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GRADING THE GRADERS: TEACHER PERFORMANCE REVIEWS
Teachers would be required to collect evidence like student results and feedback to prove they’re meeting education goals under Australia’s first national teacher performance guidelines. The proposal is only in draft stage at the moment, developed by the Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership (AITSL) and released for consultation today.
Teachers would set performance goals each year and then show what they’re doing to meet them.
“Teachers will have a clear understanding of what they will be expected to achieve every year and a clear understanding of how their performance will be measured,” said School Education Minister Peter Garrett.
“This will allow our many terrific teachers to demonstrate how well they are performing and the positive results they are producing, while also providing opportunities to improve their skills where needed.”
What do you think?
And here’s the other tidbits that have been buzzing around:
1. Wow. Did you see this interview with Workplace Relations Minister Bill Shorten? It feels like it’s straight out of a comedy sketch. Really, just watch:
2. The Week in Pics. A joker Victoria Beckham, beautiful family photos and a few surprises:
A flight attendent on Cathay-Pacific was rapped on the knuckles for letting Victoria Beckham into a crew jumpseat. Victoria didn't actually make an announcement on the crew phone.
3. Tamara Favazza was a 20-year-old college student in 2004 when she was filmed by a camera crew dancing at a party. Someone else lifted her top up as she apparently mouthed the words ‘no’ and the footage made its way to an edition of pornographic video Girls Gone Wild. For the act, she’s now won $5.6 million in compensation.
4. A couple crowdfunded their baby! As in, when they realised they couldn’t afford the IVF procedure they needed for a child after trying for three years without luck, the couple placed their story on crowdfunding website IndieGoGo and raised $8050 from donors. It worked!
5. The Australian Greens have urged Federal Environment Minister Tony Burke to list the koala as a ‘vulnerable’ species ahead of his decision on Monday. Greens Senator Larissa Waters said we could see the ‘extinction of koalas in the wild within our lifetime’.
6. This week’s Heartless Muppet Award goes to: Archbishop John Carroll High School in the United States! A teenager there has been barred from her own prom because she doesn’t have a date. Real smooth. Way to make her feel ace! Amanda Dougherty had a date and her tickets and dress, but he pulled out at the last minute.
7. Burger King in the States has decided to make its entire business free from caged eggs and pigs in the next five years. Animal advocates have hailed it as a huge step forward for the American food industry. Not a bad win for the pigs and chickens, too.
. on http://www.mamamia.com.au){kind=link}
Comments
113 Comments so far
In Australia teachers are lucky because in the UK controversy surrounds the fact that pupils are recruited to spy on teachers during lessons and are being ‘run like totalitarian regimes’. The best case scenario is to avoid in class surveillance on teachers and have questionnaires distributed after each term and all feedback should be discussed with the principal on a one to one basis. In
many Australian universities this is the case and can lead to either promotion or demotion or in the best case scenario lecturers can fix their problems on how they communication with their students and fix their flaws. Although teachers are not perfect parents pay alot of money (even thousands of dollars) out of their pockets to educate their children so they have a future rather than no future at all in the workplace. One could say teachers are surrogate guardians who will always receive the blame from parents if their children do not perform at their peak. Thus education relies on 4 pillers of hope
firstly government need to fund more programs to assist students that lack the skills that other students have at their age. Secondly parents need to relieze their kids have a limit in this Facebook and twitter generation where education is second only to socializing with friends in both the online and offline environment. Thirdly parents cannot always blame teachers some kids take time to process information where information overload is the norm. Lastly the pressures of school is too much to bear for most students what parents should understand only year 12 is the most important year the rest is the internship to achieving your goal which is either completing further tertiary studies or finding that dream job.We are all products of the education system no matter how old we are today but are the services
offered robust enough to continue or as always education cracks will appear and we have no tech support to fix it.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2127076/Pupils-recruited-spy-lessons-say-teachers.html
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A friend and I were discussing this on FB just the other day. I believe that Naplan is largely to blame for this horrendous idea. This was my comment:
I didn’t mind Naplan to start with, I liked the idea of a safety net to catch struggling kids who might have academic talents but have somehow slipped through the net. Not that academics are the be all and end all of course (and I speak as a parent whose kids always do really well in Naplan, so this is not sour grapes). But then it turned into “drag them over the Naplan line no matter what”, inter-school competition over whose school is the “best”. Best at what? Passing tests, apparently.
I am sure Naplan is at least partially to blame for this nonsense about paying teachers based on performance. Which will lead, inevitably, to many teachers not wanting non-academic kids in their class – and who can truly blame them if they are going to have their pay reduced for helping children with learning or behavioural difficulties, or those who are simply non-academic? One of the boys I worked with when I was at (a private Anglican school) as a TA made massive progress, he was able to sit down at his desk and write a paragraph by year 6, was socially quite well adjusted by then and had friends and could have a decent conversation with me. His teachers should all have been commended, in year 2 he was leaping around the room, banging his head on the desk and wouldn’t even pick up a pencil, was aggro and angry and socially isolated. He had come on in leaps and bounds – but will those teachers get paid more for performance? Not a chance, he will never even pass a Naplan test, assuming he is forced to sit one. How do you rate performance in each individual child?
And who gets to rate this performance? The Deans/Heads? Who spend 5 mins a week in each class, if they are really trying – and of course they are always fair and impartial and never have favourite staff members(!). The parents? So wrong on so many levels. So much for teachers helping each other and being there to help each child do the best THEY can do – let’s make schools into blood-thirsty training grounds for passing tests, pit teachers against each other, all vying for the biggest pay cheque and desperately trying to shove the children who won’t do well on the Naplan into the next door classroom.
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NAPLAN is the biggest load of crap. My daughters school spends the first term practising for the tests. How can the test be a true indicator if all this time is spent teaching to the test?
My best friend had her daughter in tears last year on test day, so much time had been spent drilling them on it and focusing on the importance of the test that the poor kid fell apart eating her breakfast, and that is a well adjusted, high acheiving child. I dread to think how much pressure is put on other children who do not find school easy.
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I think the whole ‘performance test’ thing is a bit of a non-issue (well, at least I hope so!) – we do (in NSW at least) have a review system, for teachers in state schools – I’m not sure about independent ones.. It’s called TARS (Teacher Assessment and Review Schedule). I think what they’re talking about is the introduction of ‘national teaching standards’ which is like the NSW Institute of Teachers’ professional accreditation process. Honestly, I could list how hard I work, but plenty of teachers have done it below already. Can I please just say, for the record: as a teacher I am not opposed to performance reviews. I do them already. I am not opposed to transparency – I have nothing to hide (except for the red bull cans and coffee cups piling up in my car trash bag). It’s just that ‘teacher-bashing’ gets really old. Today one of our students died, tomorrow (yes, Saturday) I’m going to the funeral of one of my students’ parents, and then coming home to mark year ten’s assessments, year seven’s homework and then I think I’ll spend at least two hours of my Sunday at Officeworks doing photocopying for the week because my school budget allows for 200 pages a term per teacher – I teach 150 kids. Oh yeah, then I have to collate the results of the end-of-term survey I collected last term to ensure the kids are happy with the learning strategies in our classroom. Whoops, guess I couldn’t resist throwing in a little list.. Sorry!
Also, really, Bill Shorten, really? Man, even if that’s your line hire a speechwriter to dress up your language so you don’t sound like a mindless drone.
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My 11 year old daughter has wanted to be a teacher since she was 5 and started school (other than a brief flirtation with wanting to be a horse rider when 7) She has always had wonderful supportive teachers and is blitzing the whole school thing.
I would do anything to change her mind, I can’t think of many professions that are so maligned and unsupported by the general public.
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Performance reviews and incentive payments are tricky in any organisation. It’s very hard to ensure fairness when calibrating across a single company, I can’t imagine how hard it would be across a whole state department of education. There are so many variables that determine the measurable outcomes.
It would also be a huge challenge to manage teachers salaries within budget if there were big variances in their pay. I really think it would add a lot of complexity fo very little reward.
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ANyone knows what is SLA and what is it actually for, i read it online something about service level agreement but i still do not understand it
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I don’t think Bill Shorten bombed in the interview… what he said made a lot of sense to me.
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How exhausted did he look…..
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Everyone thinks they know all about teaching because they went to school, or they have kids who attend school. This seems to give everyone the green light to go on about holidays, working hours, how we should run our classes and how we should operate a school, which is a complex and sometimes very large organisation.
No one assumes they know the ins-and-outs of being a doctor, a nurse, a lawyer or a mechanic just because they’ve experienced the services of these professions.
We already set goals and use data to improve student learning, prove ourselves as worthy of our pitiful pay rises and keep our jobs. (Setting aside my cynicism, we also do it because we are professionals and are constantly seeking to improve.)
I don’t have an issue with any of that.
What I do have an issue with is the amount of variables in schools that can skew data. If you teach a group of kids who are very low in their skill level and you get them to improve, but they still don’t meet state benchmarks, haven’t you made a difference by there being improvement? It’s not like you can administer a drug to cure someone, or take someone to court to win a case, or fix a car. These are more measurable.
The prospect of some schools “teaching to the test” to improve their data is baffling, though it does happen. This is not developing young minds, it’s not providing a broad, interesting, in-depth educational experience. It’s not developing community-minded, global citizens.
It also takes away the love of teaching, and as such we become less engaged in our work – we’ve all had disengaged teachers before – nothing worse!
And while I’m here, I’m fed up with everyone saying, “they should teach that in schools!” Where is the parental responsibility?! Not EVERYTHING is up to teachers and schools – we need to educate kids as a community – parents, teachers, students.
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Actually, a lot of people are happy to put down nurses/midwives etc as not knowing what they’re doing and having terrible bedside manners etc (doctors cop this crap too). Yes, there are those in my profession that may not be very good, or say some inappropriate things (and most people will perform at less than their best, or say something they shouldn’t at least once in their career), but most are well trained and try their best.
I’m sure the same is true of most professions. There are practitioners that aren’t so good everywhere. I guess if you get a mechanic or lawyer you don’t like you can go elsewhere. It’s a bit harder if you aren’t happy with your child’s teacher.
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You’re right – there are sub-standard practitioners in all professions and we shouldn’t all be tarred with the same brush because of the bad ones.
My school bends over backwards to cater for parent requests (which I don’t always agree with) but I think if someone had a reasonable plea for changing teachers, most schools would listen and attempt some kind of solution.
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Teachers do have a review scheme, on several levels:
1. TARS (Teacher Assessment Review Schedule) – as an Executive teacher (Head of Faculty) I am required to complete comprehensive assessments on each of my faculty members, including work samples, lesson observation, record of Professional Learning and Development, staff conferences and documentation of programming implementing the Quality Teaching principles.
2. School Targets/School Plan – every school has an official Plan/Targets that they have to document their progress towards.
3. Programming – teachers have to develop, implement and register detailed programs based on syllabus outcomes. These programs are under constant scrutiny and review.
4. Institute of Teachers (for new scheme staff) – teachers have to complete comprehensive documentation of their work, standards, outcomes and professional development.
5. Diagnostic testing – such as NAPLAN, HSC and Torch tests. This information is carefully analysed by schools to assess student outcomes, such as value added learning (the improvement of students from year to year).
Please don’t assume just because you’ve BEEN to school that you actually know what it takes to be a teacher, as some obviously ignorant folk have done below. I know that everyone has experienced a bad teacher at some point in their life, but there are lazy, inept people in most professions. The 99% of teachers that I have worked with are dedicated and hard working.
It’s a job where small miracles happen every day. From the kind hearted Kindy teacher my son adores, to the staff who work with me at my Senior College, with 450 kids sitting the HSC this year and another 540 in Year 11. Everyone of those kids needs your best effort, every day and the vast majority of teachers do just that.
And 9-3pm? Pfft! I start at 8am, with our timetable running to 4pm. This does not include extra-curricular activities or the individual coaching I offer to students to help them with their HSC performance projects.
And this weekend? Well, I’ve got rehearsals with the band all day Sunday……
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As a fellow teacher I give this comment an A+… EXACTLY what I’ve been thinking about this issue for a long time!
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In NSWDET and other school systems (I can’t speak for all, but it is true of the 4 that I am familiar with) teachers get 4 weeks annual leave. The rest is time in lieu – a recognition that most teachers work far, far more than the alleged 8.30am-3.30 pm, 5 days a week. In the schools where I have worked teachers kept diaries and the majority were working 60+ hours a week during term, reducing to a more reasonable 25-40 hours over ‘holidays’. As a part time teacher, with three classes (12 hours in the classroom) my usual week involves a minimum of 45 hours. And we don’t get toilet breaks – we’re either on duty or helping out kids who need it. And I am not complaining. I love my job. I do get frustrated by the perception that it’s easy. It is not.
As many others have said, we are reviewed by our supervisors annually. We are also required to report to stakeholders at least twice a year – 6 times a year in my current school. Note that this means up to 150 individualised reports at least twice a year, reporting on academic progress against a number of criteria and personal attributes. I also have to write significantly more detailed reports for my tutor group (another 20 students) based on my pastoral care of these kids over the semester. When the external results come out (state and IB) these are scrutinised by parents, teachers, the media, and a whole heap of people who have no interest apart from a need to pick a fight.
I work in an amazing school with incredibly talented, compassionate and dedicated staff and brilliant, quirky, thoughtful students who want to learn. I would not change my job. I would like to eat my lunch on time occasionally and have the odd toilet break, but most of all I would like a recognition that the job is valuable and valued. This seemingly constant dismissal of the profession by those in power and those with no idea about the reality -well, it can be soul destroying.
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I’m a teacher and get seriously peeved at people saying the whole 9-3 working crap….what a load of rubbish. Where I am class starts at 7:45am and that is every single school day, students order their lunches at 7:30am and there are always quite a number of students that are at school before 6:45…a late start for me is 6:45, I’m normally at work before 6:30am every single day. Not every school is 9-3… I don’t think I’ve been to a school that is 9-3 since I was back in primary school, I definitely haven’t worked at one that runs on those hours!
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I am a teacher and I have to say the “so many holidays”, “such short hours” jokes/snarky comments are wearing pretty thin!
Let me clear up a few things about teaching (from my perspective)
I LOVE the holidays. I love it because by the end of the term I’m exhausted and the kids are exhausted and I can feel myself wanting to snap at them for the simplest things like losing a pencil! We are human! Spend your day with approximately 30 kids and tell me how you feel. You are trying to teach to state mandated standards, knowing the results will be publicised and reviewed. You are trying to cover 8 or so learning areas in a week that flies by and while you are doing this you have 30 adorable little people wanting you to tie their shoelaces and fix their friendships, give them a band-aid, explain the activity again, show them how to use scissors etc. etc. After our holidays I feel rested and happy. I feel prepared. I have spent my holidays tidying up the classroom, catching up on marking, planning for the next term, coming up with new ways to best reach children who have shown difficulties, shopping for good books for our units, organising paperwork, preparing report indicators. This is not a complaint! I am happy to spend my holidays doing this because I’m happy I got the chance to do it. I am so grateful that when I felt sick I could sleep until 10am and when I felt lazy I stayed in my pyjamas all day. I ate Easter eggs for each meal and I could take a whole hour break for lunch. When the house was messy on a week day I had the freedom to clean it and leave school work for another day. I am SO GRATEFUL for this! I am so grateful for the time away from the kids to recharge! That’s all I need! To be honest I would be happy to attend school without the kids during holidays because all we are doing is working anyway. But seeing as that is not the case I will take advantage of the fact I can enjoy a pyjama day!
I am THANKFUL FOR THE HOURS! A 10 hour day (7.30-5.30) is a typical day for me. This way I find things don’t pile up as much as I try to mark and assess things from the day and be prepared for tomorrow BUT I have the freedom to leave! And for that I know people in other professions can get a little jealous or bitter or if they’re understanding just quietly wish they had that freedom. If I need to go to the doctors or I want to go to a certain gym class, see an early movie or walk the dog before the sun goes down I have the freedom to do that. I (and most of the other teachers I know) really do appreciate this!! We know how lucky we are because lots of other people aren’t afforded that luxury!
I am HAPPY with my pay!! I can live off it, I can pay the bills and buy food and go out to dinner every now and then all while putting a little bit aside to save and that’s all I need.
I think behind any teacher who complains there is someone who has just made a patronizing and rude comment. (My job is so much harder, Anyone can do your job it’s just reading to kids, You get paid too much, You get too many holidays etc.)
Seeing as some of those rude comments have been written here I do find myself feeling defensive of the profession I LOVE. Let’s clear up the myths and stop letting rude people get away with it. Teachers love teaching, if you don’t love it you will find each day a struggle. Don’t ever assume teachers don’t appreciate the perks of their job I can’t speak for everyone but those I know definitely realise the highs of our jobs! But don’t dismiss the hard parts either. I am switched on all day with the kids I am accountable to 30 people, responsible for their learning for one whole year, I am accountable to my principal, to the leadership team and to the state. I have performance reviews, appraisals and a complete a minimum requirement of professional learning during the school year. I have parent interviews at least twice a year, I write reports and individual learning plans for any student with special needs. I deal with parents, children and administration every day. My job is not ‘reading to kids’ do not belittle the profession if you don’t wanta defensive and sarcastic reply.
I hate that I let the ignorance of some bother me but it is hard to ignore when people are talking about what you have dedicated your life to.
I think reviews based on student performance must be some sort of joke, it is incredibly flawed.
Teachers have continous professional reviews. If you know a terrible, lazy teacher as some of you claim TAKE it up with the principal! Arrange a meeting and talk about how you are concerned because your child says they never do spelling or they never have homework. The issue will be addressed. Sometimes you may find children come home and say they “did nothing” do not take this as gospel. Just as we will take it with a grain of salt when they come in on Monday and say “I played video games and ate nothing but chocolate all weekend because my parents were away.” You can also approach the teacher in a friendly manner, make a meeting and let them know you are concerned because your child doesn’t seem to understand 2 digit numbers and you thought they would by now. You may learn a lot about what is happening in the classroom and what the teacher is or isn’t doing to help. Perhaps you will highlight something the teacher can take away to consider because they didn’t realise it.
I hope the number of “terrible” teachers out there is limited, I don’t think I know one at all. But if you do please consider that MORE poorly prepared performance reviews are not an effective way of ensuring your child has a quality teacher. It is though a sure-fire way to piss teachers off and make them feel under-valued, disrespected and misunderstood.
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Kathy, you are a wonderful woman and no doubt a fantastic teacher! I am appalled that they are considering teacher performance reviews on such a level. I am a teacher and I want to cry thinking about the ‘extra’ stuff that we will have to do to prove that we are doing a good job. Truth be told, if we have to do this ‘extra’ stuff, it will take away from the time that we have to go to professional development, time to meet with parents/colleagues, time to plan for the learning needs of the children in our classes! What do we have leadership teams, principals, regional directors, etc. for if they aren’t able to manage the staff in our schools? Sigh. Hopefully this does NOT go ahead!
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As a teacher I constantly need to prioritise…I could work 24/7 and still feel that there was something to be done to better prepare or assess.
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Agree with everything you said. You forgot the camps when we on duty 24 hrs a day.
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Yes agree with you totally! And I’ll add for us high school teachers we are responsible for over 200 students at any given time in age groups ranging from 11 years to 18 years old – and all the changes that go with adolescence. It’s a huge and rewarding task.
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Kathy, I agree with everything you said! I’m not a teacher but I’m a speech pathologist working at a specialist school and I’ve witnessed all the effort my work colleagues put in to maximise each student’s learning. Early starts, late finishes and planning on weekends appear to be common!
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What I find interesting is that everyone seems to have an opinion. Yet I ask you, have you been a teacher? Do you know one? I’m not sure why everyone who has commented feels they can jump on the “bag the teacher wagon”. Like everyone has said we already meet many requirements set by the various bodies. Not sure why everyone out there feels the need to state what their occupation does, but teachers don’t. Get real ladies.
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The thing is that teachers do this already. We have to have our professional goals, we’re assessed on our performance (both in the classroom and on our broader contributions to school life) and we are required to maintain and improve our skills through participating in professional learning.
I have been teaching for 10 years and in that time I have had to accept that the general public seems to think teachers are crap and need to be constantly told how to do their job. It’s disheartening, demoralizing and frankly, shit. Try watching out for the comment “we should be teaching X in out schools” just to see how entrenched the culture of teacher bashing is within out community.
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Yes reviewing teachers is not new. We have been doing it for years. What has sparked this re-hash is even though we have been doing it for years we still have teachers in the system who should have been given their marching orders years ago. If we are doing these reviews correctly, and the feedback given to teachers implemented and then monitored this would not be new news
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See, I had terrible teachers at school, but they still got results. They were terrible for different reasons, and they got results for different reasons. I’m not sure what sort of reporting structure would have revealed that my teachers played favourites (I was a bright student with progressively good results because I put in the effort, not because my teacher cared a dot) or that one teacher consistently made inappropriate sexual remarks (“I hope you’re happy that I marked your test, I missed out on good sex to do that”)
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I’ve been teaching for 10 years in Victoria and have been doing this my entire career. Each year we look at student data, set performance goals and then review the data and goals again at the end of the year in a performance review. If we have met the professional standards and our goals, then we meet the requirements to move up a professional scale. We pay registration fees to the Victorian Institute of Teaching that oversees our profession, and must be accountable for our work. What they are proposing is NOT new, and I hate that they make out that it is. We’ve been doing this for a long time!!
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“Teachers would be required to collect evidence like student results and feedback to prove they’re meeting education goals ” … umm, we do this as teachers already. Its called accountability. How do you think we make professional judgements? We’re only just starting to get our heads around being accountable the National Curriculum, now something else??
One day I would love to see a politician who was even remotely professionally involved in education, or shockingly,a teacher! I wouldnt dream of telling police, nurses, doctors or any other professional person how do their job or what they should or shouldnt be doing- how do i know what’s best for them?
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I don’t really see the big deal here. I work in public health, and to maintain my licence and accreditation I am required to undergo yearly performance review and prove that I am keeping my skills up to date by participating in CPD. If I have to do this to deliver your life saving medical treatment, why shouldn’t teachers (who have an equally important role) be required to do the same?
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Teachers already do collect data and review their performance- continuously, individually, as a team, as a school, as a district…. How many other professions are required to get letters and testimonials from clients every year as part of their performance? For many of our clients this is not something they would do. Instead of professional reading and development should I be spending time seeking feedback from parents and 14 year olds?
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I’m a first year teacher, who just read this after a class with yr 9 where I had to fight with 2 kids to actually do the work for the first 20 minutes.
I’m loving teaching so far, but how much review is too much? Not only did we have to get our degree last year, but we had to pass an interview with the DET and now have to go through a further accreditation process, which is exhausting and stressful in addition to everything else.
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Welcome to the real world. This is pretty standard for all other professional occupations…
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Sorry, I didn’t mean it to sound like I was complaining because I’m not; I just meant that it seems like there’s a lot of pressure for these occupations (not just teachers) about the standards we’re expected to meet and honestly, I’m still getting my head around juggling lesson plans, marking and everything else without panicking that I’m doing a horrible job.
Does that make sense?
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Feeling bitter today are we Kikile? Sounds like you have some serious animosity toward teachers!
I know of few other degrees that require the same amount of paper-work, interviews and accreditation between graduation and actually entering the workforce.
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Yes, but do these other jobs get to go to the toilet when they feel like it, do they need to parent their clients as well because society has forgotten how? I think what your missing here Kate is that we are required to meet many government, college and departmental requirements already, why are they adding even more?
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Kate’s not missing anything, Carly. She’s supporting teachers.
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thanks for clarifying Kris!
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My mistake….sorry Kate. Should have directed this to the first comment. Was feeling a little hot headed at the time.
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Exactly!
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I hear ya! I feel the same here in Victoria. Isn’t it enough that we go through four years of a course and teaching rounds, can only pass the degree if you pass a ten week practical placement and then have to write what feels like a book to get past provisional registration with the VIT. Mind you, registration that gives little support or guidance when requested!
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Dear Anon I wish you well with your first year of teaching. It’s an exhausting time where the learning curve is so steep some days it seems insurmountable. Please take note that this is the hardest it will ever be. Next year is going to seem like a walk in the park in comparison! Just make sure you take time out and maintain self care. Our profession is a challenging one and you cannot meet other peoples needs unless your own have been met. Many teachers leave the profession in the first few years not because they don’t want to be teachers but because they’re burnt out. Do t let yourself be counted as one of those.
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Thank you! I am enjoying it, but there’s many times I want to crawl into bed and not move, haha.
It’s the stress that gets me. I want my students to do the best they can, so I find myself stressing over their assignments as much as I stressed over my own at school (I have to learn to stress less, obviously).
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Perhaps it is different in other states, but for certain in WA we already do this process. We are assigned performance managers, we detail the targets/achievements/developments we are going to reach during the year, how we are going to do them, and then meet throughout the year to ensure we are on track.
It seems that this new system is just a way of making us pay for the privilege – as if WACOT wasn’t hopeless enough already!
And for those teachers who don’t have quantifiable results (music teachers, the arts, teachers’ aides, school psychs, phys ed, special ed, etc), does that then mean that they are never eligible to be rewarded because they can’t show concrete evidence of achievement? All (most) teachers work hard, and in some of these fields, there is a lot of extracurricular activity, and lot of self-resourcing, etc. But because the ‘typical’ teacher produces in-hand results, that it all they can focus on.
It just goes to show how little bureaucrats truly understand about education.
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Firstly – I am not a teacher. Nor am I a stunt PR person trying to “pretend” I’m someone I’m not.
However, I can see how Performance Reviews are a great opportunity (albeit if done correctly) for everyone involved. Most progress reviews in normal jobs outline KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) but also behavioural indicators. Sure – someone can be amazing at sales for instance but can also walk all over colleagues – hence an overall fail!
Hopefully the review will encompass more than just student glowing achievements. I think we can all recognise that teaching is much more than about grades!
In regards to the other types of teachers you mentioned though, perhaps extra-curricular activites can be included. For example – setting up lessons on anger management or teaching about ethics for the psych teachers. Sure – you can’t measure “how” children move through their emotional traumas in personal counselling, but there are certainly other endeavours that can be acknoweledged?
Like I said – I may be completely naive about the whole thing because I’m not a teacher. But personally, I look forward to work reviews as it not only allows me to asses my personal growth, but I can also voice concers or propose changes as well.
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I wasn’t complaining…every workplace needs performance management in some form or another. I don’t deny that. And as I consider myself to be a good teacher, I am happy to go through reviews, and I hope it helps weed out or at least develop some of the weaker teachers. I was merely pointing out that it already exists, but now it sounds as though we will have to join up to yet another ‘professional’ organisation, pay another fee, all for the privilege of doing something we are already required to do by law, only this version sounds much more ‘result’ indicated.
The business of educating children has very little to do with the end result and much to do with the process and the shaping of them as people in society. Purely score-based education has no place in a healthy society.
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Yes, I would agree, you are completely naive about the whole thing.
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Why limit this to teachers? Why not doctors, policeman, nurses, lawyers, politicians and so on. I’ve been teaching for 12 years and if Peter Garrett had done his research he would already know that we are required to complete “Teacher Assessment Review Schemes” twice a year. Not to mention the programs we are required to submit every term. I’m not bitching, I love my job but why not implement this in all job sectors.
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Nurse and all other registered health professionals have to complete a set number of hours of continuous professional development to maintain their annual registration. Nurses also undergo annual appraisals.
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Err, so do I. BTW I am a teacher
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Yes health professionals have to do continuing CPD but the requirements for some of the health professions is not equal and nothing like what teachers are expected to do. Just read the CPD requirements listed for the various professions eg dentists, oral health therapists on AHPRA site and you will see is far less than what is proposed for teachers. I don’t blame teachers for being concerned at the level/amt of performance evaluation.
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quick question – do those people on here who have commented on the ‘paltry salary’ level of teachers, actuallty know what those salary levels are?
I think every job should have some sort of regular review to ensure that the employee is ‘performing to standard’, knows what’s expected, feedback can be given (back and forth) etc etc. …..there seems to be a range of strategies that can be put in place that’s put forward in that article, to cater for the wide variety of teaching situations.
If not this form of review, then what?
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Compared to other professionals with the same level of qualifications and responsibility and ongoing requirements for professional learning/development teachers don’t earn a comparative rate. In the Catholic System, which is closely modelled on the DET system, starting teachers get around $55K and a full scale teacher tops the pay scale at about $83K I think. Coordinators get an extra approx $7K per coord point (usually year co-ords = 1pt, KLA co-ords = 2pts and executive (excluding principals and APs) = 3pts). I think my pay is adequate and I’m not concerned about getting a payrise. I just want to be able to do my job without politics getting in the way or people who haven’t been in the job making decisions about how I can better do it.
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Maybe some bureaucrats and MPs need to spend time in the classroom to get a dose of reality. I have just spent one hour doing classroom help in my daughter’s Grade 1 class this morning and I am exhausted. Trying to keep a class of 6/7 year olds on task 5 days a week – you need the patience of a saint. How about introducing performance standards for our MPs. If they don’t meet them, they can go. But then we wouldn’t have much of a Parliament in 12 months time, would we?
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Isn’t that what elections are for?
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Yes, but having to wait 3 or 4 years for their ‘performance reviews’ can add up to alot of non-performing time. And as is so evident now, we have to ask ourselves, just what exactly does a pollie have to do to get ‘sacked’ for bad work and behaviour in between?
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I taught in a school in a low-SES area and my classes were filled with kids with learning difficulties and many home issues. That in itself was fine – it’s not the kids’ fault, and I was happy to help them. However, the constant bombardment from the hierarchy about why they weren’t performing like genetically-engineered robot academics and what else could I be doing to lift them from the bottom ten percent of the state to the top one percent means that I don’t teach in NSW anymore. No freaking way. I found parents very supportive, and even some of the sullen, iPod wearing teenagers themselves quite supportive, but the hierarchy, where the power is, thinks teachers are slaves who can do no right. Parents see day in day out how hard one or two children are, and sing the praises of the person juggling thirty. The burecrats want to know nothing about it. My low point was during a ‘performance review’ type observation where a girl who had previously refused to write anything in a number of her classes started eagerly writing down answers to a quiz and proudly showed me the completed sheet when she was done. The observer berated me loudly afterwards for letting her sit with her toe perched on the chair next to her, saying I was teaching her a lack of discipline. Never mind that she had achieved things in that lesson that were unthinkable a few weeks earlier. I stopped liking NSW education after that. It focuses on the wrong things, and teachers bear the brunt of it.
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Year 7 boy at an all boys school. Been here 1 term. School of 1200 students. He takes 10 subjects, all in different classrooms- all with different teachers, curriculum, homework, joys & stress. He is very quiet, shy & nervous. Mum & dad just announced they were getting a divorce. That boy wrote a moving script about his home experience & then a group performed it in my drama class. He got up in front of 25 boys & bared his soul with confidence & grace. He mumbled a bit, had his back to the audience at times so should I give him a ‘D’ for it or do I celebrate this child & say to him “you are an incredible young man”? Yep- I told him he was incredible.
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Awesome. You’ve done that kid such a service.
He’ll remember that.
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Just incase teachers aren’t already overloaded? Righto
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Maybe teachers should increase their working week & decrease their holidays to align up with a regular 40 hour week + 4 weeks holiday. Certainly increase their pay accordingly. Then they might fit it all in! In the meantime, no one suggests teaching is easy, but honestly, I have never experienced such a complaining profession before!!
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Surely that’s dripping with sarcasm!
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Maybe that’s because NO other profession is under so much scrutiny ALL THE TIME. How would anybody else like it if the general assumption about your profession was that some of you are ok but the rest are crap? I just wish everyone would BACK OFF!!!!
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Kikile, you don’t know any teachers, do you?
As I pointed out in my comment below, my mum is a teacher at a special education school. She is at school by 8am everyday and is regularly there until after 5. She spends hours of her own time (unpaid) working on materials and resources for her class not to mention spending her own money to do so.
I have many friends who are also teachers. They often work late into the night to get homework marked/report cards finished/lesson plans done. And don’t forget who looks after students when they go on school camp – teachers work 24 hours a day in those situations.
Sure, they get more holidays in a year. But they sure as hell aren’t doing it easy the rest of the time.
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How lovely it would be to be this uninformed. My husband regularly works 50 to 60 hours per week as a teacher and administrator and most staff at his school do the same. And if the hours are so great…please go ahead and complete 4 years of tertiary education, become a teacher and spread the word!
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I was about to jump on here to correct your ignorant assertions but thankfully many others have already done so.
My sister is a high-school teacher and my brother-in-law a primary teacher. I have never seen two people work so hard to teach children who aren’t their own.
As a teacher you are a parent and an educator. Often kids come from homes where there are problems and then you are also a counsellor. In regards to the amount of holidays you declare teachers have, sorry but you have been incredibly misinformed. I hardly ever see my sister because she is constantly prepping lesson plans and marking assessments/essays/workbooks. she had 4 solid weeks off in December to go O/S and the minute she got home she was all work because she had already missed so much work time. Also teachers have conferences and school planning meetings in holidays. It’s not all roses, infact I would say it’s one of the hardest jobs particularly since there is so much riding on their job- the future of the country. as for you saying they complain… a day in their shoes would be sure to change your mind.
Think before you throw out your assumptions next time!
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Red rag to a bull. Thank you for making yet another uninformed and judgemental comment about a profession you obviously know little about. Yes, we do get more holidays than many professions, we also get paid a lot less than other professions. I can say I only got 4 weeks “holiday” when I taught as the other 4-5 weeks was spent preparing, correctlng and attending professional development so, wait fo it, I could be a better teacher for my students!
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INCREASE their working week to 40 hours? Haha! I’m a teacher and can tell you for most of us (at my school, anyway) that would be a vast decrease.
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What profession are you in Kikile? If we were to meet at a dinner party and I was to tell you how you should best do your job and why your job is so darn easy and a favourite choice for lazy workers, despite never having worked in your profession, wouldn’t you get defensive. If we were left to do our jobs and our expertise was trusted then you would hear a lot less ‘complaining’
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What exactly do you think that teachers do between 3:30 – 5:30?
Most teachers that I know rarely finish work before 8:30/9:00 and spend most holidays doing prep, marking and attending meetings and conferences.
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Kikile
I total disagree with your statement “teachers are the most complaining profession” and I am not a teacher. I don’t understand the implication that just because they have holidays when students are not there means they do nothing. Just read the posts here from actual teachers who are saying how it is. With this type of comment no wonder why teachers can become defensive and pull out of the career. I applaud people for becoming teachers -the majority ar wonderful and hard working – goodness knows how they do it. Enlighten everyone with your profession.
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Hi Kiklie,
I teach Grade One. I get two breaks- 40 minutes and 20 minutes, so 1 hour in all. Today I spent half of each break on yard duty. I spent ten minutes of lunch consoling a student because she lost her orange. She was devastated and crying A LOT. I spent ten minutes chasing down book club forms because they are due today. That left me with a ten minute break to eat my lunch. I forgot to go to the toilet in first break so I had to wait over two hours before I could go again. I work a 9-10 hour day, every day, plus the weekend time spent planning- and don’t even mention when reports roll around- then my 50 hour week turns into about 70. I would love to work the 40 hour week as you suggest, that would be terrific!
No one is complaining, we love the job- that’s why we do it, but is their anything achieved from criticising another profession? After all, it was the teachers that gave everyone here their foundations to be working in the many professions they are today.
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Although occasionally there is a poor teacher I have been lucky to have always had fantastic teachers for my daughter. They have gone out of there way to ensure that the children in their class are not only learning reading, writing etc but are becoming strong resilient children in their own right.
As one of the comments further down said teachers (particularly primary teachers) do so much more than teach. Most teachers spend many hours at home preparing activities often with the resources at their own cost.
I have always found that if you are willing to work with the teacher and support the work they are doing you will have a good relationship with the school which will give your child a great example of respect for others etc. I hate it when I see a parent appear at my daughters class to abuse the teacher. Education is a shared responsibility.
Sometimes we get too focussed on grading profession via statistics instead of looking at the bigger picture.
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My mother is a teacher of special needs and disabled children, ranging between mid to severe. She often comes home bruised when one of the kids “lashes out”. She has to change adult nappies at work and clean up any personal messes the kids may make. Despite this, she loves her work and spends countless hours of her own time doing extra work for them as well as spending her own money on a regular basis.
I would love to know how she, and the many teachers in the same position, could possibly meet arbitrary performance standards, despite going above and beyond the call of duty on a daily basis.
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To add to my previous comments, my advice to teachers would be to take control of the process. Nurses get the best results from performance reviews and patient feedback when they do this. Hope that helps
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Performance reviews? My last three hospitals only ever did them when accreditation was due, and even then it was a ‘work in progress’. I went 4 years without one, despite asking.
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Really? What state do you work in? That’s dodgy. I have moved around 4 different places now and they all do it.
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NSW. Been in both private and public.
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Thank you once again for all the encouraging comments about teachers.
After 27 years of teaching, including 10 as a principal of disadvantaged schools, I can happily state that parents who support what the schools are doing make a great difference to the child’s education.
And if things aren’t right we appreciate calm, reasoned dialogue.
Just like so many of the rational comments written on this site.
….Cheers
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Awful about the poor kid who has been banned from attending the prom because she doesn’t have a date. It’s bad enough when other kids ostracise you for not winning the popularity stakes, but for the school hierarchy to do it???? Great role models!
(In fact, the more I think about this, the more I wonder if it’s a hoax? Wouldn’t they be up for discrimination?)
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I am a huge supporter of accountability of teachers and their ongoing development through mentoring etc. But what these guidelines amount to is, quite frankly, a popularity contest where students (who, quite often, fight tooth and nail against the teacher who wants them to put the effort in etc that is required to increase their marks) and the parents (who usually have no teaching qualifications and therefore no expertise in the profession. Plus, the most prevalent impression they get of their child’s teachers is from the child himself). How are they going to judge the performance of a teacher who has a class with numerous students with a diagnosed learning difficulty, one with asperges, a handful who never come to school clean and are battling issues at home, with a few ‘naughty’ kids thrown in as well? (and yes, this is a snapshot of one class that I have taught). I loved teaching this class because of the challenges it presented – and sometimes my success that lesson was keeping child A on task for ten minutes, child B in their seat for the whole lesson and child C and D from not trying to attack each other, all while teaching the other 28 students in the class. I’m not interested in whinging about how difficult my job is – but I do wish that people who end up making decisions about my job and the ‘best’ way to run schools would make sure they are aware of some of the realities of the job – particularly the ones that are faced by teachers who don’t work at the schools the pollies usually visit.
But seeing as they are going to go ahead with this anyway, can they at least raise our salaries to what is received by those with equivalent qualifications and expectations of ‘performance’, especially since so many people are so concerned that we teachers are “treated like all the rest” – that should be a very tidy pay rise. But then, I never asked for a pay rise anyway.
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I’d like to ‘like’ this post many times. Remarkably restrained in the circumstances. I hear your frustration – and applaud your resilience. Hang in there!
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I completely agree. I’m not a teacher but it just doesn’t seem practical or fair at all to me.
My kids’ teachers so far have all been wonderful, and I’m sure the majority of teachers are. It’s certainly not a field to choose to go into if you want to slack off.
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All this NAPLAN and teacher testing is stressing the teachers out and kids. My son in year three is crying at night wondering why he is being tested against everyone in Australia. He has had some challenges with reading and so is keenly feeling the attention to get better at his reading, as its all reading even the Maths. I was shocked when he had to produce a mind map to workout his persuasive writing story for NAPLAN… I think I only learnt to do one of those in about year 10. He has since used the skill to create a business plan to sell the eggs fro our chickens so clearly he is going to be fine, but the teacher who is AMAZING does not have time to let him present it to the class or him as he has to get them ready to sit a silly test in 5 weeks. This pressure at 8 is stupid and no fun for the teachers either I am sure.
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I guess that depends on the school to some extent. My son is in year 3 also and I think there’s been hardly a mention of NAPLAN in class – he hasn’t mentioned practising for it at all.
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You can ask for you child to excused from NAPLAN. My son has learning difficulties and all I had to do was write a short note asking that he was excused from the testing. I actually gave hime the choice that if he wanted to give it a go he could but he decided not to which I was really pleased with. Also we moved schools this year and they dont rate highly with the NALAN testing but have the most amazing programs that focus on the “whole” child not just acadamics. The last school my children (girls are 12 and 11yrs son is 8 ) attended focused on NAPLAN from the begining of term 1 and classes on art etc were cancelled so they could coach the kids for NAPLAN. Of course there former school always aces Naplan but the kids are stressed, they miss out on many classes and experiences. Their former school has now cut back on all art and music classes and now employ specialist math and english teachers.
What a fun place that must be, I’m so glad we moved our children.
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You can asked to be excused from NAPLAN or be ‘sick’ that day but, schools are funded based on those results so if your son’s ‘poor’ results do not show in the school’s data there will less funding for the school (and for him). One more thing the pollies don’t tell the public.
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Often that the schools that do well on the Naplan are the ones that focus on nothing but the naplans for the fist 3 months of school. I am so glad our school is not one of those school, but instead gives my girls a much more well rounded education..
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No student should be stressed about the NAPLAN IF their schools curriculum is up to date and well resourced. Many schools are aligning their teaching standards to NAPLAN rather than having an all encompassing curriculum that uses the content of the NAPLAN as a guide. It concerns me greatly when I hear stories like yours Shay.
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Just so you know, your child does NOT have to sit the NAPLAN. If you talk to the school and send a letter in you can be a concientious objector (or words to that effect). AS a teacher my children are certainly NOT going to be sitting that test.
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Teachers already collect student results – we are constantly marking work and we send home twice yearly reports with marks and comments on them. Isn’t that collecting student results? We also have to be able to justify why we assign students a certain grade or mark.
Performance strategies/goals are fine, as long as they are not set by politicians or others who have no idea what teaching actually entails. They would also need to be individual, not the same for every school in the country.
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I am a primary school teacher and my performance has always been reviewed by my clients: the children I teach. if I don’t inspire them or take care of them they let me know by their behaviour. Sometimes it feels like the vast majority think people become teachers because it is a slack job but I can tell you: in a classroom there is no place to hide. If you don’t do your job well your mental health will be profoundly affected. And will these auditors measure things such as the times I let children hold my hand on yard duty because they feel lonely rather than shoeing them away? The time I take to help children sort out their arguments themselves rather than just telling them what to do so they can become resilient in the playground? The problem with politicians and administrators coming up with these lists is that they are not educators and don’t appreciate the thousand things a teacher does every day to help a child shine. I am already permanently exhausted. Where do they think I’m going to get the time to go through this process? Every single little extra bit of paperwork I am asked to do takes away from the energy I am able to put into my teaching. And I’m performance reviewed by the principal already. Sheesh! Just let us get on with our jobs already and stop making us feel like you don’t trust us. Surprise surprise most teachers I know love their work and put 100% into it every single day until there is nothing left for us to give. It is an honor and a joy to watch children’s brains and souls grow.
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I, for one, can not sing the praises of teachers enough. I recently volunteered a supervisor for a class excursion for my daughter’s class. I had 8 kids to watch for the day… I was exhuasted and literally needed a nap after coming home. Give me a full day in court any day! and I only had 8 well behaved (generally) kids to watch, not 28.
my hat goes off to all the wonderful teachers out there, this is one parent who is full of admiration for the people who do a very difficult job, that I would not be capable of.
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you sound like a great teacher! Well done and keep up the good work!
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Has Daily Buzz replaced news bites?
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Only really by name. Just trying to keep it broader so we can still have fun with it when we need to
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But it doesn’t have the serious tone that news requires, Rick!!!!!!!!
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As a primary teacher myself, I feel that people don’t understand that the actual teaching part is only half the job. I would spend the other half of my time applying bandaids, sorting out friendship dramas, comforting upset littlies, ensuring they eat their lunch, administering medication, changing soiled uniforms, blowing noses, re-doing pony tails……..the list goes on.
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This is just making teachers jump through hoops to get their already paltry salary (compared to the corporate world) If they are expected to do corporate world performance reviews where is the corporate world salary to match? No teacher got into teaching to be rich and they already have an extremely difficult job. The article didn’t mention that teachers have to pay to become a member of Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership (AITSL) and they get sweet FA for their money.
Also, how will this affect difficult to staff schools? Why would a teacher go to a ‘difficult area’ when they know if the kids don’t meet performance goals (often because of lack of parental support of schooling) they themselves will be finacially penalised (not recieve a raise).
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This type of comment annoys me. Teachers are not the only ones doing an extremely difficult job and when you look at the amount of holidays teachers get they are not really getting paltry salaries for the number of contact hours IMO. I work in the ‘corporate world’ along with 40 others in this area; the average hourly rate here is $23.
And before everyone rushes to point out that teachers work more than 9am to 3pm (yes I know many of you start at 8am and finish well after 6pm marking most nights) you are not the only ones taking work home and you do get all school holidays plus all your annual, sick and other leave entitlements.
I think there should be performance reviews for those in the teaching profession. How else do you know if you are doing a good job or not?
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Please Kirsten, let me end this myth. I’m a high school teacher so I’m not sure about primary – but the 3 2 week breaks during the year are not holidays – this is ‘working from home’. Because the kids are on ‘holidays’, it does not mean we are. For example, the first week of the easter holidays was spent marking 80 papers. The second week was spent preparing for the next term. There was no lounging around, sipping cocktails and watching movies. My kids went to daycare and I worked as I would a normal week – without the students. The only real holiday I have is about 4 weeks of the Christmas holidays. One week is spent preparing for the upcoming year and the other is spent back at school as we go back earlier than the kids. PLEASE stop thinking we have ‘all these holidays’!
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Thanks B
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Your type of comment annoys me Kirsten.
I could go on but B said it perfectly.
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I hate to disappoint you Kirsten but there isn’t school holidays and annual leave…it’s school holidays and our annual leave is included in those weeks.
I would love to work 9 to 3, but in my school classes start at 7:45, students order their lunches at 7:30 and they are often there any time from 6am on and that is every school day. I’m normally at school before 6:30 every day.
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Not only is annual leave included in holidays, but sick leave still requires approval, and creates more work for teachers, ensuring most wOnt take it unless they literally cannot get out of bed. I don’t know many other professions where having a day off requires more work than showing up.
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Re the teacher performance – I am already doing this as I’m part of the ‘New Scheme’ in NSW implemented after 2004. Don’t know how those before 2004 will take this news – no doubt the NSW Teacher’s Federation will hit the roof.
Just a thought…..will this apply to other professionals? What about performance descriptors for my dentist or my doctor?
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Of course it won’t apply to other professions. What about performance reviews for the politians before they vote themselves a 20% pay rise????? GRRRRRRRR!
As a ‘new schemer’ you have to pay to be a member of the institute. Do you think you get anything for your money?
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Hi Kathy … Performance indicators have been used in the nursing profession for some years now. I am assessed every month on telephone calls between myself and patients against criteria which are benchmarked through international nursing standards. I have been assessed for six years and prior to that, it was every six months of performance appraisal development which I still do now.
Like all such procedures for assessing performance, they are open to abuse and misuse. Generally, though I enjoy the assessments as an opportunity to see how I am really doing.
When the assessments and appraisals were introduced, nurses were quite defensive and fearful about the performance being judged, some still are. In truth, they are just a formalised procedure for professionals to do what they have always done informally and, that is, you do the best you can, at the time, with what you’ve got to do it with. And you think about what you’re doing in your work … a lot!
A good offshoot from the assessments is the development of a real view of lack of resources, the amount of unpaid and paid overtime that is performed and violations of award conditions, workplace safety rules, etc. It can be a positive experience.
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Sorry, who pays your doctor? You can vote with your feet if you feel your doctor is average – oh and do all the hours of extra study they do to keep skilled.
I’m always amused how over protective teachers become when it comes to measuring their performance – if you can’t measure it, how can you say you’re doing a good, effective job? Performance strategies aren’t scary, they are designed to make you better.
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There are a large number of things that make up a good teacher – but a lot of those aren’t things that you can measure quantitatively or by comparing one teacher to another. The issue isn’t about being ‘precious’ about your performance being assessed, but the way they assume that they can do it. It’s about recognising the realities of the job and exasperation about people making such huge decisions about the job with no experience themselves.
Teachers do hours of extra study/development in order to maintain their skills too. And not all of it is on staff development days.
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“Designed to make you better” is rather a poor way of putting it, I feel. The real goal of performance assessments is to give a real picture of what is going on in terms of what teachers do well also. And they do lots of things very well.
Research has shown that the most valuable performance assessments are peer review. We have this in nursing and it works quite well. There are problems with peer review but there also avenues to address problems.
We also rely on patient feedback more and more though and the focus on patient feedback is getting bigger all the time and it can be quite tricky sometimes. However, as teachers have commented here, the focus is the student (and for nurses, the patient). Their experience of your teaching is an important factor in your performance as a teacher, though not the only factor.
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What’s so amusing anonymous? Or perhaps you’re a MM staffer trying to generate some discussion? How does one measure a teacher’s performance exactly? It’s complicated. Some children come to school without a word of English or a book in the house, no breakfast in their tummy, or untreated health problems .Children with limited exposure to things middle class kids take for granted like museum/zoo/art gallery trips, access to books, encouragement to learn and so on are harder to teach as they have a limited frame of reference. Imagine talking to a child in the outer suburbs about the first fleet arriving in Port Jackson and they have never seen the harbour. Even a miracle worker might only get these kids to make moderate academic gains. Meanwhile a teacher in a middle class school, where children are more likely to have a stable supportive home life, is able to sail through syllabus outcomes. Which teacher deserves more? ok, rant over. PS I’m not a teacher but I have teacher friends working in disadvantaged areas.
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Woah….haven’t had a chance to check in to my before school comment as I’ve been a tad busy at school.
But thank you for the mostly positives. Anon (amusing how the inflammatory are always ‘anon’) how was I being defensive? I was simply being inquisitive.
I’ve no problem with assessment of my performance as long as it is equitable and can take into account the gazillion variables of this profession which is a tough call. Anyway, let’s wait and see how it all happens. I will be very interested, especially in the union’s opinion.
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