ABSTRACT
The focus on pupil progress and the raising of their achievement has become the key organisational objective for schools but it must be supported through appropriate learning and teaching strategies and management arrangements. These three aspects of the school’s activities should be set out in an effective operational planning format. We see the traditional school development plan being replaced in two ways. The medium-term element will be subsumed into the strategic plan (as outlined in Chapter 6). The shorter-term elements will focus more directly on the raising of pupil achievement and, thus, will ‘sharpen up’ significantly the planning framework through much more focused operational target-setting plans at a range of levels within the school. This chapter looks at this concept of operational target-setting plans which will ensure a demonstrable overall improvement in learning and outcomes for pupils over a 12-to 24-month timescale. The chapter considers the functions of operational target-setting plans, the key pointers to success in creating and implementing them and our proposed framework. Schools will need to decide on appropriate terminology for this shorter-term planning; we have used targetsetting as this reflects the current emphasis in the UK.
