School Development Benchmarks
These Benchmarks represent an important pathway towards building schools that are safe, inclusive, innovative, accountable, learner-centred and internationally competitive, while remaining firmly rooted in their communities and national educational priorities.
GLOSSNET therefore views school improvement as a journey, not a destination. The Benchmark is a navigational tool for that journey. It is a means of helping every member school recognise its achievements, confront its challenges constructively and develop the capacity to provide increasingly high-quality educational experiences and outcomes for every learner.
Our Core Philosophy is, “Benchmarking for Betterment, Not Labelling for Limitation.” The ultimate purpose of the GLOSSNET Member Schools Development Benchmark is not to identify which schools are “good” or “bad”, but to help every school become better than it was yesterday and progressively closer to its own vision of excellence.
We connect African Schools to Global Standards, Inspire Excellence, and transform educational outcomes.
Achieving an average score of 6 in a Thematic Area earns you a STAR
The decision of a BENCHMARK RATING will initially be based on a school’s self-evaluation. The Highest level of a BENCHMARK Rating is 36.
The 6 BENCHMARK RATING classifications are briefly described below.
Enlightened
The lowest level, indicates that the school has recognised the importance of the area and may have begun to identify its development needs, but provision, systems or impact remain limited and require significant, strategic and sustained improvement. Key decision makers have awareness of what they need to do across all themes. No identified good practices exist
Emerging
Describes practice that is at an early stage, with promising initiatives or foundations in place but significant inconsistency and further development required. Identified effort and progress to meet expected standards in at least one awards theme.
Emerged
Indicates that effective practice is developing and becoming established, with clear evidence of progress, although some inconsistencies remain. The school demonstrates characteristics of what a standard school should be. This consistently reflects across all thematic areas.
Embedded
Reflects secure, established and consistently applied practice that meets the school’s expectations and is delivering sustained positive outcomes. At this stage, the school is secure in their provision. Outcomes are consistent across all Thematic areas and have become part of the whole-school community culture. Thought and practice are uniform and shared.
Exceeded
Indicates provision that consistently goes beyond expected standards, demonstrating strong practice, positive impact and a commitment to continuous improvement. The school has become creative and innovative in all thematic areas of its provision.
Exemplar
Represents the highest level of quality, where practice is outstanding, innovative, consistently impactful and capable of serving as a model of excellence for other schools. Notable in all strands or Thematic areas and has now built an external community, either locally or nationally, where they influence the practice of other schools. They can be proud to call themselves a GOOD PRACTICE SCHOOL (GPS). Exemplary across all six themes
