 Hello everybody, a slight technical glitch a moment to go. So apologies, here we are on another link. So I hope you find this and I'll definitely circulate it. My name is Ross Teacher Toolkit. It's never a good time to talk about performance management but I've managed to grab Mitch Olsop, a deputy head at a school in Staffordshire to talk about performance management at the back end of an academic year. Why? Because they are doing some incredible work and I have the privilege of visiting lots and lots of schools and I wanted to, when I was invited to go and look at what they had did at over the academic year and also discuss some of their work with research and I've got Mitch here to kind of pick his brains and share this brilliant document that I have been talking about on my social channels over the last month or so. So let me get rid of this screen and I'm going to bring Mitch in to say hello. Mitch, good evening. Hi Ross, nice to see you. So the technology is working this time so we had a bit of a double loop, we lost each other but we're back on this channel and I'm sure one or two people will join us eventually. If you're watching live, if you're logged in to Twitter, Facebook or YouTube, you can leave a comment in the chat box and we'll see it on our side and we'll respond as we go through. But Mitch and I are discussing research informed appraisal and how you can create a culture where staff curate their own research targets and to a point where I was privileged to go to Mitch's school last month and hear the staff publishing their research. So Mitch, can you just give us a little introduction as to who you are, what you do, what your school's like and then we'll take it from there. Yeah, of course. So my name's Mitch, also I'm vice principal at a school in Hensford in Staffordshire called Staffordshire University Academy. We serve a fairly deprived community but we've lots of affluence around the side so it's around about 46% disadvantaged students but it's an incredible school and the students have got so much grit and determination they're an incredible set of students really. We've spent the last kind of five years myself and their teacher and the senior team really kind of rebooted in the school. It's had a legacy of really of a real poor reputation that goes back generations and the area in which our school is there isn't a lot of mobility so actually families that will have not felt served well by the school have then children or grandchildren come to the school so we've had to do a lot of reversal of that but the big journey started five years ago looking at culture and very quickly we learned that using anything that's evidence informed and research based gives you the best outcomes and actually drives forward all the life chances and kind of fast forward five years and things are going really well. Our staff are great, really aligned we've got the right people kind of on the right seats doing the right jobs and driving everything forward and we're able to prioritise everything that we need to and that we're able to move forward with and the reputation in the community has shifted so much and we've put a lot of that down to the hard work of the staff and students around some of the research and the kind of the culture of research that we've built into our everyday practice. So for people watching I had the privilege of visiting Mitch and his colleagues late June 2022 and I guess we first had a conversation gosh was it back in October or something like that a long time ago and we started to talk about research informed appraise or me coming along to kind of see some of the work that your staff are doing so just as a little teaser for people online this is the document let me just put this banner out of the way here we go so Mitch shared this document with me at least on a spreadsheet format before I arrived and this was the final document I didn't see until I came physically in your school and I was just in awe having this in my hands before I spoke to staff and I think you probably saw that in the room when I was there I talked about it so much so Mitch just give us a little I'll skim through a couple of pages but just tell us what is on the screen here so this is literally the front cover of every single member of staff's evidence informed research project and when I say every member of staff I mean from our site team to the reception team through to any student support right the way through the teaching body up to any level of leadership all the way through to senior leadership if you're able to you'll see we cover a whole range of topics from kind of pedagogy that will help within the classroom right the way through to what motivates different demographs of students how we can bring in more innovation into the classroom but then even down to things like how do you improve the entrance of the reception area to make that more welcoming so it's very much a kind of it's the outcome of a year-long project that every individual has created that we then publish this then is given a copy is given to every member of staff so that if there's a strand of research we always revisit throughout the year but if there's a strand of research that they feel may improve their job role in some particular way it's built into this format the poster we call this an academic poster of sorts quite a simplified version of such but it's meant to be a quick grab guide that you're able to then look at so what Ross is moving to now is an example of one of the posters so we always ask staff to explain why this research and why now it doesn't need to be just for SUA that could be pertinent to their role and how they're developing there's then a very similar you'll see that kind of wavy box that's reduced in the whole project down into six steps so that if you were to take it on as yourself you're able to look at what the six steps were that the member of staff's done we insist on influential reading really within a five year swing to keep it fresh and new and then you'll see the final few boxes of the key findings are vital we use the key findings then to inform policy and that's really helped the kind of journey for us as an academy because it's not just fruitless staff are creating something there's an outcome and then it builds back into it what I loved about this Mitch was that every member of staff had a research inquiry question this was a one page or summary of the research throughout the year yeah and it kind of signed like you said it signed post the reads the takeaway tips the next step so it's really supporting that culture from the start to finish throughout every person in the organization I just want to pop back to that slide you mentioned it's been a five year journey yeah give us a little synopsis of the kind of key stages and what you need to do next for the year ahead I suppose as someone at this stage where all staff are taking part in research and so it's a lovely journey first so I joined the academy five years ago and took over looking at pupil premium and I've done a lot of work through I complete the future leaders program and they were really into using evidence and research to you know to understand how you can improve outcomes and therefore I knew that using the EF particularly to find out what gains you could get would really help so I started right back with that in going to the staff and saying right let's look and show you that actually for using research we can have impact and we started to make some really really decent gains with that within pupil premium that then allowed us to move into taking a bit more of a risk with staff and saying well let's try if that works there let's try taking this into the classroom so you know we used what many schools have used things like the teach like a champion techniques with we started to consider how the idea of understanding how you learn and what then evolves into metacognition that all started to creep into the classroom and so that moved us in through the first kind of 18 months now I appreciate I've just skipped many months there but it was the idea of drip feeding you into making the staff see you know they were they've been hit they've been told there are school in special measures actually the staff weren't that the staff were by and large you know very talented and they just needed to be able to see that with the right kind of guidance and being put in the in front of the right things so that they would be able to perform that then moved us into looking at like reading clubs I always read a lot and try and read outside of education to try and push that into any ways and thinking so we encourage reading clubs which we've you turned on which I'll explain a bit later but that really helps staff pick a book up have a read and have a proper debate and kind of critically analyse what that is that took us nicely into then building CPD in and then bringing it into our appraisal so it came into our appraisal around about three three and a half years ago where we actually started to say let's do an action research project so the the notion of doing something that's you know useful within your role and very quickly I realised that this couldn't just be a team journey for teaching staff it needed to include every member of staff and so everyone was asked to do an action research project that began in almost a voluntary way we had it as an appraisal one but it didn't have much sway on the overall because we were still very heavy on the outcomes being the overriding objective teaching and learning which we'd removed grading of observations back in 2018 but actually it was still a feature on our appraisal and it didn't seem to fit with how we were driving the coach forward so then we moved to the next kind of step we moved then into it featuring on people's appraisal and then CPD so staff then started to share their projects because it became an equal waiting so if staff didn't achieve the outcomes it wouldn't mean they wouldn't they wouldn't move through their appraisal because if they'd thrown themselves into their research and we prove them to have some form of impact it doesn't matter if it failed a search would they really give it a good go and we could see the journey of that and their teaching was typically great which you know quite often it is and it may not always yield the results it meant that we were able then to move them through appraisal A couple of questions Mitch just to interject and for people watching I can see people adding some comments so please keep them coming and any questions I'll put them on the screen Mitch and I will respond but how far so you mentioned the grading and how you removed that and the buying and stuff so now we're at a point where all staff are creating a research appraisal target you know all staff I mean support staff also which is great how far away are you from maybe just this being the one target rather than your traditional appraisal targets and how much of them how much of this document which we'll go through in a moment is top down or top up I would say we're moving very close because it's there becoming very encompassing when we get the inquiry when we get the research inquiry questions in that's where our kind of next phase as you mentioned previously is really making sure they're as tight as they need to be and have as much of a narrow focus as they need to be but I truly think when we've got it to that point we're in a position where we trust our staff we're in a position where we know that they can go and perform so if we know that they're keeping themselves on top of their game from a research perspective you know I think we're edging closer and we're feeling really far down that path where we will be able to trust that that will prove to us that or proves the wrong words that will allow staff to feel empowered to continue their research journey So have you still got the traditional three targets plus a research target or is it just this now? No, so we have still got three they have equal weighting so 33% each this is the number one target so we have an evidence-informed project which is a third we have the typicality of teaching and learning which is a third and then we have student engagement so that doesn't necessarily mean outcomes that could be how you've raised the engagement of students through whatever it might be clubs or maybe numbers into your subjects or whatever it might be it doesn't necessarily have to fall onto outcomes So I've got your first challenging question, Mitch, here By linking this to appraisal doesn't it lose the purpose? Is it yet another thing that teachers need to focus on in addition to everything else? Yeah, great question Yeah, that's a really good question I think it's one of those things where we're in the process of it and I think for schools that maybe at the very start there's got to be a kind of proof that this is the right way of going and I think we're now a couple of years into proving that the projects are having the impact that you need to be able to remove them in terms of the second part about teachers you know, is it something extra for teachers to do? I think that's about the culture making sure you've got the right culture and your staff the right kind of level of buying I know that might sound a bit business-esque but actually it's been able to say to staff this will have a big impact on you as you'll practice and then you move forward What was really important for us was that we are kind of motto if you like is team SUA, we want team and so we didn't want it to be exclusive for teachers we wanted everyone to join us and that's why we have... Ross came along as one of our keynote speakers for our research event that's why we absolutely celebrate it at the end of each year And that's what I loved about it the most is that the event although I had the pressure of the keynote and trying to be useful and relevant I absolutely loved being part of this celebration where you know, all staff got to share their research posters on the wall there's a bit of wine and cheese that type of stuff and I guess the document itself you know, I've got it under my table here let me just grab it and I keep talking this is a beefy document which is a year's work per page per member of staff and for me it just oozes staff culture Yeah So people in the chat box keep your comments coming I'll put them up on the screen but what Mitch and I are going to do I'm going to choose... Mitch doesn't know this we're doing this very ad hoc and we had a technical glitch before so we're back on another link here we're going to look at a project at random so I'm going to choose a number but you probably maybe knows them all off by heart so we'll see and we're going to just walk through one project and Mitch will be able to talk us a little bit more about this person so we've anonymized the document at some point we'll share this online templates and everything else So let me just put another question on before we do so so I've got a comment here from Robert on LinkedIn I've taken part myself in the acquiring schools program which is all this but this required a mentor for the teacher involved in the program the previous point from Robert was this how do you manage the program? Does it have a coordinator or is it just you Mitch? And so there's probably what I haven't explained that's vital to the program is this is built into our CPD so staff aren't kind of working on this in isolation they'll submit a question in the autumn term although we have brought that forward so staff have submitted their questions for next academic year literally this week so we're able to focus in on that question and then it moves into kind of development time so there's research time given over to staff so lots of schools do twilight after school we dedicate our twilight into research time and then you might be grouped in with a group of people who might be looking at similar things our approach or one of our approaches we've teaching for instance are the pillars of mastery so you may be placed with everyone who's looking at modelling for instance and then you're able to discuss your approaches within that in terms of a direct mentor it does it filters down if you like so everything gets sent through to me I have a little look at it but actually it's through kind of line management but through peers so it's not a kind of a leadership member needs to look at a teacher member of staff you know it's very normal for you know reception staff to go and be speaking to one of our ECTs about their projects and how it might improve the school environment so it's very much a kind of if you were to visit the school and there is an opening by anyone could come and say that we're so proud of what we're doing you'll see conversations like that happening amongst our staff they talk research but it hasn't happened overnight it has been a journey OK so we'll unpick one of the documents as a little showcase so there's an offer from Mitch if you're ever in Canuck which is north west of Birmingham Chester my geography in Norwich in Staffordshire great school, great culture great team doing some I visit lots of schools I very rarely see something like this so you know streets ahead in terms of teacher autonomy and culture which is great so Mitch, put me on the spot choose a number at random so we've got all the units here I won't go for seven because I think that's mine Russ so we're going to Right let's go for seven that's really good for number nine let's go for like I don't know, 30, 39 is this your one here to what extent does the typical use of classroom conversations have no mine, no it's not that's another one of our assistant heads burn let's do this one first and then we'll choose another one so just walk us through so I will zoom in on the top half just walk us through the document, the methodology and what you're asking staff to document here on this one pager so let's now what's brilliant here Russ is that you've selected this is my wife's one so that's that's great so I've got to get this spot on haven't I this is so what we asked staff to do is and this is submitted through like a Google form the in the initial year in the initial stages the research question is based on something to do with role so this particular member of staff leads our quality of education our assistant heads and Bernie's got a big drive around looking at how curriculum conversations can impact students and staff autonomy, development and how that would be and we've done a lot of work with students about talking confidently about you know, automaticity, authenticity what's coherent how does that link what's a sequence like in your lessons so Bernie will have explained that in that opening bit where it says why this research why now what we'd like there is a kind of link of the context of perhaps the journey for yourself or for SUA why it's important now for instance if someone was to pop up with something that we know we're okay with we'd be saying well actually is that going to is that going to interest is that going to sustain you for long enough although we haven't we don't think we've kind of rejected any questions we've always fine-tuned questions next box is the process so we have staff and they struggle with this stuff too we asked staff to refine it down into six stages so that if anyone wanted to look at how they might implement curriculum conversations into their classroom or perhaps say they might use conversations in a more typical way across any role they could follow these six steps across do the six stages have a methodology or is it just the staff have to just think of six things no there's a kind of methodology so we'd expect some form of of whatever the research where you might be questionnaire, staff or student voice it's whether you decide whether it's qualitative or quantitative then it moves into some form of analysis of that and then you might revisit say some staff have control groups and they'll revisit because they might start with an hypothesis and then it eventually moves through to finding some results some of those could be exceptional kind of green shoots that aren't major but actually show something of improvement or something that shows that would be worth following and then there's always points to share so throughout the year staff do share I think everyone we're trying to fit everyone in throughout our CPD in the year where they just show what they're where they're at so far so if I just pop to a document next door that we look at that six point process again it follows that same methodology of you know the rationale behind the method gathering data there and reporting back so if I go back to this one that we were looking at the conversation curriculum type stuff we've got the key finders box at the bottom so is there an expectation to report back on specifics or three points or five points or is it left to the individual totally up to the individual and we would accept to that point if it came back as I haven't found anything out then that's okay you've bought into the whole notion of research and sometimes you can research things and it might be fruitless but you've you've explored a personal interest within your role so now if you look through the document you'll see some stuff like Bernie's done here will number some stuff will put pictures some will put graphs and results in so okay so there's there's there's I guess the message is people reflecting and reporting what they're going to do next which is a loop yeah and right on the right hand side we've got so I've noticed there's people with different the best thing we've got pictures or one or two words what's this side of the document so this link slightly back to one of the one of the viewers who asked about groups and if they're mentors so we've got six pillars of mastery in our teaching staff that are kind of broadly what we would like to see delivered over a scheme of learning so this one's about high expectations and that's not necessarily a behavior that's high expectations of picture blessing but we also have modeling questioning high quality feedback and there's six in total if you move down to one we'll also have a business aim therefore staff who are in the business team and if you'll if you see at the bottom of the page you'll see it'll tell you what kind of group from the from the staff they are zoom out a bit OK so business aim there you go that one's teaching evidence informed projects at the foot of the page and it's a blue box each and then this one's the business support team they'll have the business aims yeah that's set by the business and then if they'll be a yep and then the inclusion and progress team so that includes our inclusion officers and our student support officers so are these page numbers the this is this your colour code to suit each team when they're starting to work out right or it's all coming to light now we're like it and right let's pop back to this and that wasn't my method but it has seemed to have helped it seems to have helped it works it works so we've got influential reads so these are the books at the so you mentioned earlier you had a U turn on the book club stuff what why is that well because we we gave stuff we were giving stuff time to read but like forcing them to read in a book club right and actually we felt it would be better to say here's books these are books that have influenced some of us as a senior team or you know as a new as a new career teacher or this has influenced me over and you know looking at finances and we share what books we're looking at but we don't kind of give the time to read because it felt a bit it felt a bit against some of the well-being policies that we were working with where you kind of say well let's all get in a room and read where actually we could be saying stuff and why don't you head home do what you need to do but could you have a look into this book when you've got time yeah Kavitha left a really good point here about you know the like the idea of developing culture but not the cost of staff well being absolutely and I remember when I did reading club as a deputy we gave staff time but it was that very subtle line between forcing and encouraging and then just say look there's the book take it home bring it back on this date and let's discuss it along the way and I think that culture as you said you know it starts to ripple through over time it's not a quick fix it takes we also found that Ross as well like it was it was a small amount of staff in the building recommending the books and then you're ending up with perhaps I don't know six or ten texts that were being shared but there's hundreds thousands of books that could be used and we channeled it into what we thought would be the best books but actually some of the books that have been suggested and then used for research would not have come from a small group of staff it needs an individual to take up the idea while I want to follow that strand so a good point so in this case this person your wife here has read these two really good books on curriculum then there's a takeaway tip to next steps yeah I guess you know there's three bullet points there and one bullet point so I guess it's just up to staff just reflect on what they should do next then yeah I mean I'm happy for you to jump to another one Ross if you want I don't want people to think I mean map to it with someone that you know Holly here has mentioned you know the document so we're going to work out how we're going to share this document I mean when I saw it it was raw and it had teacher names inside and so we've gone through it with a tooth comb and anonymized it we'll work out a way of sharing it with people and having a template at some point I guess before we look at another one Mitch you know there's two right boxes the takeaway tips and next steps are you creating this behind the scenes to try and look at whole school impact or priorities yeah what do you do next with that so what we do with that now as a senior team we've had these packs for well since the 27th of June when you came in we now look through to see what tangible next steps we can take and what will inform the policy changes for next year and that's been really important so actually some of the bigger ones we're moving through this year from my well-being project and I haven't yet announced to staff the winning projects I'll reserve that for the end of the term there might be someone on the slide and plus I hate to add that the head teachers ones in here also and the teachers on teacher well-being or staff well-being which was very reassuring too and right let's look at one more and then we'll kind of wrap things up and people watching live add your comments here and I'll put them on the screen so I've chosen one here we're on November 38 the question we've got at the top is how do careers education with a normal curriculum enhance students experiences and raise aspirations so I guess from your perspective you have read all these you're aware of globally what's going on across the school you mentioned earlier that you haven't rejected any questions how do you you mentioned that you refine them so what would be a question as a beginner that would need refining and why yeah so it's those kinds of the broad questions like how let me think of one now so something along the lines of I staff might want to improve their questioning in a class if I just use a teacher example and so they'd say something like how does questioning improve outcomes where actually what we'd then be saying is well let's consider a subgroup let's consider a year group let's consider what type of questioning and so it just tightens it up a little bit but actually Ross we've stolen one of your little mantras about it being inch wide and mild so actually to narrow that focus even more we quite often talk about laser sharp focus on things and I think if we could get inquired questions into that laser sharp focus and put a nice bit of a QA through through that to make all of them tight go on you Mitch finish so for instance that question one we would kind of work with the colleague then and say great we want to look at questioning so which year group key stage three which year group in key stage three at year nine okay is it a particular group in year nine is it everyone is it the girls and then it all boys okay so is it send girls is it disadvantage girls is it girls I don't know EAL you narrow it down and then you've got a really clear kind of target there you know that inch mic wide mild deep focus that sharpen of the lens that laser focus actually by really being specific and reducing the focus actually allows you to be much more rigorous with quality assurance and I think actually heightens your evaluation and your outcomes in some respects yeah I agree I guess let's wrap this up with this document what next for next year how can we think about sharing this online with others what would you suggest well we can share this no problem and we're very open to anyone coming and seeing and speaking and working with us to improve what we're doing so we're closely affiliated with Stafford University Academy's Trust which is to the university and they've been in touch and would like us to work with some of their early career teachers and see obviously at university it's very much a thing everything's moving evidence in form so that's a big shift for us actually had some contact from other universities as well to see whether or not it's really exciting for us as a team we want to tighten up our questions keep making those we'd love to make it that this is the only appraisal target we're getting edging closer and closer to that and then really there's a lot of hard work from staff here and it would be nice for them to be published and have something with their career as they move forward so yeah we have to emphasise here that this is a static document but it doesn't necessarily show people all the stuff that's gone on throughout the year the discussions, the questions, the meetings the evidence, the classroom discussions etc so there's you know this is the tip of the iceberg but it's a really good tip and it kind of shows that culture I've got a diagram somewhere I might have to get out later but start with culture first end with coffee and cake and it's that kind of iceberg analogy of what lies beneath the surface so last question then Mitch what next for this you know you said you sharpen it up it might be the only thing but where do you think your immediate step is for next year I think I think it's it will be into I'd like to streamline this document because this actually just become a clunky thing for our staff to complete and we can make that a lot more automated and then the staff are able to see that the next steps are actually happening as they move into our next academic year and we continue to evolve the dream is as we keep completing the evidence inform research we keep improving the culture and the feel and the environment of the academy and therefore we never chasing an off-stead grade we never chasing of concern about anything we just ever improving so it's just and some of these you know when you look through the document some of these questions are you know big things interesting things the support staff stuff you know as a teachers and interest in perspective you can't see what they see as as teachers you know what we're interested in the one you're on there Ross was about a member of the admin team who looked into whether a clutter desk here about led lighting led lighting great that's our science technician and no so that's our site manager really worried about costumes started to look into that and started the reports down here so you know the kind of all the different cost per wattage that's that's great to see a member of staff in a school not necessarily on frontline the classroom really digging deep and reflecting on how to make a difference to the school community and it's that kind of NASA analogy I'm helping man get to the moon by washing the floor and yeah it's wonderful to see I guess just to finish from me I won't go through any slides and keep everyone busy but I've got that five minute research plan methodology which I shared with Mitch and staff how to pose a good question I've got my verbal feedback project with UCL that kind of looking at the rhythm of the academic year how your ask question investigate the current research innovate some new ideas and reflect and report back how that might fit in with your appraisal and then the very last thing was this document here the case for research informed appraisal rather than target setting I've done a lot of research for a number of years on that and then my little five minute plan here for the research appraisal process which I guess is what you can see on Mitch's document from Staffordshire University Academy what it looks like in practice and I guess here on the screen is just that academic model just trying to think of how you could put that into a teaching and a support staff rhythm of school life and fitting it in with the nature of people working in a very busy environment and how one last question how do you fit this in Mitch with the busy nature of school life and how much time do you give to staff so we have there's a few things that I think we may do a bit different in school so we build in teaching and learning mornings and afternoons where students leave site but it gives us staff dedicated around three to four hours some of that time is within the research and the showcasing of research but we'll build it into our CPD offer so it may be there you know we have some teacher learning input but then we might have dedicated research time and so we'd be saying to staff let's go head off do some research come back share your findings and where you would be that's really helped us with the staff kind of buying particularly though difficult that's easy for teachers because in a sense we do have that time dedicated for improvement harder for support staff who are on different contracted hours so they're not in for the full school day so we've got a really talented support team and what they do is they maneuver their shift they might work an hour longer or shorter but they'll make sure they fit in training so that within their contracted hours they're still getting kind of dedicated time to do their research so it's about being fair I think and making sure that we know there's a lot of effort but we also we also know that to get the best stuff in front of our students is to allow them some autonomy a fair and flexible approach and you know obviously you're balancing the different contracts and all the range and breadth of support staff work is interesting and also complex even as here a wonderful display what can happen when a team focus on the effort of everyone working together and I think there you go and one more comment here from Tammy on LinkedIn we're doing something similar schedule meetings 1265 individual research time so Mitch I'm going to let you go we only kind of planned this ad hoc last week and I wanted to share it just before the end of the summer term we'll work out away in September to get this online for everyone the amazing work at Staffordshire University Academy and I hope I can come back in here all the amazing things you're doing like I said the next stage is maybe do a little public event where staff can speak publicly bring external people in but yeah all credit to you and your head teacher for getting this done thank you for your time and have a good summer and I'll catch up with you soon and you Ross take care goodbye everyone thanks bye everyone so thank you for watching this is already on the YouTube channel Twitter and LinkedIn so you can watch it back or share it with a colleague in September Mitch and I will work out how to put the document online so you can grab it and all the templates and make sure you follow Staffordshire University on Twitter LinkedIn Facebook are you on your channels are you on Insta well are you that cool you're on Instagram no we are but don't ask me about that I think we might even have a tiktok account but don't ask me okay I'll let you go have a good summer thank you everyone for watching and Mitch will catch up with you soon cheers take care thanks bye bye