What is the Quality First Education System?

The Quality First Education System (QFES) is built around a new approach to how we teach the National Curriculum; giving our children a whole different learning experience. QFES teaches them how to become thinkers, rather than rememberers. And through its project based teaching philosophy, children have the time to develop the characteristics they need to become lifelong learners.

QFES isn’t just about Quality First Teaching. It’s about Quality First Education – the whole learning experience for the child. The QFES philosophy incorporates:

The curriculum
The leadership
The governance
The lunches
The play
The language used

Our ultimate goal is for the child to leave us at 11 – valued, respected and with a thirst for knowledge.

In one school where the QFES philosophy was adopted, Age Related Expectations (ARE) went from 20% using conventional curriculum teaching to an ARE of 86% in just one year

How does it work?

Using conventional teaching techniques, you are already under pressure and have little option but to bolt the Character Curriculum on to an already full day. And let’s be honest…when your day gets busier the first thing to go is the bolt-ons. The Quality First Education System approaches the curriculum in an entirely new way. National and character curriculum objectives are highlighted and then woven in to whole-term projects. Through an holistic approach, the children not only gather knowledge and learn with purpose, but they also pick up all of the characteristics we are trying to instill in them along the way. And they do it in a fun environment, without pressure – almost unaware that they are learning at all.

At the end of every term, a huge celebration such as a play or concert enables the children to demonstrate what they have learned. But more importantly, they can show their family and friends that they understand how the curriculum objectives affect them and their place in the world.

Does QFES cover the objectives of the National Curriculum? YES.
Does QFES instill the characteristics required by the Character Curriculum. YES.
Will QFES help your school to get more green ratings on its way to becoming ‘Outstanding’. ABSOLUTELY

You can see an overview of a typical QFES project and how it meets the Curriculum objectives HERE.

Spend less time on admin and get back to running your school…

At the heart of the Quality First Education System is a comprehensive Audit Reporting Tool (ART). Whether you adopt the entire Quality First Education System or not, the ART will give you an in depth view of your school’s performance through an intuitive and familiar RAG rating system. Multiple schools (Multi Academy Trusts, Diocese or cluster schools) can be compared, allowing for easier school-to-school support. And best of all, the ART will automatically generate all of the reports you need for Ofsted, Governance, Senior Leadership Teams, SIAMS, County, SEPs and Public Health – all from a single input.

Always Ofsted ready…

Head teachers spend most of their time preparing for Ofsted. The ART does most of the work for you – simply enter your evidence in to the Audit Reporting Tool and you’re always Ofsted ready.

Find out more about the Audit & Reporting Tool HERE

Teachers love the QFES too…

The last few posts we have advertised in schools that have adopted the Quality First Education System have received an average of 19 applications. They all started the same way – “I was about ready to leave education and then I saw this advert…”.
We are giving the teachers back their profession, their passion and their love of teaching.

QFES teachers don’t spend time marking – they know the children don’t read it. Instead they assess through careful questioning, listening and observation.
QFES teachers don’t spend time planning individual lessons. They know exactly what they want the children to learn, and they know exactly how long they have to learn it.
QFES teachers do spend time helping children to become enthusiastic learners with a thirst for knowledge.

You can teach the national curriculum objectives, the characteristics we want our children to have and even squeeze in some yoga, music and golden time. You just have to teach differently.

Does the Quality First Education System work..?

Yes. Absolutely. The Quality First Education System was developed by Julie Norman, an Executive Head directly responsible for 4 schools. Using the QFES system these 4 schools have gone from a SEF rating of ‘Requires Improvement’ to Ofsted agreement that under the current framework they would all be considered ‘Outstanding’.

You can read more details of an Ofsted inspection on a school that has implemented the Quality First Education System HERE

Find out more about Julie and the QFES team HERE

What type of teacher do you want to be…?

You’re teaching…talking away and one of the children says “Miss, there’s an elephant outside..!”
Do you want to be the teacher that says “Stop calling out. I’m teaching. You should be listening.”
Or do you want to be the teacher that says “Forget this learning objective for a minute, I can teach it tomorrow, or the next day. I can’t guarantee I’ll get the elephant again. I’m going after the elephant and I’m taking the children with me.”

Now it might not come to anything. It might not be an elephant, it might be a shadow. But that doesn’t matter. Chasing the elephants is what will make you outstanding.

Project based teaching allows you the flexibility to do this. Within a project you don’t have to say “On Monday between 10am and 11am I’m teaching this objective. And I hope they get it first time because I’m not sure when I can teach it again. I might have to do an extra lesson on Tuesday…but then I also have two hours of PE and an hour of RE. Oh wait, I need an hour of SPAG and also need to cover Phonics….AAAAGHH!”

Sound familiar?

With project based teaching it doesn’t matter when you meet these objectives, just so long as you do. You’ve got a year to do it. And a project will last three months. They might not get it that day, but that’s OK.

The Quality First Education System gives you everything you need to introduce project based learning, helping the children to learn with purpose, in a relaxed but productive environment.