1. In order to judge whether you are achieving your aims,
you will need a clear picture of what you set out to
achieve in the first place. One of the best ways to
create this picture is to think about what you will see
learners doing and hear them saying when you have
achieved a particular outcome.
HOW will you know when you are achieving your aims?A
CTI VIT
Y
Setting goals and measuring
success
2
PRACTICAL ACTION: Setting your goals
Resource A gives an example of
goal-setting by a school that wanted to
encourage its learners to have enquiring
minds and think for themselves.
Using resource A as a model, work with
colleagues to write a description of what
you want to achieve in terms of each of
your aims. You could use a copy of
resource B to make notes.
RE SOUR
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S O U RC
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RE
SOUR
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•RE
S O U R
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Once you’ve set your goals, how can you go about
measuring success?
To measure learners’ progress towards having
enquiring minds and thinking for themselves (as on
resource A), you might:
• establish quality criteria for a good piece of research
and evaluate changes in the standard of learners’
research work over a term
• ask an independent observer to watch classes for
short periods over several weeks to note behaviours
and quality of questioning
• write a description of what you see learners doing at
the start and end of the research
• make short notes after each session, commenting on
the target group of learners
• talk with the learners about how they feel
about what and how they are learning.
© Qualifications and Curriculum Authority

2. PRACTICAL ACTION: Putting measures in place
Using the outcomes from the discussions above,
trial one new method of collecting information in
each class for an agreed length of time. At the
end of the trial, arrange a workshop at which
individuals provide feedback on the strengths and
weaknesses of each method. Based on these
findings, decide which methods are most
appropriate for your school and refine them for
further use.
TALKING POINT: How are you going to
measure your achievements?
Taking each of your aims in turn and looking at the
goals you have set in the activity on the other side
of this card, talk through the following questions
with colleagues.
• What quantitative information can we collect to
help us measure the progress we are making
towards achieving this aim?
• What qualitative information can we collect?
• What methods could we use to collect this
information?
Being clear about what you’re trying to achieve
through your curriculum development work and
putting measures in place that will help you to see the
impact of your hard work is really important. None of
the schools involved in curriculum co-development
are innovating without purpose. They are involved in
‘disciplined innovation’ that enables them to
demonstrate the impact of the changes they’ve made.
This approach makes your work invaluable not only to
you and your school community as you move your
curriculum forward, but to organisations like QCA as
we work to inform policy that will impact on schools
for years to come.