback. You could conduct a brief survey about changes to the staff room etc – have these had a positive impact and is there anything else that would staff like? Or ask staff what they found useful about the mindfulness training with regard to their own wellbeing (conduct a survey or include a couple of case studies. Note the evidence requirement to get feedback form a broad range of staff so a survey plus case studies would be a good combination here.
Benchmarks ref
Comments on impact identified during validation
You mention ‘different meetings and consultations with staff’ so you could include specific feedback from them around how effective the school is at showing staff appreciation. More specifically, you could ask about the staff breakfasts – what do staff like about these and what could be better? Again, note the requirement to gain feedback form a good range of staff (including non-teaching staff) and note any changes made as a result of their feedback. Consider surveying staff about all the ways you show appreciation - what do they like best and which strategies could be better?
Comments on impact identified during validation
You have included a calendar in your evidence – you could give examples of staff feedback on the school calendar and any changes made as a result. You also mention that ‘staff have demonstrated in different forums their appreciation of our willingness to support staff manage their individual needs’ so you could include examples or a summary of this feedback. Also consider conducting a survey as outlined in the Award guidance and noting any actions taken as a result of the feedback received.
Benchmarks ref
Comments on impact identified during validation
You could survey staff on the ‘wellbeing hour’ (include a brief explanation of what this involves in your notes on provision). You mention that staff have commented favourable on the Employee Assistance Programme so, again, you could seek feedback on what they like about it. Also consider an all staff survey along the lines of the one suggested in the guidance.
Comments on impact identified during validation
You mention the Trust’s decision to include staff wellbeing in appraisals and staff development conversations and that staff have appreciated this. How do you know this? You could collate responses from this question as evidence here. Summarise strengths and weaknesses and describe how you are addressing the latter. I would also consider changing the wording of the questions - “As a school do you feel YOU have been supportive of your professional needs”. Should this read ‘how do you feel WE have been supportive’? Alternatively, consider a survey or focus groups as outlined in the guidance.
Comments on impact identified during validation
Looking specifically at what you have included here, you could lead a discussion with staff about what they find useful about the briefings and what they would like to change. In particular, have they succeeded in your intention of communicating decisions more effectively? Note actions taken as result. What has been the effect of increasing staff involvement in decision making at middle management level? Do staff feel they have more autonomy? Again, collate feedback from a representative focus group or survey.
Validator recommendation
I recommend that the school is not accredited for this award
Validation confirm date
29/Feb/2024
Product attribute ref
Gold