Development and Support of Staff - Appraisal Mentoring

The Mereway Mereway Middle School Teacher Appraisal System came into being in 1993, the system is fully outlined in a comprehensive school pack produced at the time. In 1995 the Appraisal Manager undertook a review of the system. As a result of evaluating previous practice the following adaptations to the Mereway Middle School Appraisal System have been made, to come into place from January 1996. The Appraisal Mentoring System was introduced to all staff who work within the school on a Training Day, issues were explored and work was done on achieving effective appraisal. The Training Day was led by Jenny Blount (NIAS) and Claire Trott.

The Mereway Middle School Approach is intended to be a coherent process by which all staff in school will benefit from the support of a mentoring system. It serves two purposes:-

re-emphasising teacher appraisal in school so it is more clearly incorporated into the schools approach to staff and school development as a whole
incorporating all associate (non-teaching) staff into the system.

A key purpose of the approach is the use of a critical friend to help each person:-

realise their potential
have control of and responsibility for self development
carry out their duties more effectively

All of the above should directly or indirectly benefit and improve the learning situation for our pupils.

Each Member of staff has a Mentor, who is normally their Team Co-ordinator - if teaching staff, or Team Manager - if associate staff. If a particularly request is made for another colleague to act as mentor, then an agreement shall be reached by the parties concerned in consultation with the Appraisal Manager. ('Mentor' - as described in attached explanations and school 'Mentoring pack')

The Appraisal Mentor for Team Co-ordinators or managers is an agreed member of the SMT, particular requests being met where possible.

Staff who are not clearly located within a team are able to use an appropriate member of the SMT or other relevant member of staff as their mentor, as agreed by the parties concerned, in consultation with the Appraisal Manager.

The role of the Appraisal Mentor is to assist in preparing, organising and co-ordinating the personal development plan of the members of staff with whom they are partnered. This may involve liaising with other school managers, particularly the Professional Tutor, and relevant Curriculum Co-ordinators, to help arrange appropriate guidance, training or coaching.

To begin the process each member of staff is strongly recommended to carry out a self-evaluation, by what ever method is considered most appropriate. Examples of proforma, which might prove useful at this point can be found in the Mereway Middle Appraisal Pack. The role of the mentor is to assist in any way, whether at this early stage or at any time in the process. However, each individual has ultimate responsible for their own learning and development.

When approached the mentor arranges a formal meeting with the appraisee at a time and place that is mutually convenient. If all other possibilities have been exhausted and cover is needed, this can be arranged through the Appraisal Co-ordinator.

At the initial meeting, and any subsequent ones, the appraisee and mentor use the earlier self- evaluation (if available) to focus on areas where there is an interest in further learning development. Areas chosen might also emerge from audits in school or from in-service training sessions. It is suggested that one of the main aspects will relate to the agreed focus for the School Development Plan, this maybe part of a team response. In most cases (all for teachers) an observation will be arranged.

When areas of focus have been decided upon a Personal Development Plan is produced. This can be written as informal notes or filled in on a proforma. It can be added to the Personal Professional Profile.

The Appraisal Mentor will then help to set up a personalised and focused programme which might involve:-

Learning Partnerships, where staff interested in similar learning areas would research and work together
Teaching/Developmental Partnerships
INSET and Professional Advice.

At the end of a Partnership, INSET, or other arrangement an evaluation should be completed. This should state:-

1. What had been learned and how this will impact, directly or indirectly, on work with pupils

2. What is worth sharing with other staff and how it could be shared

3. What new learning objectives or targets have emerged.

This evaluation should be given to the Mentor and will be confidential unless agreed to be of valued to other staff.

Annually the appraisee and the appraisal mentor jointly produce a statement of the learning process and achievements (Appraisal Statement). Future learning and self development is then established as targets towards which the individual will be working. A copy of this statement is given to the Head-Teacher with a separate sheet for targets. This is be confidentially stored. Where agreed, copies of targets are available to the Professional Tutor. Copies of un-named aggregated targets could be asked for by the Chair of Governors.

Most targets or learning objectives relate closely to the activities in which the member of staff took part. What ever the targets decided upon, the emphasis will be on how things are to be done as well as on what is to be achieved.

The Appraisal statement can be included in a staff member's Personal Professional Profile if they so wished. It might best be compared with a pupil's Record of Achievement, but it is not "an end-of-year report". The approach would be a positive one, aiming to support and develop staff.

(Making unsubstantiated judgements about each other is likely to be ill-advised within this process. The system needs to be seen by everyone as being as non-judgmental as possible to maintain confidence.)

The monitoring of the above approach is the responsibility of the Appraisal Co-ordinator, but evaluation of the process is the responsibility of all, including the Appraisal Manager.

The proposed approach is not to be connected with competency issues or procedures. If there was a management perception that a member of staff is not fulfilling their contractual responsibilities, this shall always be dealt with as a separate matter.

PAP3.DOC Jan 1996

Team Co-ordinators and Team Mangers (1995-6)

Administration/Premises Team:- Elaine Faller

Curriculum Support Team:-

Special Needs Emma Mead, supported by

Sarah Herratt

Other Curriculum Support Staff Claire Trott / relevant Curriculum

Co-ordinator

Lunch Time Supervisors Julie Thomas

Year Teams:-

Year 5 Alison Hawkes

Year 6 Ros Burman

Year 7 Chris Robinson

Year 8 Gaynor Crute

Appraisal Manager Claire Trott

Appraisal Co-ordinator Richard Dron

Team Co-ordinators and Team Mangers (1996/7)