Recently, the Department for Education released the Teacher Appraisal Guidance for Schools, coming into effect in September 2024. These changes mark a significant shift in how teacher evaluations are carried out across England to make appraisals more supportive and development-focused, with a strong emphasis on reducing workload, enhancing professional growth, and ensuring fairness.
Summary of key guidance highlights:
- Supportive appraisal environment: The updated guidelines stress that the appraisal process should be “intrinsically supportive and developmental.” This means fostering an environment where openness, fairness, and collaboration are at the forefront, designed for teachers and school leaders to engage in honest and constructive discussions about performance and areas for improvement.
- Shared responsibilities: The guidelines clarify the roles of school leaders, teachers, and governing bodies in the appraisal process. All parties are encouraged to work together to ensure the appraisal process is effective and does not add unnecessary burdens. This collective approach is crucial in creating a fair and balanced system.
- Workload management: A key focus of the new guidance is the management of teacher workload. The Department for Education explicitly states, “Reducing unnecessary workload should be at the forefront of any considerations around implementing appraisal processes.” This aims to ensure appraisals do not become a source of stress but instead contribute to a teacher’s professional growth.
- Professional development: Continuous Professional Development (CPD) is now a critical component of the appraisal process. The guidelines highlight, “Professional development should form a key component of teacher objectives, ensuring their professional practice remains up to date with the latest methodologies, technologies, and educational research.” This ensures educators are equipped with the latest tools and knowledge to enhance their teaching.
- Clear appraisal cycle: The guidance introduces a structured appraisal cycle, with key activities scheduled across the autumn, spring, and summer terms. This clear framework is designed to help schools manage the appraisal process more effectively, ensuring that all teachers receive consistent and timely feedback.
- Wellbeing and workload focus: The new guidelines encourage line managers to discuss broader aspects of a teacher’s role, including workload, wellbeing, and career aspirations. “In addition to assessing a teacher’s achievement of objectives, it is important for line managers to also discuss workload, wellbeing, working hours, flexible working opportunities, and career aspirations in a supportive manner. This can help the teacher identify strategies to effectively manage their workload and wellbeing, as well as provide feedback to management for further improvement and retention.” These discussions are vital in helping teachers manage their responsibilities effectively and ensuring their long-term engagement and satisfaction in their roles.
- Informal support: The guidance also emphasises the importance of offering informal support—such as mentoring or targeted training—before considering formal capability procedures. “Where there are concerns about aspects of the teacher’s work performance, at any point throughout the appraisal process, teachers should receive informal focused support. In most cases, this should be separate, and come before any capability procedures are considered. This might include mentoring, training, or resources to address specific needs.” This approach is intended to help teachers address performance issues early on in a supportive and non-punitive manner.
How can TeacherMatic help…
While the changes are designed to create a more supportive and manageable appraisal process, they also require careful implementation.
Here’s how you can achieve this with our library of AI generators at your fingertips:
- Reduce workload — A key goal of the new guidelines is to reduce teacher workload. TeacherMatic’s AI tools streamline time-consuming tasks, such as the Summariser, Reference Writer, and Lesson Observation Feedback generators. By automating these parts of the appraisal process, educators can focus on what truly matters — enhancing teaching and learning. Moreover, an extensive survey conducted in 2022 as part of the UFI project proved that TeacherMatic saves teachers at least 3.8 hours per week. TeacherMatic was awarded a grant by the UFI project, and as part of this initiative, we were required to carry out this survey. The results clearly demonstrate the significant time-saving benefits TeacherMatic offers educators, reinforcing its value in enhancing teaching efficiency and effectiveness.
- Support informal development — The guidelines stress the importance of informal support for teachers who may be struggling. Our Mentoring Prompts and Coaching Prompts offer targeted suggestions to help teachers improve without the pressure of formal capability procedures, fostering a culture of continuous professional development.
- Manage the appraisal cycle — The new structured appraisal cycle requires efficient management throughout the year. Tools like Appraisal Questions and CPD Action Planner help schools and MATs set clear objectives, monitor progress, and plan professional development, ensuring a consistent and effective appraisal process.
- Enhance professional development — Professional development is central to the new guidelines, and TeacherMatic supports this with tools like Course Improvement and CPD Action Planner. These tools integrate ongoing professional development into the appraisal process, helping teachers stay current with the latest educational trends and methodologies.
- Address wellbeing and workload — TeacherMatic also emphasises the importance of discussing workload and wellbeing during appraisals. Tools like the Context Generator and Survey Creator help schools gather and analyse data, making it easier to address potential issues and create a healthier, more balanced working environment for teachers.
We understand that equipping your entire school or MAT with the right tools, from teachers to admin staff, school leaders, and managers, is crucial to ensuring the appraisal process truly benefits everyone — inclusively.
What TeacherMatic users say
“Finally, AI is being used positively to aid teachers, from the highly experienced to those starting out, to concentrate on their classroom practice.
TeacherMatic takes away much of the worry and the considerable time needed by teachers to decide how and what to teach. It provides a starting point, framework, and support for teachers in all subjectsand encourages teachers to put their energies into being even more creative with their classes. I thoroughly recommend it.”
Kenneth O’Connell, Lecturer, Consultant and former Ofsted Inspector
“TeacherMatic is a glimpse of the future of teaching. It’s a support tool that can improve staff wellbeing and reduce workloads by simplifying tasks such as creating multiple choice questions and glossaries which would normally take hours to compile, all within a few minutes.”
Simon Ellershaw, Head of Digital Learning at Riverside College
“TeacherMatic is the most jaw-dropping software I’ve seen in a long, long time. Beautifully clean interface and intuitive to use. The ability to generate alternative classroom activities, or variations of the same activity, for students with different learning needs is potentially a game-changer, and it’s all done in a matter of seconds.”
John Rafferty, Vice and Deputy Principal at Glasgow Clyde College
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