Sharing Good Practice
What role does Performance
Management play in schools?
By Paris Norris
M
ost great educators will agree
that a qualification alone
does not make you a teacher.
When I acquired my driving
license, it told me I was safe to drive
on the road; but it was experience that
let me develop an instinct to become a
better driver. As with any other highly
skilled profession, so it is with teachers
who spend a career honing and adding
to their craft.
improvement plan that provides
the tools to enable great learning.
If the support structure around
teachers
isn’t
conducive
to
improvement, they are going to
do less well. To be successful,
performance management has to
be tailored to teaching and it has to
find a language and tone to which
teachers will relate and be inspired.
Generally speaking, in the UAE,
we’re moving away from a position
where Performance Management is
fundamentally a review tool to examine
historic performance. Progressive
schools recognise that Performance
Management is a positive support tool
that develops individuals and helps
teachers to progress in their career.
It’s not just about results; it’s about
developing assets to get results.
Here’s my 7-point checklist for
performance management in
education:
Successful Performance
Management should:
• Identify knowledge and skill gaps to
help you become better at a job
• Provide a working environment that
encourages you to enjoy your job
• Present a reflective framework
for detecting and achieving both
personal and professional goals.
• Let’s
be
clear;
successful
performance
management
won’t
indulge
continually
underperforming
teachers.
In
fact, it should deliver a structured
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1. Link Performance Management
to your teacher’s Professional
Development or CPD programme.
Personalise seemingly abstract or
arbitrary school strategy by linking
it to their teaching experience.
2. Always adopt a forward-looking
approach to setting targets and
objectives. Targets set in isolation
won’t get the same level of buy
in from a teacher as goals linked
directly to their own professional
development.
3. Agree
purposefully
ambitious
performance targets. Ensure they
are achievable with clearly defined
and
understood
professional
rewards and timeframes.
4. Continuous communication is the
key to successful performance
management. Set aside weekly
Class Time
meetings to reflect on performance
and define areas for improvement.
Provide the time, how to and
support to get there.
5. Develop a culture of support, in
which ideas and great practice
are shared and where outstanding
performance is recognised and
celebrated. Teachers are naturally
inclined to share best practices
amongst their peers an d to seek
peer review.
6. Encourage reflective practice in
which all teachers examine “what
went well” and what would make it
“even better if”. Create forums to
share these practices.
7. Open yourself to improvement
too. Throw away your inhibitions to
improve and encourage your team
to model their behaviour on you.
Consider filming yourself in a lesson
and reflect on where you stand in
the classroom on your delivery and
structure.
We know this isn’t always how
performance management is run
in schools. It certainly isn’t always
how teachers view it. To be effective
there must be individuality, clarity,
structure and support. If it is delivered
in conjunction with a robust CPD
plan it’s great – but if performance
management is just a noose around
someone’s neck it has no value.