Department for Education: Teachers’ Standards

In this latest post Phil Waters is going to introduce a series of articles on changes being made by the Department for Education to Teachers’ Standards and the knock on effect they will have for our working lives and salaries.  My earlier post on Thursday 17^th May highlighted Michael Goves’ intentions to radically alter Teachers’ Pay and Conditions; particularly the national pay deal.  Michael Gove wants to introduce regional pay deals and if possible, it appears, he would like to go further by having schools determine their own conditions of pay. 

How does this link to Teacher’s Standards?  In short; I think the intention is to link pay to standards.  Instead of teachers moving up through the pay scale from M1 to M6 based on years of service, teachers would move up the scale by meeting their career stage expectations.  Therefore it is important that we know what is being planned and that we engage with the implementation of this so we can have some ownership of the process.

What is happening to…..?      Teachers’ Standards 2012

By Phil Waters

In this mini series of articles, I intend to write brief accounts about our current thinking on the latest policies that will affect the way we work.

Teachers’ Standards, published February 2012, come into effect in September 2012.  They are statutory and will provide a benchmark against which we are all judged.

There are just 10 standards and a preamble which replace 33 QTS, 41 Core (C) 10 Post Threshold  (P) 15 Excellent (E) and  3 AST(A) standards.  Each new standard is subdivided into several parts, and is considered as being the sum of its parts.  In other words, to meet a standard we have to fulfil all of its parts.

The standards comprise 3 areas – an all encompassing Preamble, Part One -eight standards dealing with our capacity as teachers, and Part Two- standards that focus on our professional conduct.  Not yet published, but on the horizon are “Master Teacher” standards.  These describe an extraordinary level of ability and will subsume all colleagues who would under the present system move beyond M6.

The Headteacher (or appraiser) will assess our performance against the standards.  For those in training, the judgement is based upon a level that can be “reasonably be expected”.  For all other teachers, the standards define a minimum level of practice that can be expected at the relevant stage of their career. (para 6)

It is the phrase “expected at the relevant stage of their career” which is the core of the standards.  What does it mean?  How does the Headteacher, or their appointed appraiser interpret what is expected from a colleague on M4, and differentiate that from someone at M6?  There is no national definition or interpretation, and guidance varies across the country. For example, Oxfordshire LA has not published any guidance, yet all 600 Hertfordshire schools have already agreed upon what are now regarded as “Career Stage Expectations”.

In the scramble to define our career stage expectations, and align Performance Management to the standards, leadership teams have been attending consultancy -run workshops.  It is the consultants at these briefings who are leading schools and determining our interpretation of the teacher’s Career Stage Expectations as well helping us to interpret the Performance Management process by which teachers will be appraised against the standards.

Cheney School teachers will be asked to determine for themselves the career stage expectations against which they will be appraised.  This process is being repeated across the country in readiness for the start of the new academic year and implementation of the standards in September 2012.