Teacher Appraisal: What is it and why do we do it?

Teacher appraisal is a critical component of the educational landscape. It is a pivotal tool in driving school improvement and helps to foster a culture of continuous professional development across all education settings. Sadly, for too long the empowering nature of appraisal has been overshadowed by performance related pay and the grip that this bureaucratic, high stakes approach had on teachers’ time and wellbeing. 

The recent release of the Department for Education (DfE) Teacher Appraisal guidance, alongside the long-awaited removal of performance related pay (PRP), and news of funded pay rises have shed new light and energy on the sector. Agency is being handed back to schools to create an appraisal system that is supportive and developmental, and importantly recognises the commitment that teachers had to professional development when they first entered the classroom. But what is appraisal, and how can it play such a critical role in addressing some of education’s most pressing challenges?

What is the purpose of teacher appraisal?

The teacher appraisal process should offer a supportive and safe environment where individual teachers and their line managers can have open and honest conversations about successes and areas for improvement. It should also address the support that will be provided to enable all teachers to achieve their objectives and continue to meet the teacher’s standards (DfE, 2024). By its very nature, appraisal should encourage professional growth in order to achieve these objectives. Quality of teaching is the single most important factor for improving pupil outcomes, and is an integral part of ensuring high quality teaching (DfE, 2024). The introduction of PRP led to numerical target setting; the drive towards professional growth was lost in the myriad of data tracking and bureaucratic processes, rather than giving teachers the time and the agency to drive their own development.

The new Teacher Appraisal Guidance stipulates that professional development should form a key component of teacher appraisal objectives, and that schools should identify resources and support to allow this to happen. Of course, educators have always known the importance of CPD, but professional growth often gets overlooked when balancing the vital work being done in schools worldwide to support learners and their families, to meet that fast approaching deadline, or to complete vital whole-school statutory training. Centering appraisal around CPD not only sends a strong message about the importance of updating professional practice, it carves out time for this to happen rather than it being perceived as a bolt on that is embarked upon as soon as the to-do list enables time.

What are the benefits of teacher appraisal?

We know that developmental teacher appraisal in line with both individual and school priorities drives improvement (OECD, 2013) but what other benefits can it have for all those involved?

1. Accountability & School Improvement

‘The highest form of accountability is the individual’s professional accountability for the quality of her or his own work’ (CST 2021). For Headteachers, appraisal remains a tool for accountability – without being able to hold your staff to account you are unable to drive school improvement. Through shifting this accountability away from data and towards the improvement of professional practice aligning with the school improvement plan, each staff member can see the contribution they are making towards the wider priorities of the organisation. Where there may be concerns around performance issues, appraisals provide a framework for addressing these through informal support and intervention. This gives real clarity to this scenario and ensures all staff involved are aware of expectations and progress made.

2. Recruitment and Retention

Embedding a culture of professional growth through every stage of the staff lifecycle helps establish a culture where individuals feel valued and see where they add value. This leads to greater job satisfaction and a more productive and stable workforce (Dreer 2021). Making your commitment to professional growth explicit at the attraction and onboarding phase will also help recruit staff who share the same vision and ethos.

3. Workload Reduction

Aligning your school improvement plan, CPD and appraisal places equal importance on each element and helps staff to understand how each contributes to the other. It also reduces staff workload. Historically staff appraisal has involved a vast commitment in time and resources. Collating data and evidence as well as organising the right members of staff to meet to review this is a costly process. The Appraisal Guidance has recognised that staff should no longer collate large portfolios of evidence for appraisal, and recommends that schools consider using online solutions to assist with streamlining the approach and making it easy to track incremental shifts in practice that are contributing to the wider school priorities. Having an online system enables information to be accessed and added quickly and easily – this is particularly important if you are wishing to view information across a trust.