This week the Education Support Centre will share the comments of an external validation of its School Self Review and Evaluation (SSRE) with parents. The process of SSRE is continuous and entails schools and other sections of the education service reviewing their work and making judgments about what they are doing well and where they need to take action to secure improvement, explained Martin Barrow, Director of Education with the Department of Education and Children. The possible judgments are outstanding, good, satisfactory and inadequate. ‘This process supports schools/services in having a clear view of how to build on their current strengths to ensure they continue to offer the best possible learning opportunities to pupils,’ Mr Barrow said. ‘The Department of Education and Children believes that this process is proving very effective in helping schools to improve their practice.’ To support schools/services in confirming that the judgments they have made are accurate, the process has an external element built in to it. Since September 2008 a validation cycle has been taking place in primary schools, Mr Barrow explained. It involves an external validator, together with a Department of Education and Children Adviser, spending time working with headteachers to review the evidence schools have used to make judgments and to quality assure their accuracy. Any areas for improvement or further dissemination of best practice are then identified in the annual School Improvement Plan and supported by the school’s link adviser. Autumn 2009 saw validations commence in secondary schools and other aspects of the education service as well. The first full cycle of SSRE validations is now complete with the publication of the Education Support Centre’s outcomes and the Department is evaluating the SSRE process and will commission further external validations when schools have had the opportunity to implement any changes to that process. Mr Barrow said: ‘The main aim of the validation process is to provide professional support to schools/services to help them to refine their own judgments. In addition, when a school/service has been involved in this validation process they will take the opportunity to share key outcomes with parents by summarising them in a newsletter.’ ENDS