Teaching School Testimonials
Below are a selection of testimonials from schools that the St Augustine's Teaching School have worked with since 2019.
St Benedict's Catholic High School, Alcester
St Augustine’s Teaching School has offered significant support to St Benedict’s Catholic High School. The support brokered has enabled the school to have a clear focus on urgent priorities and direct resources to the same. Specifically, this included a Pupil Premium Review which was a textbook example of a collaborative review process. Other support from St Augustine’s has included leadership reviews and an extensive review of our pastoral systems, including those relating to behaviour. These have helped lower FTE and instances of low-level disruption. There has also been collaborative work between Heads of Department to moderate standards and adapt teaching to the demands of COVID and repeat lockdowns. That St Benedict’s now finds itself in a stronger position is down to the support from St Augustine’s Teaching School to a very significant degree.
Andrew Madden, Headteacher
Cardinal Wiseman Catholic School, Coventry
We drew upon the expertise of Tony Quinn, NLE to raise standards in Behaviour with access to theory, practical advice and high quality system leaders to develop our vision and philosophy for behaviour. As a school judged as Inadequate this was a key area to set the strong foundations in place for us to progress. It was imperative that we could draw on practical strategies and evidence – informed training for our school.
Helen Quinn, Catholic Senior Executive Leader
Birmingham Diocesan Education Service
Saint Augustine’s Teaching School has been a beacon of good practice for several years. The teaching School has played a central role in providing high quality school improvement support for First, Primary, Middle and Secondary schools across the Archdiocese of Birmingham. Regular attendance at Teaching School meetings facilitated by the Diocese has ensured that schools requiring a wide ranging menu of support has been secured and acted upon in a timely fashion.
Justine Lomas, Senior Advisor for School Improvement
Bordesley Green Girls’ School & Sixth Form, Birmingham
TSA conducted a very thorough Pupil Premium review involving learning walks, work scrutiny, leadership meetings, curriculum scrutiny and discussion with pupils. The developmental specific recommendations for action were most useful and supported our Post Ofsted Action Plan. Alongside Pupil Premium, the review has helped drive accurate and robust self-evaluation and improve the overall quality of education. All of these have changes have improved the outcomes of our students. They also supported in a review of Sixth Form Provision: this involved meetings with SLT, governance, middle leaders, student panel, learning walks, observations, and work scrutiny based on triangulation.
The accuracy of the school’s self-evaluation was assessed and an accurate and detailed view of our school’s strengths and areas for development was provided. Delivered in a rigorous yet developmental way, the review was aimed to drive further improvement and build better outcomes for our sixth form. Bespoke challenge and support was provided to senior leaders, middle leaders and governors. The summary report was clear, concise, based on an accurate evaluation of the evidence collected, and was delivered in a very supportive and developmental manner. It was an excellent external validation of our Sixth Form provision.
Pritpal Hyare, Headteacher
Stuart Bathurst Catholic High School, Wednesbury
St Augustine’s TSA has done much to support leadership at all levels of our school in areas such as; Review and setting up a sustainable programme of review, School Improvement Planning , Financial Planning, Performance Management and HR, Curriculum planning and delivery, behaviour management and the development of behaviour for learning, CPD and the development of Middle Leadership across the school. In addition, they have been extremely generous in supporting staff at all levels across the school from trainee teacher mentoring in subjects where we are lacking specialists to the performance management of Senior Leaders. Their outreach work is outstanding and their SLEs work hard to ensure that relationships are positive and that impact is measured and tangible. In short, St Augustine’s TSA embodies all that is good about State Education. They develop their own staff and encourage them to go out and work with others in schools such as mine. The quality of their intervention is second to none, all actions lead to positive and lasting change which in turn impact and improve the lives of a large number of disadvantaged students and their families.
Bridget Morris, Headteacher