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NEWS • VIEWS • INFORMATION • ADVICE
MANAGEMENT
Appraisal changes hit teachers in Wales
New performance management measures that have been introduced for teachers in Wales are unnecessarily prescriptive and bureaucratic, the NASUWT has warned.
The Union believes that the School Teacher Appraisal (Wales) Regulations 2011, which came into force on 1 January 2012, could easily become a tool to bully and browbeat teachers and headteachers.
As with the revised system being implemented in England, the changes will leave teachers and headteachers more vulnerable to dismissal and disciplinary action, the Union believes, as well as driving up workload yet further.
Furthermore, the decision to introduce the new regulations part way through the school year, when teachers will already have started the annual cycle of performance management, is confusing for schools and ill judged.
The NASUWT has, however, successfully secured agreement from the Welsh Government that new practising teacher standards will only be used as a backdrop to the revised performance management system.
The Union believes the draft standards, which set out the responsibilities of teachers and school leaders, are little more than a bureaucratic ‘tick-list’ of expectations, which will be immensely onerous.
Although the new regulations came into force on 1 January, the new procedures do not apply to the current performance management cycle.
Therefore members should not be expected to maintain a practice review and development portfolio, classroom observations should not be increased and agreed performance management objectives should not be amended or added to.
The national action instructions on performance management continue to apply and should be adhered to by all NASUWT members.
Key changes
Teachers will be required to maintain a performance portfolio during the course of the appraisal cycle, which the NASUWT believes will drive up workload and increase bureaucracy.
The review process can be used as a precursor to disciplinary and dismissal procedures, effectively making performance management and capability part of one system.
Estyn will be able to request copies of headteachers’ appraisal statements. The NASUWT considers this to be completely inappropriate.
The performance management process would provide evidence for pay progression to higher salaries. The NASUWT welcomes this decision, which brings the performance management system into line with provisions in England.
Objectives will have to be much more target driven, with an explicit reference to improving pupil performance.
“The similarities with planned changes to performance management emanating from the Westminster Coalition Government are deeply disturbing.
“Performance management should provide a process where teachers and headteachers can identify and access training and support where they feel it would benefit their professional development. It should not provide a vehicle to pressurise and exploit the profession in the drive to raise standards.”
NASUWT action protects teachers against punitive systems
The revised performance management system in England is not due to come into force until September 2012.
In Wales, the new system was introduced on 1 January 2012 but for implemention in the next cycle.
The NASUWT anticipated this attack on teachers and the NASUWT action instructions currently in place will prevent members from having the worst features of these changes imposed on them.
The performance management revisions are overridden by the NASUWT’s national action instructions.
The NASUWT believes that these changes have nothing to do with raising standards and the Union will continue to oppose them.
www.nasuwt.org.uk/IndustrialAction
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