Courageous Advocacy 

The term ‘courageous advocacy’ is the only new concept in the 2018 SIAMS schedule. It has been widely welcomed by schools and the resource below has been produced to explain the idea and to help schools reflect on how this might help enhance the education they provide for their pupils. It is important to stress that this is not about meeting the requirements of SIAMS, or a way of getting a good or excellent grade, or a box ticking exercise. If schools approach it in that way, it will be a meaningless – ‘a chasing after the wind’ as Ecclesiastes puts it in Chapter 1 verse 11. 

Courageous advocacy is a long-term legacy, an endowment to future generations; it is about releasing the possibility of the pupils in our schools to serve the common good. This document is offered as a guide and a support to help schools, school leaders and SIAMS inspectors to explore the concept of courageous advocacy and what that might mean in the unique context of each school.