To help you decide whether you should apply to become a special school SIP, you are asked to undertake an online self-assessment before completing the application form. The purpose of the self-assessment is to give you some insights into the tasks that you will undertake during the accreditation process and also when you are deployed as a SIP. It should help you decide whether you wish to proceed with your application or not. You should read carefully the job description and the person specification in the SIPs Brief before applying.
The SIP online self-assessment is designed to assess aspects of the person specification for a school improvement partner (see School Improvement Partner´s Brief 
DCSF September 2007 (260kb, 36 pages), ie including analytical ability and judgment. It provides applicants with the opportunity to demonstrate their ability in the use of qualitative and quantitative data.
Undertaking the self-assessment should help you decide whether you wish to proceed with your application to become a school improvement partner for special schools. You are encouraged to reflect on the experience and decide whether you think you are capable of or willing to undertake the role of a SIP. If you feel that the self-assessment indicates that you are not yet ready for SIP accreditation, you may wish to seek further help or development, for example, through talking to an accredited SIP.
Please note that NCSL will not be assessing or marking the completed self-assessments, they are entirely self-assessed.
When you register for the online self-assessment, you will receive a reply by email which explains how to access the self-assessment. Together with the email you will receive the following documents on which the questions in the self-assessment are based:
Part A: PANDA for a primary school. We have included this because, increasingly, special school SIPs will be expected to analyse and interpret a range of comparative data but as yet, there is no national data set for special schools. We have chosen a mainstream primary rather than a secondary school for this exercise as the range of pupil attainment and progress data has more resonance with special schools.
Parts B and C: Documentation on a case study special school, including:
You should download the documents and read them carefully before you begin the self-assessment. The self-assessment involves reading and analysing some key documentation for a case-study school, in order to form views on the school's performance and its priorities for improvement. When you are ready to begin, click on the link provided in the email to start the self-assessment.
Part A of the self-assessment is about a mainstream primary school. Using the school's PANDA, you are asked to decide whether you agree or disagree with 10 statements about the school's context and aspects of its pupils' performance at Key Stages 1 and 2.
The questions in Parts B and C are based on a real school which has been anonymised for the purposes of the self-assessment. In Part B you will be asked to interpret pupil progress data over the last four years, using documents 1 and 2. In Part C you will be asked to analyse other aspects of the school's performance based on documents 3 and 4.
When you have completed each part of the self-assessment, you will be presented with the correct answers for that section. These can be printed so that you can assess your responses offline.
You can begin as soon as you receive confirmation that you have registered. You should allow for enough time to download and print all the documents. Please allow sufficient time to read them carefully and make notes before you begin. This should take between one to two hours. We estimate that it will take between one and two hours to complete the questions.
It is not possible to save partially completed answers so the self-assessment has to be completed in one session. If you close your browser window and have not completed the self-assessment, you will have to begin again.
If you experience technical difficulties whilst completing the online self-assessment please contact the helpdesk on 0845 609 0009, 8am–9pm Monday to Friday. Please note that the helpdesk can only provide technical assistance and will not be able to answer questions in relation to the completion of the self-assessment. If you have questions that you would like answering before starting to complete the self-assessment, these can be sent to sips@ncsl.org.uk.
Before you begin the assessment, you should take time to read the following checklist. This list includes everything you need to know to ensure you are fully prepared for the self-assessment. Please ensure you can answer 'yes' to the following statements:
(7kb, 1 page). If you do not have Adobe Acrobat Reader installed, you can download the latest version by visiting the Adobe website. Downloading the software may take around an hour, therefore we strongly recommend that you download it first.
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