Challenge Partners is an education charity, led by practitioners, through which schools collaborate to improve each other and the education system as a whole, so all children benefit. Challenge Partners work with schools across the country, and focus on school improvement, leadership development and knowledge exchange. The programmes are grounded in evidence of what works, regular quality assurance, and sharing the collective wisdom in our schools.
As part of our Challenge Partners membership, staff have a wealth of CPD opportunities to take advantage of, there are National network meetings, Hub meetings as well as Quality Assurance Reviews. In our school the Head and Deputy have been trained to take part annually in Quality Assurance Reviews of other schools across the country and in return, each year we have a team who carry out a Quality Assurance Review (QAR) here at Rodborough.
Challenge Partners' quality assurance and assessment is built around the QA review, a professionally-led peer review focused on teaching and learning. The review identifies areas for development, bringing key challenges to schools for the coming year and also provides Continuing Professional Development (CPD) for the visiting team members. It is a joint exercise between the review team and the school. All activities include a member of the school working alongside the reviewers. This approach enables honest and open conversations about where the school is and where it is going, to the benefit of all concerned. The review is led by an expert Lead Reviewers, whose role is to guide and support the review team. We choose to have gradings added to our reports. The grades are 'Leading', 'Effective' and 'Working towards effective' and are applied to different areas of the school.
Our last QAR was in February 2025 and we were very pleased with the outcomes, which were inline with our internal self evaluation. We were awarded:
Leadership at all levels - Leading
Quality of provision and outcomes - Leading
Quality of provision and outcomes for disadvantaged pupils and pupils with SEND - Leading
Overall - Leading
In February 2023 we were thrilled to be accredited an Area of Excellence for 'Leading an effective Pupil Parliament - democracy in action.' In February 2024 the QAR team agreed that we have a developing area of excellence in planning and provision for pupils with SEND. In February 2025 we were delighted to be awarded with an Area of Excellence for 'Music provision that empowers teachers, provides lifelong skills and supports positive well-being for all.'
Please find below our latest QAR report.