iAbacus blog
iAbacus blog
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Navigating the New Ofsted Toolkit Without the Overwhelm
Navigating the New Ofsted Toolkit Without the Overwhelm
I’ve spent the last 25 years working alongside school leaders, focusing on the vital, and often challenging, areas of self-evaluation and improvement planning. I know that the announcement of any new inspection framework...
New iAbacus Templates: Tailored Support for Personal Development & Wellbeing (ISI & Ofsted Aligned)
New iAbacus Templates: Tailored Support for Personal Development & Wellbeing (ISI & Ofsted Aligned)
At iAbacus, we understand that fostering pupils' personal development and wellbeing is at the heart of every great school, sitting alongside academic achievement...
One School, One Language: How iAbacus Unites All Staff in School Improvement
One School, One Language: How iAbacus Unites All Staff in School Improvement
In busy schools across the UK, fostering a truly unified approach to improvement and professional development...
Transform Teacher Appraisal: From Burden to Building Block with iAbacus
Transform Teacher Appraisal: From Burden to Building Block with iAbacus
Performance management and appraisal. For many school leaders and teachers, these phrases can...
Finding Breathing Space: Making School Evaluation and Planning Easier for Scottish Headteachers
Finding Breathing Space: Making School Evaluation and Planning Easier for Scottish Headteachers
Being a Headteacher in Scotland is fuelled by passion. You're dedicated to your pupils, your staff, and your community...
Leading Through the Squeeze: Finding Efficiency When School Budgets Are Tight
Leading Through the Squeeze: Finding Efficiency When School Budgets Are Tight
To every Headteacher, Principal, MAT Leader, and School Business Manager reading this – we see you. We understand the immense pressure UK schools are currently facing. Navigating tighter...
Beyond the Buzzwords: Does iAbacus Really Help Busy School Leaders?
Beyond the Buzzwords: Does iAbacus Really Help Busy School Leaders?
Being a school leader in the UK right now is demanding. We know your plates are piled high, time is relentlessly scarce, and the pressure to continuously improve is immense. So, when you hear about...
Schools Improve Marketing with New iAbacus Template
Schools Improve Marketing with New iAbacus Template
For many schools, developing a comprehensive marketing plan can be quite daunting—especially for leaders who are already juggling a multitude of responsibilities....
Empowering Subject Leaders to Achieve Gatsby Benchmarks with iAbacus
Empowering Subject Leaders to Achieve Gatsby Benchmarks with iAbacus
The 2024 update to the Gatsby Benchmarks has reaffirmed their importance in guiding schools to deliver high-quality careers education...
Habit 1: Be Proactive – Embracing Proactivity with iAbacus
Habit 1: Be Proactive – Embracing Proactivity with iAbacus
When I set out to create iAbacus, I knew that empowering educators to take charge of their own growth was at the heart of what I wanted to achieve. Stephen Covey’s The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People...
Balancing Technology and Wisdom: The Story of iAbacus
Balancing Technology and Wisdom: The Story of iAbacus
In a world where technology is evolving faster than ever, it can be challenging to stay focused on what truly matters. For school leaders especially, there’s a delicate balance to strike...
Introducing a New Attendance Improvement Template in iAbacus
Introducing a New Attendance Improvement Template in iAbacus
We are delighted to announce that iAbacus now includes a template for evaluating and improving attendance based on criteria from the Education Endowment Foundation (EEF)...
Empowering Scottish Educational Leaders with iAbacus
Empowering Scottish Educational Leaders with iAbacus
In the educational sphere, the need for rigorous self-evaluation and strategic planning cannot be overstated. It is through these mechanisms that schools and educational institutions can identify...
Enhancing SSE in Ireland: A Closer Look at iAbacus for School Principals
Enhancing SSE in Ireland: A Closer Look at iAbacus for School Principals
Principals in Ireland navigate a complex educational landscape, where the SSE process is integral to school improvement. iAbacus offers features that align with existing SSE practices...
iAbacus: Unlocking the Power of the 7 Habits for Continuous Improvement
iAbacus: Unlocking the Power of the 7 Habits for Continuous Improvement
My journey with Stephen Covey’s "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People" began early in my career, and the impact of this transformative book on my life and work has been undeniable...
iAbacus Introduces New Solution for MAT Dashboards
iAbacus Introduces New Solution for MAT Dashboards
Are your school improvement efforts hindered by data overload? Do your dashboards feel more like a maze of numbers than a roadmap to success? We've heard your frustrations, and we're excited to...
Empowering Reading Leaders with iAbacus: Harnessing the DfE Reading Framework for Self-Evaluation and Strategic Planning
Empowering Reading Leaders with iAbacus: Harnessing the DfE Reading Framework for Self-Evaluation and Strategic Planning
In today’s education landscape, reading is one of the top priorities and most talked about subjects, because it is a fundamental skill that...
The Power of iAbacus: Unleashing individual potential
The Power of iAbacus: Unleashing individual potential
Why did we create iAbacus? We realised that, in a world where data and numbers are often viewed as the definitive measure of performance, it's easy to ignore the human factor...
Empowering Educators: Using iAbacus to Leverage Helping Factors and Mitigate Hindering Factors
Empowering Educators: Using iAbacus to Leverage Helping Factors and Mitigate Hindering Factors
In the world of education, navigating the range of factors that help or hinder teaching and learning is a complex puzzle. Luckily, tools like iAbacus...
Reflective Teaching: The Role of Self-Evaluation in Professional Development
Reflective Teaching: The Role of Self-Evaluation in Professional Development
Reflective teaching is a cornerstone of professional growth in education. It's an approach that involves teachers regularly scrutinising their teaching methods, assessing the impact...
Self-Evaluation and Action Plans for MATs: Introducing DfE Trust Quality Description Templates
Self-Evaluation and Action Plans for MATs: Introducing DfE Trust Quality Description Templates
In line with the Department for Education's ongoing commitment to provide greater clarity for the sector, the draft Trust Quality Descriptions were unveiled earlier this spring...
Reclaiming Professional Insight: The iAbacus team reflect on a major benefit of iAbacus for School
Reclaiming Professional Insight: The iAbacus team reflect on a major benefit of iAbacus for School
Working with school leaders we often hear a concern that whilst data plays a crucial role in shaping their decision making, it can sometimes overshadow the...
Simple software solutions are the most effective
Simple software solutions are the most effective
Leonardo Da Vinci is widely quoted as having said: “simplicity is the ultimate form of sophistication”. His 500-year old sentiment has been repeated many times throughout history and business...
Benefits of a teacher growth model in schools
Benefits of a teacher growth model in schools
John Pearce asks why the notion of teacher growth is exciting a new generation of school leaders. He looks beyond the feel-good factor to explain how it works and how leaders can implement it – if they haven’t already...
Complimentary Leadership Webinars for Multi-Academy Trusts by MATvista
Complimentary Leadership Webinars for Multi-Academy Trusts by MATvista
Managing a Multi-Academy Trust (MAT) comes with the task of overseeing a range of critical areas, from quality assurance to strategic planning, risk management, and compliance. To help navigate...
A free offer to support remote education provision
A free offer to support remote education provision
At iAbacus, we’ve seen how hard schools are working to offer high quality remote education in very challenging conditions. We take our hats off to you. And we want to help – so we’re offering you something for free...
New Estyn template for school self-evaluation and improvement planning
New Estyn template for school self-evaluation and improvement planning
We have been working with schools in Wales for over ten years - and today we are pleased to announce the release of a new template to help schools (and PRUs) with self-evaluation and improvement planning using the latest...
The Scottish advantage
The Scottish advantage
The Scottish Government’s 2019 National Improvement Framework is a step ahead of its southern neighbours because it completes the cycle of school improvement from judgement to analysis and action, says John Pearce. The...
New functionality – more accurate and consistent judgements
New functionality – more accurate and consistent judgements
iAbacus now has the option of including your own review statements which users then RAG rate – making it quicker and easier for them to determine whether their judgements...
How to use data to improve organisational performance
How to use data to improve organisational performance
When gold was discovered in California 150 years ago, nearly 300,000 hopeful prospectors rushed to the Pacific West. They lined the riverbanks, armed only with metal pans, patiently sifting for days and weeks through gravel...
A deep dive into Ofsted
A deep dive into Ofsted
The 2019 Ofsted Inspection Framework is live, but schools still face uncertainty about what is meant by “deep dives”, a “top level view” and scrutinising “curriculum intent”. John Pearce offers his definition of curriculum intent, implementation and impact...
How to show curriculum intent, implementation and impact
How to show curriculum intent, implementation and impact
Feedback from schools inspected since September 2019 indicates that Ofsted inspectors are spending less time with senior leaders, and more talking to middle leaders...
Three-step preparation for inspection under the 2019 framework
Three-step preparation for inspection under the 2019 framework
One thing we can predict about the early days of the new Ofsted framework is this: inconsistency will be a problem. iAbacus co-creator John Pearce offers three steps to help senior leadership teams...
2019 Ofsted Criteria: Straightjacket or improvement tool?
2019 Ofsted Criteria: Straightjacket or improvement tool?
Thud! The 2019 Ofsted framework just landed in your in-tray. What’s your response? Former headteacher and iAbacus creator John Pearce explores how the new criteria can be used as a springboard for high quality...
Are schools asking too much of their middle leaders?
Are schools asking too much of their middle leaders?
A review of job adverts recently revealed the skills and experience schools are looking for in their middle leaders. Are expectations too high...
What we know about the new Ofsted framework
What we know about the new Ofsted framework
Our Managing Director Daniel O’Brien recently heard Lee Owston, Senior HMI in the North East, Yorkshire and Humber, speak to a room full of heads about the proposed changes to the Ofsted framework...
2019 Ofsted Criteria: Start using it in iAbacus
2019 Ofsted Criteria: Start using it in iAbacus
iAbacus users can now access the 2019 Ofsted criteria in iAbacus via a template that can be customised to suit your context and priorities. It’s quick and easy –read on to find out how...
Leading a vision walk
Leading a vision walk
If you are not sure how to get your team to buy into your vision, here is an activity that may help. It is also great professional development for everyone involved...
Taming the HGIOS beast
Taming the HGIOS beast
Schools in Scotland – are you struggling to tame the HGIOS beast? We can help. iAbacus comes with templates preloaded with the themes from How Good is Our School (HGIOS),* making it easier for schools to...
20/20 Vision: Looking back to move forward
20/20 Vision: Looking back to move forward
In 2005 the DfES published the seminal Middle Leaders’ Self-evaluation Guide. So what have we learned about self-evaluation since then? At iAbacus we like to review before making a plan. So, we were going through our archives recently...
Tackling work-related stress
Tackling work-related stress
With World Mental Health Day falling in October, we thought it was timely to look at how schools can use iAbacus® to tackle the worrying issue of work-related stress. Below are three ideas...
ASCL magazine features iAbacus
ASCL magazine features iAbacus
We are delighted that Andrew Clay, Head of Counden Court School in Coventry, was featured in the Association of School and College Leaders’ (ASCL’s) magazine, Leader, talking about how they use iAbacus with middle leaders...
Are you an operative or a professional? These 5 questions will tell you
Are you an operative or a professional? These 5 questions will tell you
This blog is a serious challenge to professionals in and beyond education. How much time do you spend chasing targets set by others, versus time spent on things that you know will really make a difference...
The BETT interview – how it all began
The BETT interview – how it all began
At the 2018 BETT Show, iAbacus co-founder John Pearce was interviewed about his career journey: from classroom teacher, to one of the first Ofsted inspectors, to school adviser and finally creator of the Abacus self-evaluation...
Mining for gold: using data to improve performance
Mining for gold: using data to improve performance
Most schools are flooded with data. The challenge is to quickly and easily identify which are the nuggets of gold that will help to improve performance...
How do you KISS? We’ll show you
How do you KISS? We’ll show you
When it comes to management information systems, more features and options often in reality means more complicated and more time-consuming. We want to show you a solution that is deceptively simple...
Four questions every HoD should ask about their department
Four questions every HoD should ask about their department
Heads of departments/ faculty often know instinctively what their strengths and weakness are, but being so close to the action, it can sometimes make it hard to communicate that objectively in a department review...
Reviewing and improving governance is easy with iAbacus
Reviewing and improving governance is easy with iAbacus
You know strong governance is critical, but do you know your governing board is as good as it could be? What are your options for reviewing and improving effectiveness?...
Build your capacity to drive improvement. OFSTED Inspection from September 2015
Build your capacity to drive improvement. OFSTED Inspection from September 2015
The new Ofsted Framework for September 2015 have, at last, lifted the “Effectiveness of Leadership”, at all levels, to the top position in Areas for Judgement...
Judgement before evidence. How come?
Judgement before evidence. How come?
We recently received a Tweet asking why the iAbacus process asks users to make a judgement before inputting evidence. It is a subject near to the heart of co-creator John Pearce. Here he explains why...
Did you know: iAbacus includes templates for 15 curriculum areas
Did you know: iAbacus includes templates for 15 curriculum areas
As you know, the iAbacus process (see: www.iabacus.co.uk/model) can be used across all areas of school development using a range of templates. But did you know there are 15 templates designed...
How the iAbacus creates and sustains transformational leaders
How the iAbacus creates and sustains transformational leaders
Do you have a clear vision for what your school or department needs to do to improve? Can your colleagues articulate that vision? Are they as committed to it as you are? If you answered yes...
The iAbacus goes to Dubai
The iAbacus goes to Dubai
Last month we highlighted our venture into Wales with the iAbacus mapped to the Estyn framework – this month we celebrate an exciting move further around the globe to Dubai. We now have senior leaders using...
Improved PDF reports
Improved PDF reports
Have you created a PDF report in your iAbacus account recently? If you have – you’ll have noticed that the front page now displays a full summary abacus showing all your judgements...
Pupil Premium – Self-Evaluation and Action Planning
Pupil Premium – Self-Evaluation and Action Planning
Educational Consultant Jasbir Mann points up key information about Pupil Premium and offers a Draft Self-evaluation and Action Planning template to help colleague headteachers...
The iAbacus Improvement Model
The iAbacus Improvement Model
Those of you who know John’s work will realise the iAbacus improvement model emerged from proven education developments in the late 1900s and early 2000s. Unusually, if not uniquely, it combines...
What is it about the iAbacus?
What is it about the iAbacus?
Gerald Haigh, freelance journalist, author of a number of educational leadership books and ICT guru, investigated the iAbacus and interviewed headteachers to uncover why it’s unique and innovative...
Schools in Wales – watch this space!
Schools in Wales – watch this space!
After John’s work training System Leaders in South Wales and a very successful networking event in Llandudno last month, we are on the cusp of launching an iAbacus customised for school self-evaluation...
Famous Five go to Ofsted (and the demise of lesson grades)
Famous Five go to Ofsted (and the demise of lesson grades)
There is no doubt in my mind that what the Famous Five achieved in “Ofsted Grade-gate” is a real break-through. Well done all! ”No more grading of individual lessons”. I’m not sure it has sunk in yet. Certainly...
This month’s focus iAbacus: Literacy
This month’s focus iAbacus: Literacy
As you may already know, the iAbacus contains a template for the evaluation of literacy provision, designed to support subject leaders planning to improving provision and standards in literacy...
New subject-specific self-evaluation templates available
New subject-specific self-evaluation templates available
Have you seen the new subject-specific templates available in your iAbacus account? More importantly – Have you told colleague subject leaders about them? Each of the new templates is pre-loaded with...
No more flipping coins – it’s time to trust the iAbacus
No more flipping coins – it’s time to trust the iAbacus
At iAbacus we’ve always known that school improvement begins and ends with what teachers think and do. So, we’ve always worked alongside you and your staff. We didn’t stand over you hectoring...
No more Lesson Observation grades – John Pearce joins the OFSTED debate
No more Lesson Observation grades – John Pearce joins the OFSTED debate
Recently the press and social media have been full of news about the failure of OFSTED (or anyone) to accurately grade lessons. You may have seen from our tweets that John, originator of the iAbacus Model...
Opportunities to work with us
Opportunities to work with us
In less than one year, the iAbacus is proving to be an exciting new tool with enormous potential. We know many of you share this view and we thank you for collaborating with us...
Bett Awards 2014 – “And the winner is…”
Bett Awards 2014 – “And the winner is…”
We’re delighted because, less than a year into our story, the iAbacus has been shortlisted for a prestigious Bett Award in the category for ICT Leadership and Management Solutions. So, next week, out come the...
A true story about performance management
A true story about performance management
There’s a low grumbling noise coming from the school hall. It’s the sound of cautious chatter as the entire staff: teachers, teaching assistants and senior leadership team assemble for the highly anticipated session...
This month’s focus: iAbacus for Governance
This month’s focus: iAbacus for Governance
Effective School Governance is now a high profile national issue. Discussions about quality, the need for scrutiny and potential payment clearly relate to specific cases but the new regulations...
Make appraisal a natural part of what we do
Make appraisal a natural part of what we do
The bolt on inspection, observation or appraisal, undertaken in clip-board mode by an expert, “to improve performance” is usually mistrusted, often resented and even refused...
What do we want? Appraisal! When do we want it? Now!
What do we want? Appraisal! When do we want it? Now!
Appraisal is self-evaluation shared. Why is there such little open debate and discussion about the impact of the new appraisal regulations in schools? Teachers tell me there is a lot of confusion...
Teacher Appraisal – Reassuring the unconvinced...
Teacher Appraisal – Reassuring the unconvinced...
You’ve invested time and energy in agreeing your school’s Appraisal Policy. The document is printed the CPD booked – Job Done! The Summer break looms… and yet, there’s a nagging suspicion about unfinished business...
Ofsted & Lesson Grades – Considering judgements and moving to action
Ofsted & Lesson Grades – Considering judgements and moving to action
You’ve invested time and energy in agreeing your school’s Appraisal Policy. The document is printed the CPD booked – Job Done! The Summer break looms… and yet, there’s a nagging suspicion about unfinished business...
Teacher Appraisal and Performance Management
Teacher Appraisal and Performance Management
The release, on April 16th, of “Departmental Advice on reviewing and revising your school’s approach to teachers’ pay” is causing head teachers, senior leaders, teachers, union representatives and governors...
What should we DO about numbers and judgements?
What should we DO about numbers and judgements?
I often ask little people, “How old are you?” and they nearly always get it right, saying “I’m four!” often adding “and three quarters…” Then I add, “Four what?” Most are completely stuck...
Protect us from external inspection and quality control!
Protect us from external inspection and quality control!
We’re working away on the iAbacus project and my business partner Dan is describing his motivation. I know what he is trying to say and I agree. It’s all about being enablers, facilitating the thinking of others, encouraging...
The iAbacus – trains and beads and plans
The iAbacus – trains and beads and plans
Once upon a time…When I was little, I loved pushing a toy train, making those “chuff-chuff too-toot” noises. I was in that train embarking on some epic journey.Later, I became fascinated by how writing left to right develops...
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