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How Does Southwood Schools Support Staff

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Southwood School is a public, mixed comprehensive secondary school, located in the United Kingdom with an average annual turnover in excess of 1 million. There are 120 employees: 80 teaching and 40 non-teaching employees. The school itself has more than 800 students aged 13-18. Five years prior, Southwood implemented a performance management system that was designed for teachers by the British Department for Education and Skills (DfES), which was used to evaluate school support staff as well, because there was no system specifically geared toward the support staff. Southwood did not have HR personnel to design a system for support staff, at the time, so the emphasis of performance management was paid to teachers. A specialized performance management system was not perceived to be priority at the time.
The DfES system required employees to agree on 3-6 performance objectives for upcoming performance period; one of the objectives included requires that teacher performance encompass “pupil progress as well as ways of developing and improving teachers’ professional practice.” They are also required to have at least one classroom observation annually, and conduct a formal performance review focused on identified performance objectives:
• Review, discuss, and confirm the teacher’s essential tasks
• Identify employee strengths and achievements
• Identify developmental areas and an action plan on how they will be met
• Agree to future performance objectives and an action plan for

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