School

Improvement

School

Improvement

Here is a summary of how LDBS supports schools in school improvement.

Additional services are also provided through our partner Grow Education Partners. There is more information below about our services, or view or download the brochure.

LDBS supports you to transform children’s futures through an inspirational excellent education, inspiring education needs excellent leaders. That’s where we come in.
— Helen Ridding, LDBS Deputy Director of Education

Find out more here about school improvement services in

Leadership development

LDBS supports individual schools through:

  • Regular school development visits from a link school advisor

  • Extra visits for schools with additional, short term needs

  • 2-4 half-day leadership visits, depending on school size

  • Attendance at Ofsted and HMI feedback following inspection

  • Up to 90 minutes phone support in relation to pupils at risk of exclusion

We enable collaboration through:

  • Regular strategic meetings with school leaders and chairs of governors to support schools

  • Induction, networking and development groups for school leaders

  • Deanery heads’ networks – find the next date

    Deputy and Assistant Secondary Heads (with Southwark Diocese)

    Heads of Sixth Form (with Southwark Diocese)

    SENDCO network (with Southwark Diocese)

LDBS also advocates for school leaders with wider stakeholders. 

Grow Education Partners

Additional support for school improvement, curriculum development, subject leader, key stage and safeguarding reviews. A range of packages and bespoke arrangements available from Grow Education Partners.

NPQs

You can complete your NPQ with us! 99.5% of alumni say our NPQs have had a
positive impact in their role.

We offer NPQs in:

  • Leading Teaching (LT)

  • Senior leadership (NPQSL)

  • Headship (NPQH)

All of our NPQs include some group coaching and a mix of online and face to face teaching.

Useful links

Global Majority Leadership Development

LDBS advocates for global majority leadership support and development, monitors recruitment patterns and offers mentoring support for newly appointed leaders with a global majority heritage. We provide access to the national Church of England Leaders Like Us programme.

The Platform is the LDBS leadership development programme for aspiring leaders. The Platform is part of a strategy to attract, develop and retain Global Majority Heritage leaders, through support, coaching and mentoring. Only once we are truly diverse can we represent the body of Christ in all its richness – and grow healthily. To reach every Londoner we need to be active in combatting racism and racial injustice.  We need to see equality of opportunity, more leaders of diverse ethnicity and fairer selection processes.

Access relevant Platform training

I am passionate about supporting schools to recruit strong leaders from all backgrounds, and I want to make sure that up-and-coming school leaders don’t have to face the same barriers as I did.
— Paula Aitchison-Walker, LDBS Trustee

Useful links

Safeguarding

LDBS supports individual schools through:

  • All advisers are trained to give advice

  • Central safeguarding advice from Deputy Director of Education (School Improvement)

  • Comprehensive audit toolkit which covers all elements of safeguarding

  • Regular updates to changes in the statutory legislation

  • Resources to support schools

Curriculum support

LDBS supports individual schools through:

  • All advisers all have up-to-date knowledge of pedagogy and research.

  • All advisers have been successful headteachers and work closely with school to develop links between them to share best practice.

  • Termly strategic partnership meetings with schools enable LDBS to identify, signpost and broker additional support.

  • Through Grow Education Partners, schools can have subject specific reviews, wider curriculum visits to support them in meeting their school achievement priorities.

  • We offer expert consultant support for secondary schools in a range of curriculum aspects.

Grants for disadvantaged pupils

The City & Diocese of London Voluntary School Fund is a small endowment fund for pupils who are in financial need, to help them take part in activities that go beyond the statutory curriculum. This may include residential trips and music/art activities.

There is usually around £15,000 – £20,000 available per academic year and trustees meet monthly to allocate grants. In each academic year, the maximum funds available per pupil is £150 and per school is £1,500. Grants are only made in advance of activities, so retrospective claims are not considered.

The fund is generally over-subscribed, so we ask that schools pay careful attention to the grant criteria and apply as soon as possible.

Useful links

City & Diocese of London Voluntary School Fund:

This is a modest fund but over the last ten years it has supported around two thousand pupils in disadvantaged circumstances to access school trips and curriculum enrichment opportunities. Giving away money is the best part of my job!
— Penny Roberts, Director of Education

Please complete this online form if you would like to make an application: