Performance Management Policy

This policy was adopted by the Governing Body of Edgworth Primary School    
 on		3rd November 2000
Mission Statement

We aim to provide the opportunity for each child to reach his or her potential academically, socially, emotionally and physically within a safe and happy environment and in God’s care.

Introduction

1.	Performance Management is a process to support the development of all staff to improve teaching and to raise standards.
	
	In line with the Christian values expressed in our mission statement, the Governing Body aims to met this responsibility by:
•	affirming and celebrating the achievements of our staff;
•	recognising and encouraging the unique contribution that each can make;
•	supporting our staff in the process in a positive manner.

2.	The policy covers all teachers except those on contracts of less than one year and those in their induction year who are covered by separate procedures.

The Annual Performance Management Cycle

3.	The process will establish that teachers are meeting all reasonable expectations in respect of the discharge of their responsibilities.  It will involve a three-stage annual review process.

Stage 1 - Planning

4.	Each teacher will discuss and agree three objectives with the team leader who will record these on a planning record.  Teacher objectives will cover pupil progress as well as ways of developing and improving the teacher's professional practice.

5.	The aim is to ensure a high standard of teaching, learning and relationships and to promote the school’s Christian values and ethos..  To enable this to occur the criteria detailed in 6 will be consistently applied and inform the objectives agreed for each teacher.

6.	The criteria used to inform the objectives could include:

•	lesson preparation and planning;
•	subject knowledge;
•	lesson presentation and teaching methods;
•	communication and motivational skills;
•	discipline;
•	marking, assessment and monitoring of pupils' work and progress;
•	effective use of homework;
•	classroom organisation;
•	furthering the Christian foundation and ethos of the school;
•	implementation of school policies;
•	additional responsibilities;

7.	The team leader will record the objectives which will apply for the review period.  These will be jointly agreed if possible.  If there are any differences of opinion about the objectives, the teacher may add comments to the written record of objectives.

Stage 2 Monitoring Progress

8.	The team leader will undertake classroom observation sufficient to make an informed judgement.  It is reasonable to set a maximum of three hours for lesson observations for all aspects of appraisal (and Performance Management) throughout the year.  However, in exceptional circumstances, where an OFSTED report declares the school either to be in need of special measures or suffering from serious weaknesses, or in the case of an individual teacher becoming subject to capability procedures, additional observation may be necessary.

9.	There should be a balanced selection of lessons to be observed to reflect the range of the teacher's work.  The teacher should be informed in good time, at least 5 working days.

10.	If the team leader requires further information, written or oral, relevant to the teacher's performance from other people, the teacher will be consulted before the information is sought.

Stage 3 Reviewing Performance

11.	There will be an annual review meeting between the teacher and the team leader which will use the recorded objectives as a focus to discuss achievements and to identify any development needs,  including the proposed action, resources available within the school budget, development plan and professional development policy, and the support to be provided.

12.	A written review statement will be prepared by the team leader at the review meeting recording the main points made and the conclusions reached, including any identified development needs on a separate annex.  If it is not possible to complete the statement at the meeting it must be prepared by the team leader within 10 working days of the meeting.  The teacher will be provided with a copy and may, within 10 working days of first having access to the copy, add to its comments in writing.

13.	There will only be two copies of the review statement - one held by the teacher and another held by the head on a central file, to which the team leader or governors responsible for making decisions regarding pay could request access.

14.	All review statements will be kept on the central file for at least three years.

15.	The training and development needs from the review statement will be given by the headteacher to the person responsible for training and development.

Leadership Group

16.	The Head's objectives will cover school leadership and management as well as pupil progress.  If the head and governing body representatives are unable to agree objectives, the governors appointed to review the performance of the head should set and record objectives.  The head may add comments to the written record of objectives.

17.	A copy of the Head's review statement will go to the Chair of Governors.

18.	A summary of the performance assessment section of the Head's review statement will be provided by the Chair of Governors to the CEO on request.

19.	Deputies and assistant heads will have annual objectives relating to pupil progress and school leadership and management.

20.	For members of the Leadership Group the team leader will normally be the headteacher.

Complaints

21.	Within 10 working days of receiving the review statement:

•	Teachers can record their dissatisfaction with aspects of the review on the review statement.   Where these cannot be resolved with the team leader they can raise their concerns with the head.  Where the head is the team leader the teacher can raise the issue with the Chair of Governors.

•	The Headteacher can record his/her dissatisfaction with aspects of the review on the review statement.  Where these cannot be resolved with the appointed governors, s/he can raise the concerns with the Chair of Governors.  Where the Chair of Governors has been involved in the review process, the Governing Body should appoint a panel of three governors who have not participated in the head's review, to act as a review officers.  No governor who is a teacher or staff member will be involved in the performance review.

22.	The review officer will investigate the complaint and take account of comments made by the job holder.

23.	The review officer should conduct the review of the complaint within 10 working days of referral.

24.	S/he may decide that the review should remain unchanged or may add observations of his/her own.

25.	The review officer may decide, with the agreement of the person responsible for carrying out the initial review or in the Head's case all the appointed governors, to amend the review statement or declare that the review statement is void and order a new review or part of the review to be repeated.

26.	Where a new review is ordered, new governors will be appointed to carry out the review of the Headteacher.  For teachers, the Headteacher will appoint a new team leader.

27.	Any new review, or part review, should be conducted within a further 15 days.

28.	The complaints procedure does not remove an employee's right of recourse to the grievance at any stage.

Managing Weak Performance

29.	The Performance Management process may identify serious weaknesses in a teacher's performance.  Where this occurs Performance Management will cease and the capability procedure under the agreed National Scheme will be used.  At the initial stage of the capability procedure the teacher and the teacher's representative will be provided with the evidence from Performance Management process which has prompted the implementation of the capability procedure.

Links between pay, career stages and performance management

Induction

30.	The final meeting of the induction period can be used to agree objectives and professional development opportunities as the first stage of the teacher's subsequent Performance Management cycle.

Up to the Threshold

31.	Teachers can expect an annual increment if they are performing satisfactorily.  Consideration of withholding annual increments will only occur in circumstances where a teacher is subject to the agreed formal capability procedures.

Threshold

32.	The reviews of teachers who want to move to the upper pay spine will be used to inform the applications by the teachers and the Head's assessment.

Performance Pay Points

33.	For teachers above the threshold, ASTs and teachers in the Leadership Group, performance reviews will form part of the evidence used to make decisions about the award of performance pay points.

34.	Relevant information from the review statements may be taken into account by those who have access to them in making decisions and advising those responsible for taking decisions, or making recommendations about performance, pay, promotion, dismissal or disciplinary matters.  Where review statements are used to inform decisions about performance, pay and promotion, to preserve confidentiality and to avoid proliferation of copies of the review statements, they will be tabled at the relevant meeting for reference and collected at its conclusion.  Their use in disciplinary or dismissal procedures will be governed by the procedures agreed for addressing such matters.

Review of the policy

35.	The Head will report annually to the Governing Body on Performance Management procedures in the school and the training and development needs of teachers.  Individual teachers will not be mentioned or identified within the report.

36.	The Governing Body and headteacher, in consultation with the accredited representatives of the recognised trade unions, will update and amend the policy as required to ensure that it is effective and complies with regulations and changes which may from time to time be introduced by the DfEE.

Copies of all standard documents to be used in the Performance Management process are attached.

All documents produced as part of the process will be treated as personal and confidential, and kept in a secure place.

The principles and provisions of the Data Protection Act 1988 will be followed at all times.

PLANNING RECORD

Teacher:__________________________  Team Leader:_____________________

Date of meeting:___________________

Objectives:

1.

2.

3.

Development and training

Resources to support the objectives

Teacher’s comments

Teacher:_________________(signature) 
Team Leader:_________________(signature)

Date:____________________

MONITORING PROGRESS: CLASSROOM OBSERVATION CHECKLIST
Date of observation:_______________________  Class observed:_________________

1.

Lesson Preparation and Planning
•	The lesson was appropriately structured
•	It was part of a sequence and planned programme
•	The aims of the lesson were clear
•	Adequate and suitable resources were available
•	The material was differentiated as appropriate	Satisfactory
(ü)

	Further development
(ü)

2.
	Subject knowledge
•	The teacher displayed a good command of the subject material			
3.	Lesson presentation and teaching methods
•	Suitable approaches were chosen from the options available
•	The material was well presented
•	The pace was appropriate
•	The teacher adapted the approach where necessary			
4.	Communication and motivation skill
•	The teacher’s language was appropriate to the pupils’ ability
•	The pupils were actively involved and on task			
5.	Discipline
•	The teacher displayed a positive approach, encouraging and rewarding good behaviour
•	Where pupil behaviour was inappropriate, the teacher dealt with the situation effectively			
6.	Effective use of homework
•	Homework was set and marked in accordance with the school’s homework policy
•	Appropriate feedback on homework was given			
7.	Classroom organisation
•	The classroom was well organised
•	Materials were well presented
•	An appropriate environment conducive to learning was created			
8.	The teacher’s objectives for pupils’ learning were met			

CLASSROOM OBSERVATION FEEDBACK RECORD

Date of feedback:________________________

Date of observation:______________________

Class observed:__________________________

Strengths

Areas for development

Teacher’s comments

Observer:_________________________(signature)

Teacher:__________________________(signature)

ANNUAL REVIEW STATEMENT

Date of Review Meeting:_____________________

Teacher:_______________________________  
Team Leader:__________________________

Objectives

1.

2.

3.

	Met
(ü)

	Further development
(ü)

Areas of particular strength (specify)

Areas to be developed

Support and resources to be provided by school (specify)

Teacher’s comments

The content of this record has been agreed by:

Teacher:___________________(signature)  
Team leader:____________________(signature)

Date of receipt of the completed review statement by the teacher:_________________