Can coaching principles be applied to the teacher appraisal process? Director of Studies at St Andrew’s School, Berkshire, Kirsty Stokes, believes they can. Here she explains why and how training in coaching for appraisers can empower educators and foster a culture of continuous improvement.
“Independent schools are not required to follow the appraisal regulations which apply to maintained schools, but have the flexibility to design their own appraisal processes, building on best practice in schools, and from other organisations.
The teacher appraisal process for maintained schools is nearly forty years old, and you could argue that there have been limited changes to the system. If you consider the context of change in the education system as a whole, Schleicher, 2018, sums it up in his chapter on 21st century school’s systems ‘Making education reform happen’1 by writing that ‘without substantial change, the gap between what education systems provide and what our societies demand is likely to widen further…”