Thomas Fellows
National Governance Association
Thomas is a research and information officer at the National Governance Association (NGA), the representative body for state-funded school governors and trustees throughout England. He leads on NGA research-based projects, with some of his outputs including work around Ofsted local authority school improvement inspections and executive headteachers. He is currently working on projects around headteacher recruitment, headteacher performance appraisal and multi-academy trust case-studies. Tom is also part of the wider policy and information team at the NGA and leads on secondary assessment, Prevent and sixth-forms. Before joining the NGA, Tom achieved a first class degree in History and Politics from the University of Lancaster. He has recently achieved a distinction in a research methods MA from the University of Birmingham.
For over a decade, academics and policy makers have been concerned with how those governing in English schools performance appraise the headteacher (Crawford and Earley, 2004; Spicer et al., 2014). However, the data... [ view full abstract ]
For over a decade, academics and policy makers have been concerned with how those governing in English schools performance appraise the headteacher (Crawford and Earley, 2004; Spicer et al., 2014). However, the data underpinning the current literature is historic and does not account for recent legislative and policy changes that have altered the headteacher appraisal process. Firstly, the government introduce new appraisal regulations in 2012 designed to give maintained “schools more freedom over managing their … [headteacher]” (DfE, 2012). Secondly, there has been an exponential rise over the past five years in the number of free schools and academies that have the ability to set their own appraisal arrangements.
Based on this, research was undertaken between June and September 2017 to explore the changing role of those governing in conducting headteacher appraisal and the accompanied obstacles to an effective, robust and meaningful process. In particular, the following research questions were addressed in relation to the current landscape:
- What arrangements do governing boards make for headteacher appraisal?
- How are performance objectives set?
- How is performance against objectives measured?
The research was carried out in two phases. Phase one involved a survey of 1,164 chairs of governors and trustees of state-schools in England. This looked to capture current practice across a range of school types and phases, included differences between academies and maintained schools. In addition, 10 stakeholders involved in headteacher appraisal (headteachers, chairs of governors and external advisors) were also subject to in-depth semi-structured interviews.
The findings from this research suggest that many schools are continuing to follow ‘historic’ practices, creating confusion around who should ‘lead’ the process of headteacher performance appraisal in newer types of school structures. The study also revealed that those governing sometimes miscalculate their training needs and do not take ownership for recruiting an external advisor (where applicable). As part of the project, several recommendations are offered to help those governing understand their roles and to create a tailored, robust and streamlined appraisal process for their headteachers.
References
Crawford, M. and Earley, P. 2004. Headteacher performance management: an investigation of the role of the external adviser. School leadership & management, 24(4): 377-389.
Department for Education (DfE). 2012. Schools get more freedom to manage teacher performance. DfE: London. Available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/schools-get-more-freedom-to-manage-teacher-performance.
Spicer, E., Crawford, M., Earley. 2014. Effectively managing headteacher performance: Final report. Department for Education: London. Available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/headteacher-performance-effective-management.
