10 Myths about Appraisal (Performance Management)

1. The appraisal of the headteacher has to be conducted by a panel of two or three governors.

It is up to the governing body to decide how to conduct the appraisal of the headteacher. The panel of two or three was established in the early days of performance management, and has been repeated in various editions of the Guide to the Law, but is no longer stipulated in the latest regulations. The governing body has freedom to decide how it will conduct appraisal. However, a panel of two or three is still sensible as it gives you enough governors to supply expertise, without putting in so many as to be unwieldy. But it is not a legal requirement.

2. The headteacher’s objectives can only be shared by the appraisal panel, the headteacher and the chair of governors.

This has not been a legal requirement since 2007, but was established as the normal way of working by the Rewards and Incentives Group. This was a committee of employers and trade unions established by the previous government in order to agree the best way to conduct performance management. It was disbanded by the Coalition, and the current regulations are not the same as those under which RIG operated.

In fact, it was a requirement that the objectives were shared with the governing body, as The School Governors’ Guide to the Law said: the “signed statement [i.e. the agreed objectives] must be passed to the governing body” (chapter 11). The latest regulations make no stipulation either way, leaving it up to the governing body to decide whether to share the objectives or not. In any event, staff governors should be excluded from circulation, and the agreement of the headteacher should be sought.

3. The headteacher should appraise staff before being appraised by the governing body.

Previous regulations implied that the headteacher’s appraisal should be conducted after those of the teachers, but this is no longer the case with the 2012 appraisal regulations. It is up to the governing body to decide whether that is the best order or whether it makes better sense for them to conduct the headteacher’s appraisal first.

There are arguments for and against changing the order. Conducting staff appraisal first means that you are more likely to have access to unvalidated RAISEonline data when you do the headteacher’s. But if you set the headteachers’ objectives first you are identifying the school’s priorities, which can then inform the objectives for the staff. For a governing body on top the game it will not matter much either way, because school self-evaluation will mean that it will constantly be aware of the school’s needs, and receiving regular feedback on what is being done to meet them. But less confident governing bodies should give thought to the order of the conduct of appraisal.

4. The chair of governors should not be one of the appraisal panel.

This too is a matter for the governing body, and there are plenty of examples of successful systems where the chair is part of the panel and where he/she is not. The only requirement is that there be a review officer to whom head can complain if he or she thinks the appraisal was conducted improperly, and if the chair is part of the panel this has to be someone else on the governing body. The argument for not including the chair in the panel is that it spreads the work around and you gain different perspectives, while the chair may be too involved in regular working with the head to be able to step back sufficiently. Others argue that headteacher appraisal is too important for the chair not to be involved, and that important facts may be missed or ignored if he/she is not part of the panel. To some extent it will depend on the size of the governing body – small ones may not have enough governors who will be both available and have the necessary expertise.

5. The appraisal cycle has to run December-December.

The timing of the cycle was previously set by stipulation of having to complete the staff appraisal by the end of October and the head’s by the end of December. However, the governing body, under the advice of the headteacher, can change the appraisal cycle, providing they do not lengthen it, if other dates make better sense.

6. Only the headteacher and senior managers should know staff objectives.

This is a half truth. The governing body is not entitled to know the objectives of individual members of staff. But it can and should ask about the pattern of objectives – what are the key features across all the teachers? It also should ask during the year what progress is being made to meet those objectives and what is being done if they do not look like being met. This is integral to governors knowing about the quality of teaching in their school, which is something that Ofsted look for. The governing body can ask the headteacher for a sample of anonymised review statements for teachers.

7. Since the end of School Improvement Partners governors have not had to have external advisers help them carry out the headteacher’s appraisal.

Governors have always had to have an external adviser. The requirement was established in regulations before the introduction of SIPs and remains after their demise. However, there is no stipulation as to their qualifications other than that they be suitable. There is also no requirement that they be paid.

8. Every governor on an appraisal panel must be specially trained.

There is nothing illegal in having a panel on which no governor has been trained in appraisal. Recommended practice is that at least one of the governors should have had training, and that they share what they have learned in the training with the other governors.

9. Governors have to have the autumn RAISEonline data when conducting appraisal.

Self-evidently, the governors conducting appraisal should be well informed on the school’s performance data. However, RAISEonline may not have been published at the time of the appraisal review, and even if it has it is likely to contain unvalidated rather than validated data. The key statistics – SATs results and public examination results – become available in the summer. As stated earlier, appraisal is a cycle, not a once-a-year event, and the governing body should aim to be constantly informed and aware of the school’s performance.

10. The headteacher’s salary is agreed by the appraisal governors and should not be disclosed to any other governors other than the chair.

The headteacher’s salary should be treated in confidence, and certainly should not be disclosed to staff governors or outside the governing body. However, the appraisal governors only make a recommendation on whether the pay should be increased, and if so by one spine point or two. The governing body should have a salary committee consisting of at least three governors. One of these should be the chair, and another the chair of the committee responsible for finance.

Note that in academies the principal’s pay is made public as the principal is a trustee and details of trustees’ remunerations must be published in the governors’ annual report.

Further informationMore information is in chapter 11 of The Governors’ Guide to the Law (on the DfE website, www.education.gov.uk). Note, though, that at the time of writing (March 2013) the current version of the Guide is dated May 2012 and

it therefore has not been updated since before the current appraisal regulations came in.

The National Governors’ Association and National Coordinators of Governor Services have published a guide to the governor’s role in appraisal, Knowing your School: Governors and Staff Performance, available on www.nga.org.uk/Resources/Knowing-Your-School/Knowing-your-School--Governors-and-Staff-Performan.aspx.