> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.ret.systems/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.
# Development Planning: Build Your School Improvement Plan
> Structure your School Development Plan into themes, initiatives, and actions with clear ownership, progress tracking, and automated reminders.
A well-structured School Development Plan (SDP) is at the heart of school improvement. The Development Planning module gives your SLT a clear framework of themes, initiatives, and actions — with automated reminders, visual progress dashboards, and the ability to cascade plans to departments and across a MAT.
## Structure of a Development Plan
Plans follow a consistent hierarchy that mirrors how most schools already approach improvement planning:
* **Development Plan** — the top-level plan for the year, bringing together all priorities in one place
* **Themes (or Areas)** — the broad improvement priorities that group related work together (e.g. Teaching & Learning, Pupil Wellbeing)
* **Initiatives** — specific projects within a theme, each with a named lead owner responsible for driving progress
* **Actions** — individual tasks within an initiative, assigned to named members of staff with clear due dates
* **Success Criteria** — defined outcomes agreed in advance and used to evaluate the impact of each initiative
## Key Features
* Assign ownership of themes, initiatives, and actions to individual staff members, ensuring clear accountability at every level of the plan.
* Owners and supporters receive automatic reminders as action due dates approach, so nothing slips through.
* Every summary page shows a visual progress snapshot of the current plan, giving leaders an at-a-glance view of what is on track, behind, or complete.
* Clone an existing plan as a starting point for a new year, carrying over the structure and saving significant setup time.
* Cascade the whole-school plan to department or subject plans — shared initiatives can be developed further to meet individual team needs and priorities.
* For MATs: create a central group development plan and cascade it to individual schools for further local development.
Most schools separate department plans from the whole-school plan but share common initiatives. Clone the whole-school plan to give each team a starting framework that they can then tailor to their own context.
## Roles
| Role | What they can do |
| ---------------------------- | --------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| **Development Plan Manager** | Creates and manages plans, themes, and areas across the school |
| **Development Plan Owner** | Leads specific areas, initiatives, or actions; records and reports progress |
| **Viewer** | Read-only access — suitable for governors and wider staff |
## Next Steps
Enable the module and build your first development plan
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