Quality Assurance Review
Honest and insightful conversations driving school improvement
Overview
Our popular flagship programme is a three-day rigorous peer evaluation. Headed by an expert lead reviewer, reviews are conducted by a trained team of headteachers and senior leaders from schools within Challenge Partners.
Working with the host school, they celebrate the school’s strengths and identify areas for development, looking closely at the experiences of pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds or with additional needs.
All review activities are joint and all outputs are agreed with the school – in a robust process that is done with, not to.
How does it work?
Each school hosts an annual review, and reciprocates by sending their headteacher and senior leaders to review other schools in the partnership, providing unique experiential learning and continuous professional development for all involved.
Schools have the option to apply for accreditation in Areas of Excellence to celebrate exceptional practice and share with the network.
The Quality Assurance Review offers you:
Annual audit of school improvement
An audit of strengths and development areas as part of your evaluation and school improvement cycle
Hosting a review
Unique experiential leadership development opportunities for leaders and senior staff through hosting a review, and reviewing other schools, with coaching from the lead reviewer
Optional Accreditaiton
Optional accreditation of areas of excellent practice to celebrate with your staff and share across the partnership
A review report
A review report to highlight strengths, areas for development and next steps
The Quality Assurance Review Report
The QA Review Report captures your agreed What Works Well and Even Better If priorities from the reflection meeting. It focuses on three areas:
- leadership at all levels
- quality of provision and outcomes
- provision and outcomes for disadvantaged pupils and/or pupils with additional needs.
The report supports your school’s internal improvement, with key findings shared within the hub and collated by Challenge Partners to inform sector-wide insights. It includes peer evaluation estimates (unless you opt out) and may identify Areas of Excellence for potential accreditation.
“This is my first year as Executive Headteacher, and as such, I used the review to empower my emerging senior leaders, practising my skills of delegation! It provided me with an opportunity at times to sit back and observe the process and to watch my leaders in action. This in turn has provided me with useful insights for the next development steps. It always feels like a privilege being part of a QAR! It is a joy to see our school through the eyes of others, and to have dedicated time and space to engage in deep professional conversations and reflections”
Claire Purcell, Executive Headteacher, Dulwich Hamlet Junior School
99%
of schools in 2024/25 said participating in the QA Review had left their school in a better place
90%
of reviewers brought an idea back to their own schools to discuss as a result of taking part in a QA Review in the past year