School Improvement
Our Services
Our strong team, with decades of experience, can provide you with a wide range of services to assist you with school improvement.
Our services are open to all primary schools. We have a very strong link with the Diocese of Blackburn and other CE Dioceses in the North of England and work with faith schools in local Catholic Dioceses, community schools in nine different Local Authority areas and with MATs, providing support for due diligence, school improvement support and quality assurance.
From September 2023, we welcomed advisers with secondary and special school headteacher experience and can now provide school improvement support in these sectors.
See the sections below for details of our:
Service Level Agreement (SLA) provides you with a whole range of school improvement support including support with self-evaluation, school reviews, CPD, senior appointments, appraisal and so much more.
Consultancy led by our experienced team of school advisers led by Paul Duckworth, bringing extensive knowledge across a range of areas.
Training including highly regarded termly senior leader briefings, key CPD courses and bespoke CPD in school.
Service Level Agreement
High Quality School Improvement
A flexible and bespoke SLA package to suit the needs of your school so we can all serve our schools and children.
Costs for April 2024 to March 2025:
Single school £3400 (plus VAT)
Collaborations/federations £4650 (plus VAT)
SLAs can be entered into at any point in the school year and the cost adjusted pro rata.
Further information can be found here: DBE School Improvement SLA Booklet for Primary Schools 2024-25
To sign up for an SLA, either complete the form here or contact Paul Duckworth at: paul@dbeservices.co.uk.
What's included in your SLA Package
- A named school adviser
- Five visits per year (1/2-day visits on-site)
- On-going telephone and e-mail support whenever required
- Support for headteacher & deputy headteacher appointments (Each school will receive professional advice/support on the appointment of a headteacher/deputy headteacher for one recruitment round each year. If a further recruitment process is required, this may incur an additional charge.)
- Notes of visit that support school improvement – returned promptly by e-mail
- A weekly update – with links to leadership information as well as some of the latest research and thinking on curriculum, teaching and learning.
- Two free places at termly ‘senior leader briefings’ These cover current issues, sharing best practice and leadership development topics.
- Support for the school’s Ofsted Inspection (before, during & after the inspection)
- Support for the governing body in strategic leadership and school improvement
- Free membership of DBE Networks (for example, new headteachers, coastal schools, subject leaders and EYFS)
Consultancy from our Advisers
More than just SLAs
DBE Services School Improvement team offer more than SLAs. With vast experience as both primary headteachers and advisers the team bring valuable insight, knowledge and expertise to their consultancy work. You can see the wide range of work we offer outside of SLAs in the image below.
Spotlight Practitioner
As a Spotlight practitioner, Paul uses this tool to support leadership development in school. The spotlight profile would be charged separately (currently £75 per person) but SLA time (or additional adviser time) can be used to provide feedback and coaching support. We also have other Spotlight practitioners in our ‘DBE Partnership’ (including several headteachers) so schools have the option of working with a coach who is not their school adviser if they wish.
Headteacher and CEO Appraisal
DBE Services' advisers can support governors and trustees with senior leader appraisal. The support includes preparation of paperwork in consultation with the headteacher/CEO, attendance at the appraisal meeting, with guidance and advice provided throughout, and completion of the appraisal record following the meeting.
Cost - £630
Costs
Full day of adviser support - £630 (plus VAT)
Half day of adviser support - £320 (plus VAT)
Twilight session of adviser support - £210 (plus VAT)
MAT School Improvement Offer
We are really happy to have a conversation with any MAT, even in its development phase, about how we could be your strategic School Improvement partner. We already work with a range of MATs across the North-West and are really open for a discussion to find a deliverable School Improvement solution that meets your need. This could involve a bespoke offer based on the range of services we offer our schools through the SLA, and can also include MAT specific requirements on a consultancy basis.
Our full DBE Services School Improvement Offer for Multi Academy Trusts can be found here with the costed options available here.
Training & CPD
Latest events and training opportunities
Details of the courses we are currently offering can be found here, or send an e-mail to Tracey in our admin team:
Other CPD
In-school INSET can be delivered to suit the needs of the school…Twilight (2 hours) – £365Half-day (3 hours) – £470Full day (6 hours) – £785
Cluster INSET
This can be organised by arrangement – for which there is a separate charging structure.
Meet The Team
Our Advisers
Paul Duckworth
Head of School Improvement
Carolyn Singleton
Full-time School Adviser
Nick
Ward
Full-time School Adviser
Tracey Hargreaves
School Support Officer
All our advisers have successful primary headship experience (often in a number of different schools). Four of our advisers have experience as senior advisers in a Local Authority, two at head of service level.
We are very proud to have the following experienced advisers in our team, working alongside Paul, Carolyn and Nick:
- Alison Mitchell
- Chris Lawler
- Gillian Wilton (serving headteacher)
- Heather Wareing
- Jill Walmsley
- Jonathan Hewitt
- Karen Alty (serving headteacher)
- Mark Bradshaw
- Sue Pittendreigh (serving headteacher)
- Sharon Bowker (serving headteacher)
If you have any questions, or would like to get in touch please email: schoolimprovement@dbeservices.co.uk
