Byline: RHODRI EVANS

PERFORMANCE management will be high on the agenda when teachers return to schools following the summer break.

Schools across Wales will have to have policies for performance management in place by the end of November and teachers are now being urged to prepare for the new system.

Under the new system teachers will undergo regular appraisals as part of a performance management cycle, will set personal targets and will have their performance reviewed at the end.

In an effort to help schools prepare two of the teaching unions - Welsh teaching union Ucac and the National Association of Schoolmasters and Women Teachers have now joined to produce a new model policy for performance management, being distributed to 18,000 teachers across Wales. The aim of the document is to provide a ready-made policy for schools to reduce paperwork.

The unions say the policy can be adopted by all schools and believe it will save teachers hours of development work to add to their already heavy workload.

Geraint Davies of the NASUWT said, ``What we are saying is that this model policy is one that can be taken off the shelf and implemented by any school in Wales.''

Edwyn Williams, general secretary of Ucac said, ``Where we have schools drawing up their own policy we could see wide variations.

``We have been working close-ly together on it to ensure it is fair and meets the needs of the schools in Wales.''

With the implementation of the new system on the horizon the General Teaching Council for Wales is also urging schools to prepare for performance management and is urging teachers to use the summer holidays to draw up a shopping list of the training they would like to get as part of the new system. …