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What do the new performance management regulations mean to you? A school perspective

Martin Beedle, Assistant Head Teacher for Professional Learning, Ossett School and Sixth Form College, Wakefield, shares his ideas with us.

Connect: What do you see as the opportunities of the new arrangements?

Martin Beedle: The new arrangements build on and tighten the existing arrangements. They are more rigorous and robust, being based on professional standards, and so provide a framework for everyone. Colleagues will know exactly what they are aiming for in terms of career – and pay – progression. Links between performance and pay progression will be more explicit within the context of continuous whole-school improvement. The links between CPD and performance management are explicit and the training for reviewers will be crucial.

C: And the challenges?

M: I can see three major challenges:

• We will need to rethink the integration of performance management for teaching staff and associate (support) staff.
• The timing of review and planning meetings will be a challenge in terms of meeting the 31 October deadline regarding the review of examination results.
• The system will have to be suitably flexible to accommodate mid-cycle changes (promotion, staff leaving and staff joining).

C: How are your performance management and CPD policies linked?

M: CPD has a central role to play in supporting our drive for continuous whole school improvement – CPD is mentioned in the performance management policy. Training and development needs are identified in both the planning and review phases in the current arrangements.

Staff are encouraged to set a developing professional practice objective based on a ‘change activity’ designed to support departmental or whole school improvement. This provides an opportunity for professional recognition with the GTC’s Teacher Learning Academy and accreditation with a higher education institution (HEI) provider.

C: What is happening in your school and LA?

M: Senior colleagues are keeping abreast of developments through face-to-face sessions and published documentation from key organisations. The head teacher has attended an Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL) briefing, and I have attended the LA briefing. All staff have been briefed about the new arrangements.

We will wait until such time as we feel sufficiently confident to produce a new policy based on further guidance, we will not ‘jump in’. We are reasonably confident that the new arrangements will be assimilated without too many difficulties as we feel our existing arrangements are broadly in alignment with the new ones.

C: How do you think the new arrangements will affect you and your staff?

M: We will need to ensure consistent application of the new arrangements. The backdrop provided by the professional standards will certainly help in this respect.

There is a training implication for all staff to ensure the new arrangements become embedded as quickly as possible.

We will need to ensure new staff are assimilated into the system as quickly as possible. Also we will need to ensure staff are prepared for career advancement and fully appreciate the importance of performance management in the process (ie, threshold and beyond).

To contact Martin, email: mbeedle@ossett.wakefield.sch.uk.