An in-depth look at action planning: getting the right balance

A key role of an English Subject Leader is looking strategically at what is currently happening with the subject and identifying areas for improvement. This is where your action planning comes in.

Be clear and concise

Although action planning is vital in order to share goals, ensure that workload is considered and drive forward improvement, it is important to get the balance right. Action plans need to be clear and concise so that they can be utilised effectively. Too often, subject leaders spend hours of their time writing action plans that are pages and pages long. If the action planning document becomes so unwieldy that people aren’t able to focus on what the key priorities are, then it becomes meaningless. Too many targets mean they are far less likely to be achieved and it can be really disheartening to reach the end of the academic year and have an action plan with many uncompleted targets.

Be ambitious but realistic in what can be achieved in a year

So, how will you decide where your priorities lie?

As a subject leader you need to know what is currently going on to know which areas need improvement. Begin by reflecting on last year’s action plan. Was it evaluated? What evidence informed that evaluation? It should be informed by summative data but that ought to be used in combination with monitoring, discussion with staff and pupils, and other pupil progress and outcomes.

Following the whole school self-evaluation, senior leaders will then decide upon the priorities for the School Development Plan (SDP) or School Improvement Plan (SIP). It is likely that English will feature on an SDP/SIP, as reading and writing form a large part of the statutory assessments on which schools are judged. Therefore, you will need to liaise with your senior leadership team. Use the key priorities from the SDP/SIP to create targets for your subject action plan.

Key questions to consider

• What are the key priorities as a school and how does English fit within those?
• What do I know about current practice in the priority areas? Do I need to do some more research?
• What will make the biggest difference to pupil outcomes?
• Do we need to make changes to our English policy to achieve our goals?
• What actions need to be taken to achieve the goals?
• Who will be involved in helping to achieve the goals?
• What is a realistic time-frame for actions to be achieved?
• How will we know when we have been successful?
• How will we embed changes and maintain success once we have achieved it?

Reflecting upon and discussing these questions will help you to decide what should go in your action plan. Remember to keep it concise – ideally no more than 1-2 pages – and in a format that is simple and easy to follow. The plan itself should not become more important than the results it is aiming to achieve.

Setting targets

The DfE produced an action planning tool for creating a school behaviour culture in April 2024. Whilst not pertaining specifically to subject action planning, the principles are still relevant and can be applied. They recommend that ‘Actions should be

specific and avoid ambiguous or aspirational language. School leaders should be clear about what needs to change, who has lead responsibility for each action and the timeframes for completion.’  With that in mind, it is a good idea to make sure that all targets in your action plan are SMART.

SpecificMeasurable

Achievable

Relevant

Time-bound

Once you have defined your targets, it is useful to develop success criteria. What will success look like? What will have changed once you have achieved your intended outcome?

Following this, it is time to consider the actions you, or others, need to take to meet the success criteria. Again, keep these simple and concise.

Involving others

You will obviously need to involve others in the process of implementing change to meet targets on your action plan. The EEF research into successful implementation in schools highlights the importance of uniting people around what is being implemented, how it will be implemented, and why it matters. It is important to have a good knowledge of your staff as there are several things to consider:

Who will support you?

Who will challenge you? (not necessarily a negative thing as they can often help you to reflect upon and refine any changes you’re making)

Who will be your early adopters?

Who is demonstrating strong practice already?

Pitfalls

There are legitimate barriers to implementing action plans effectively in schools – the bombardment of ideas and initiatives, limited time and resources, and the pressures to yield quick results. Nevertheless, the EEF guidance report shows a lot can be achieved with careful thought, planning, and delivery using existing resources and structures.

The report and the accompanying toolkits can be really useful to assist you with implementing any changes and can be found on the link below.

https://educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk/education-evidence/guidance-reports/implementation

Support

It may seem like a daunting task but it is exciting to drive forward improvement in your subject. The key thing to bear in mind is that everything you are doing should benefit the pupils and staff. Our Pathways Platform is here to help and you can find example documents to assist you. Alternatively, you can book in consultant support to help you with identifying areas for improvement in your school and formulating a plan to ensure success.