HEADTEACHER Autumn 1 UPDATE The only magazine for all UK primary school headteachers


Doing it for the money?


From September the new School Teachers’ Appraisal Regulations will come into effect in England. With Ofsted’s interest in performance management, has the time for a new system of rewarding teachers arrived?


T


he need for schools to demonstrate a clear link between appraisal, performance management and pay progression has never been greater. From September, inspectors


will want to see anonymised information on the performance management of teaching staff, its relationship to salary progression, and how this is shared with governors.


Education minister Michael Gove has made it clear that he favours the idea of relating pay to performance. We are expecting any time now, that the School Teachers’ Review Body (STRB) will return with its conclusions from the teachers’ pay review.


The STRB has been asked to consider “how teachers’ pay could be better linked to performance and whether there are existing barriers to this within the current system”. The Sutton Trust claims that there is support for performance- related pay from most teachers. As part of the NFER Teacher Voice survey earlier this year, the charity asked how scale points should be awarded and found: n 26 per cent thought they should be awarded to all teachers.


n 23 per cent to those judged to have performed well.


n 52 per cent to all teachers, apart from those judged to have performed poorly.


Most teachers would agree that it can seem unfair when evidently “coasting” colleagues appear to be rewarded by pay progression. However, there is a difference between capping progression for those performing poorly and increasing pay solely for those judged to have performed well.


Does performance- related pay work?


Performance-related pay might be a controversial subject but does it actually work in practice? The paper, Performance-related Pay and the Teaching Profession (Chamberlin, Wragg and Haynes, 2002), suggests: “Performance- related pay works best in situations in which there are easily measured outcomes, such as in manufacturing, but the outcomes of teaching are many and varied and there have been problems related to measuring teachers’ effectiveness.” Having a performance-related pay structure does indicate clearly what the employer considers to be most important and may be an advantage in recruitment. However, it can lead to the


neglect of unrewarded tasks, disagreement about goals, lack of openness about failing, and can be demotivating for those who are not rewarded.


Chamberlin et al point out that the last time such a system was introduced into education, “teachers taught to the test, were confined to a narrow, boring curriculum, attempted to arrange the school intake, cheated, ignored bright children and drilled and beat the slower ones until they could satisfy the all-powerful inspectors”. Hopefully we won’t see this replicated if it is reintroduced. A recent study by the Organisation for Economic


Continued on page 2


www.headteacher-update.com September 2012


HEADLINES 10


12 16


20 24


34 39


BESD: The category of BESD looks set to be


scrapped. What might replace it and will this improve pupils’ life chances?


CURRICULUM: We talk to headteachers about


creating an innovative and creative curriculum that meets government targets as well.


SPORT: Tom Donohoe explores a range of


ideas to help schools offer high quality and effective PE and sporting activities.


FLEXIBLE WORKING: Legally, how should


heads handle requests for flexible working?


PARENTS: How can you take parental


engagement to the next level? We consider recent research and best practice case studies.


HOMEWORK: With government guidelines being scrapped, we look at the pros and cons of setting homework.


ICT: Brenda Bigland offers a range of ideas


for embedding ICT across your curriculum and school.


Regulars:


2–4 News 6–8 Products & Resources 46 Books 48 Diary of a Head


The Playground Specialists


UPTO


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