BlueSky underpins a consistent approach to performance management that aligns the appraisal objectives of nearly 700 staff with trust priorities: improving literacy, supporting SEND and disadvantaged students, and the use of research in improving teaching and learning.

“I absolutely recommend BlueSky. It is a solution to achieving consistency across a Trust and is a universal tool that can be used in so many different ways to support school improvement and development, which ultimately has a positive impact on student outcomes.”

“I found the whole implementation process very supportive. Although BlueSky Education could be used off-the-shelf, it can be customised, and I think I’ve asked for everything to be customised!”

Watford Grammar School for Girls (WGGS) introduced BlueSky Education in early 2022, with the aim of streamlining their appraisal processes – moving away  from a paper-based system that often caused delays and made it difficult to track progress.

BlueSky helps leaders to identify talent and expertise that can be leveraged to improve standards across the 20-school Trust.

“It really helps us to understand our people but, more importantly, empower them to develop their own career pathway as well.”

Intelligence for Ofsted is easy to access, helping the school to tell its improvement story in a simple but powerful way

“The ease of pulling off reports is key. If someone asks me how something has improved, I can very quickly say, well this was the picture in 2018 but this is the picture now.”

“Staff have really bought into BlueSky and are now using it to log their own development.

“Before deciding on BlueSky as our new model, we conducted a survey of staff attitudes and it was clear everyone was ready for change. Ensuring that staff would use the new system was essential and thanks to the strength of the support we received from BlueSky, including training and unlimited use of the BlueSky helpline, this need has definitely been met”.

BlueSky helps the all-through school guard against a ‘tick-box’ culture for performance management and puts staff in control of their development.

“BlueSky allows me and the leadership team to reflect on things that are important for us, providing a rich source of evidence that we can triangulate with pupil outcomes and the impact of training on wider school outcomes.”

The capacity to combine performance data, professional development and whole school targets made BlueSky the ideal digital solution

“It allows staff to feel they are part of the process and they can see themselves as part of the bigger picture. Staff don’t tend to see that usually: they don’t see how their development is connected to other people’s, but with BlueSky, they see at a glance how their appraisal links to national standards and the school’s standards and to the school’s improvement goals and the work that others are doing.”

Leaders can see at a glance the outcomes and easily identify common areas for development and training

“We have a culture now where professional development is seen as a career-long process and BlueSky could really help us to embed that concept ever more deeply across the school.”

BlueSky helps the all-through school guard against a ‘tick-box’ culture for performance management and puts staff in control of their development.

“BlueSky allows me and the leadership team to reflect on things that are important for us, providing a rich source of evidence that we can triangulate with pupil outcomes and the impact of training on wider school outcomes.”

“Transparency is key to holding people to account and staff have warmed to BlueSky as it enables them to highlight their successes. They view it as progressive and particularly like it when it supports them to progress up the pay scale!”

BlueSky provides leaders at the school with an evidence-based analysis of performance and a deep understanding of the impact of CPD.

“With BlueSky, it is now a quicker, more responsive approach to observations, which is important in a large school and appreciated by staff.”

The Chalk Hills Academy uses BlueSky to identify best practice – and rapidly improve quality of teaching and learning

“The level of integration in each of the modules was excellent. At the click of a button I can tie an objective from an improvement plan to a particular report or see a staff profile or team overview. The reporting mechanisms are also exceptional: with BlueSky it’s easy to pinpoint the relevant information quickly.”

BlueSky has provided an excellent platform for the trust to analyse and evaluate the impact of its performance management strategy, Claire says. But beyond the technical accessibility, a key element is that it matches their culture and philosophy around performance management.

“Now that everything is on BlueSky, we have hard data to demonstrate how training is addressing skills and development needs directly and the impact it is having on the academy not just immediately but in the longer term.”

BlueSky has helped bring together and share best practice across the whole school. Between September 2016 and July 2017, the school went from being in special measures to outstanding in every category.

“Set up was simple, involving just a few emails about log ins and activation. BlueSky’s website, including FAQs and explanatory videos, has been really useful too”.

“The teachers are comfortable with using BlueSky, and the processes we use it for. That makes a huge difference. They know their own objectives, they can request CPD and they know the school development plan. BlueSky links everything together, that’s a huge impact for everyone.”

“It has been revolutionary! It has helped enormously with showing staff how to cherish their own professional development.”

“If you want to make teacher development, professional learning and appraisal teacher centred, and give the teachers the onus to be at the forefront of their own development then you need a platform that you can set up and hand over to the teachers. BlueSky is perfect for this because it brings it together so well”

“All of these aspects contribute to, and have a certain impact on, pupil outcomes. It really does help to maintain standards, which is helpful for any institution”

“We can provide feedback very quickly after lesson observations. Whereas in the past I would have been entering data into spreadsheets and then making comparisons, the system does it all and the Head of Department can discuss the evidence with the member of staff almost immediately.”

BlueSky’s flexibility means the academy has been able to tailor the functions to suit its needs and its existing culture and practice.

“It helps us to be consistent in our systems and processes across the academy. For example, because all policies, documents and feedback are stored on BlueSky, it enables us to have a uniform approach to target-setting and monitoring performance because we can look across whole cohorts and groups at a glance. It also means objectives for staff and teams can be clearly linked to the school development plan and to the UAE teaching standards.”

CIT is also finding BlueSky is ideal for presenting information to bodies such as governors, Ofsted and the local authority.

“BlueSky provides senior leaders with access to quality-assured information, allowing an accurate overview of what areas are working well and conversely highlighting those areas which may need more energy and focus.”

Basingstoke College of Technology uses BlueSky to monitor the progress of more than 400 members of staff.

“After only a few weeks of being in post I could see the benefits of having a centralised system to monitor staff performance and development”

BlueSky is enabling each member of staff to have ownership of their training and professional development.

Sherborne School’s new paperless process links the development of staff with its professional standards and school improvement.

“It is reassuring to know that we have a system to help us operate our CPL more effectively and productively. We are now a more effective organisation.”