School Improvement Plan

School Improvement Plan 2024 - 2029

Our Vision: Success for everyone

Our Mission 

  • At Matthew Arnold School students make great progress in their learning and attain ambitious outcomes through our excellent curriculum. Through our diverse and inclusive community we support students to become kind and responsible young adults, confident and proud of who they are and ready when they leave us to make a positive contribution to their world.

Our Values

Our values are recognised as part of everyday school life.

  • Ambition: We are ambitious for all, guiding students and staff to discover a world of opportunity, pushing limits to achieve individual excellent
  • Inclusion: Every individual is valued for who they are, is proud of what they bring to the school and is proud to belong to the school
  • Collaboration: We contribute collectively, sharing responsibility for each person’s success 
  • Kindness: Every interaction is conducted with kindness 

Our Measures of success for 2025

Everyone belonging as measured by

  • A rising progress 8
  • SEND progress > Progress of All
  • PPG progress > Progress of All
  • No permanent exclusion

Key Focus

Our key focus group of students is our most vulnerable students, specifically those students with SEND or for whom we reach the pupil premium grant. It is through the lens of these students that this improvement plan is written

Academic Year 2025 – 2026

Below is a summary of the key priorities for 

SIP area 1

We design a curriculum experience that enables students to achieve success for everyone

  • Staff know what they are teaching and why (including sequencing, purpose of tasks, assessment, HWs etc), including for non-specialists
  • All staff are able to collaborate in curriculum design
  • Subject curricula have clear intent, shared and understood by all 
  • All students have equitable access to a broad and balanced curriculum where curriculum documentation supports Great Teaching
  • All curriculum areas have schemes detailing lesson by lesson AT THE LEVEL OF TASK what the students are learning and actually doing
  • All subjects explicitly teach the reading, literacy and numeracy for their subject in highly intentional ways.
  • Students are able  to articulate their learning and rationale, including our KS3/4 and 5 PSHE curriculum 
  • We have a fully resourced KS3, 4 and 5 curriculum

Sip Area 2

Great teaching supports the progress of all students

  • Great Teaching is embedded across all key stages 3-5 within the school to ensure low access and high challenge in all lessons, and to support  all students to know,  remember more and make progress as a result. 
  • The core principles are highly developed and fundamental to learning in our classrooms.  We have a collective understanding of what each of these principles looks like. These are clear in all policy and procedure document 
  • Students with SEND are known and prioritised - in terms of our curriculum, teaching and experience at school. 
  • SEND leaders are able to support and train teachers to implement best practice
  • Models, common scaffolds, language and vocab used is known and explicitly taught - again to support access and excellence for all 
  • Assessment for learning is used in all lessons to proactively reshape the teaching and learning experience to ensure the progress of all  

SIP Area 3

There is an evident culture of ambition, kindness, inclusion and collaboration across the school

  • Students attend school, tutor time and lessons. There is planned intervention to support students with low and chronic attendance as well as persistent truancy.
  • When students need to be removed, they are supported to minimise gaps in learning. . 
  • The restorative process including reflection on behaviours enables positive relationships to be maintained.
  • The school environment, routines and social expectations support all members of the community to feel safe and secure 
  • The school addresses issues of concern(racism, sexism etc)  through the taught and wider curriculum (specifically who and what)
  • All staff recognise their role in creating positive behaviours, on break and in corridors 
  • All staff and students recognise their role in safeguarding our school
  • The school site is cared for by all members of the community and social and learning environments are looked after and safe spaces to be. 
  • Our school community will proactively support one another to make positive choices and call out behaviour that is not OK, treating each other with kindness and respect at all times.
  • Families of students most vulnerable to least belonging are known, understood and supported to engage fully with school
  • Vulnerable students are well represented in enrichment and leadership opportunities
The School Improvement plan is supported by two additional areas

SIP Area 4

All who work with young people are developed, supported and challenged to continue to improve practice over time

  • Each colleague reflects on their developmental needs and some work with a coach to support them as they improve their practice.  Professional learning and external CPD support colleagues with this. External CPD develops QFT and subject expertise.There is a metric for determining the effectiveness of coaching, and it has a demonstrable effect on T+L
  • Staff feel confident in their understanding and are able to deliver in the above three areas
  • Staff feel well trained and supported in using the school’s systems, structures and routines
  • There are clear routes for progression and depth of continued professional development allowing all staff to flourish at work and feel valued; there is clear support and accountability in place where staff do not engage with CPD or where behaviours do not meet agreed standards
  • Workload is manageable, meaningful and motivating and measured both holistically and in a responsive way
  • The school staff more accurately represents the community it serves at all levels and there are systems for how to ensure all have a voice 
  • Leaders are well supported to do their job by the trust and governors and leaders’ wellbeing, along with wider staff wellbeing is a metric

SIP Area 5

The structures, systems and routines of the school are known, understood and followed by all members of the school community

  • School facilities are essentially invisible as they function effectively (network, cleaning, catering etc)
  • The school environment, supports safe learning and social behaviours
  • Systems, Structures and Routines and social expectations support all members of the community to feel safe and secure
  • Routines and structures support the ownership of school areas by staff and students
  • Staff can feel confident in their knowledge of the systems and structures relating to the efficient running of the school
  • The Matthew Arnold School way is embedded in practice for all stakeholders
  • Systems, structures and routines encourage ownership of all spaces by staff and students alike

Separate action plans exist for:

  • IT systems development
  • Premises development

The main school improvement plan can be found here: 

Matthew Arnold School  Summary Improvement Plan - 2024-29