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 can be a challenge. Often, different staff groups engage with evaluation processes in separate ways. Teachers might follow one appraisal framework, while the vital contributions and development needs of Teaching Assistants are tracked differently, or perhaps less formally. This fragmentation can lead to inconsistent approaches, missed opportunities for collaboration, and a sense that not everyone is equally connected to the school's core improvement journey.

The iAbacus Vision: A Unified Platform for Everyone

At iAbacus, we believe that sustainable school improvement thrives when every member of the school community feels included, valued, and empowered to contribute. That's why our platform is fundamentally designed as "One Platform for All Roles". It provides a consistent, evidence-based framework built on a simple, intuitive process, ensuring evaluation and development aren't confined to specific roles but are accessible and meaningful for everyone.

How iAbacus Achieves Inclusivity: Shared Process, Tailored Relevance

The genius lies in combining a consistent core process with tailored applicability. While everyone – Teachers, TAs, Middle Leaders, Senior Leaders – uses the same intuitive Judge > Evidence > Analyse > Plan cycle, the focus of their evaluation is adapted to their specific role and responsibilities.

• Customisable Templates: We work with schools to create or adapt iAbacus templates that align perfectly with their context. This means a Teacher might use a template based on the DfE Teachers' Standards, while a TA uses one reflecting specific TA standards or key responsibilities related to interventions or pupil support.

• Valuing All Contributions: TAs use the exact same robust tool as teachers to reflect on their practice, evidence their impact (e.g., attaching pupil progress data from an intervention group ), analyse what helps or hinders their effectiveness, and plan targeted professional development. Their contribution is made visible and structured.

• Fostering a Common Language: When everyone uses the same underlying tool and methodology, it creates a shared language around evaluation, evidence, and improvement goals, breaking down potential communication barriers between roles.

The Benefits of Breaking Down the Silos

This inclusive approach yields significant benefits:

• Enhanced Collaboration: Teachers and TAs working with the same pupils can more easily share insights and align their approaches within a common system.

• Coherent Support: Planning for pupil support becomes more joined-up when all contributing staff evaluate and plan within a linked framework.

• Professionalising All Roles: It provides a clear structure for all staff to engage meaningfully in their professional development, reflect on their practice, and demonstrate their impact.

• Stronger School Culture: It cultivates a sense of collective ownership and shared responsibility for school improvement, reinforcing that everyone's contribution matters.

Magnified Impact Across Multi-Academy Trusts (MATs)

When this inclusive approach is adopted consistently across a MAT, the benefits are amplified. Trust leaders responsible for staff development, including central teams overseeing support staff provision, can gain invaluable insights. Using the compare features (Overlay and Stack), they can see trust-wide trends in TA effectiveness, identify common training needs for support staff across different academies, share best practices discovered in one school, and ensure consistency in development opportunities, all within the same platform used for teacher and leadership evaluation.

Making Inclusivity Happen: Support is Included

Implementing a unified system might sound like extra work, but we're here to ensure it isn't. A core part of the iAbacus subscription is our unrivalled, unlimited support – provided at no extra cost. Our expert team will partner with you to:

• Design Bespoke Templates: We'll help you create the perfect templates for your Teachers, TAs, and any other staff groups.

• Deliver Tailored Training: We provide engaging training sessions for all relevant staff, ensuring everyone feels confident and ready to use iAbacus effectively.

• Offer Ongoing Guidance: Through one-to-one coaching, webinars, and readily available resources, we support you long after the initial rollout.

Building a Truly Collaborative School

iAbacus offers the opportunity to move beyond fragmented systems and build a truly inclusive culture of evaluation and continuous improvement. By providing one tool and one language for development that empowers every Teacher, Teaching Assistant, and staff member, you strengthen individual practice and collective responsibility, ultimately benefiting the entire school community.

Ready to foster a more unified and inclusive improvement culture in your school or trust?

Book a Personalised Demo to explore how iAbacus supports all roles

Let's empower all your staff to shine.