Post-Primary Context - SSE 6 Step Process

School Self Evaluation

School Self-Evaluation (SSE) was introduced into Irish schools in 2012/13 with all schools required to engage in the process. Through school self-evaluation, schools are asked to reflect on and review their day-to-day practices and their policies, with a particular focus on teaching and learning. It is intended to be a collaborative, reflective process of internal school review focused on school improvement, where schools ask themselves the following questions in relation to a particular aspect of their work:

• How well are we doing?

• How do we know?

• How can we find out more? What evidence can we get to do this?

• What are our strengths?

• What are our areas for improvement?

• How can we improve?

The school staff identify an area for improvement or focus and follow the six step process

Step 1: Identify focus

Step 2: Gather evidence

Step 3: Analyse and make judgements

Step 4: Write and share report and improvement plan

Step 5: Put improvement plan into action

Step 6: Monitor actions and evaluate impact

Essentially the school gathers evidence to show how they are doing in a particular area of teaching and learning (i.e. reading standards). The evidence can be a combination of standardised test results, completed tasks, surveys and interviews with teachers, parents and students.

Findings are recorded in an SSE Report which is shared with the staff and the school community.

The school then maps these findings against good practice benchmarks which are provided in Chapter 4 of the School Self Evaluation Guidelines.

The school then set targets for improvement to be achieved within an agreed timeframe.

Actions are agreed to fulfil each target leading to the creation of an action plan or a School Improvement Plan (SIP).

Progress is then monitored and reviewed. Full details of the process are available in the published guidelines here.

School Self-Evaluation in the 2020/2021 school year

Under Circular 40/2016, the second cycle of school self-evaluation (SSE) was due to cover the period from September 2016 to June 2020 and a third cycle was due to commence in September 2020. The Department of Education recognises that because of the extended period of school and centre closure that has taken place since 12 March 2020, students, parents, teachers, principals, coordinators and boards of management may have been unable to engage in SSE activity during this time. In view of this, the Department of Education is extending the second cycle of SSE until June 2021. Consequently, the third cycle of SSE, which had been due to commence in September 2020, will now commence in September 2021. This means that there will be no new SSE requirements for schools and centres for education in the school year 2020/21. See update as per Circular 41/2020.

In the school year 2020/21, schools and centres for education will have the flexibility to:

Use the SSE process to help them to address the challenges that will arise from the re-opening of schools and centres in line with public health advice. These may include, for example, issues concerning the organisation of the daily routines of schools and centres, student and staff wellbeing, adjustments (if required) to curriculum and assessment, and changes to teaching, learning and assessment practices.

AND/OR

Complete work on the aspects of teaching and learning that they had selected as the focus for self-evaluation in the period 2016-2020.

Further Supports

The dedicated school self-evaluation website at www.schoolself-evaluation.ie provides up-to-date materials to support school self-evaluation. Supports include:

Videos illustrating schools’ engagement with particular aspects of school self-evaluation
Templates and sample school self-evaluation materials provided by schools from a variety of contexts
Updates published at regular intervals during the school year can be found here.

The Professional Development Service for Teachers (PDST) provide SSE professional development support for schools and have a broad range of materials available at https://www.pdst.ie/SSEResources. These include:

Webinars for each stage of the SSE cycle
Tutorials and booklets
Templates and prompts

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