Here you will find practice tools for doing school assessments. We have included an assessment framework; information about how to engage students; sample surveys for parents and carers; and advice on engaging school staff. These resources can be used as part of a formal school assessment process, or on their own.
Doing a school assessment can sound daunting. But, it doesn't need to be. The aim is to work in partnership with everyone involved and affected, to understand what is happening, and why. A Contextual Safeguarding school assessment process guides those doing the work to look at the broader cultures and systems that play a role in the harm happening. The process is not blame focussed but helps to find out and build on strengths, just as much as it looks at things that need to change.
The process for how and whether to involve children's social care in leading or co-leading a school assessment is different in different places. Some Scale-Up sites developed a threshold policy to help them decide whether harm happening in a school was significant and needed a statutory response - and you can find more about this in the resources. The important thing to remember is that when school assessments do involve social care as leaders, this is all about working with the school to reach a common aim - that is, the safety of all students. A school assessment is definitely not an inspection and should never feel like one.
School assessments help us to understand the cultures and systems that can drive harm or create safety. Learn about them in this short video
How do you understand strengths and harm in schools? How do you engage students to talk about safety? Here are a range of tools for carrying out a school assessments
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Guidance: School assessment frameworkStart by reading this school assessment guidance. This includes the background to carrying out a school assessment and the school assessment framework. -
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Podcast: School assessmentsIn this podcast, a practice development officer and a headteacher at an Alternative Provision talk about their experiences of carrying out a school assessment -
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Example: Completed school assessment frameworkThis is an example of an anonymised completed school assessment from Kent -
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Example: Completed school response planThis is an example of a completed 'school response plan'. This document lists next steps and timescales for responding to the issues identified in the school assessment -
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Tool: Student focus group engagementThis guidance outlines how to engage students’ views and opinions on what affects their safety -
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Tool: Student survey guidanceThis student wellbeing survey can be used by schools to help understand student experiences of safety and harm -
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Tool: Parent/carer surveyThis survey can be used to gain parent and carer views on safeguarding issues affecting students in and outside of school -
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Tool: Staff engagementThis guidance outlines how to engage staff views and opinions while carrying out a school assessment -
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Guidance: Behaviour and safeguarding log reviewsBehaviour and safeguarding logs can provide important information on trends and issues arising within school. This guidance provides tools to review these logs
