How often do you get reviewed?

[peacoat]

We have a new and eager AHT who is reviewing every faculty three times a year. I had mine in December and had my feedback (me in SLT meeting) 2 weeks ago.

Got an email this morning asking me to prepare for the next review (no date, but apparently its in March, 10 working weeks since the last one).

This is on top of weekly learning walks, and book looks every 2-3 weeks.

AIBU to be pissed off? I feel like I'm on competency even though it's the same for every faculty. How often does your dept/faculty get reviewed?

[Mostlyjustaluker]

What does your 'review' involve?

Which Union are you in? Are we still working to rule? In our school our union is only concerned about observations, we only have 3 a year. I would be concerned about how much time between feedback and time to implement changes before your next review.

This about of observation will burn you out.

[peacoat]

The last review was a joint observation of all of my LSAs which took hours out of my week. They are brilliant though.

A discussion with this AHT about my department, copies of all of my tracking data etc, then observations of small group work which she didn't grade as she couldn't because it didn't fit the checklist for mainstream teaching.

This next one involves a grade for teaching and at least 3 different pieces of paperwork about how I've met the recommendations from last review.

It's not too intense really. I'm just pissed off that so soon after getting my feedback I've been informed to get ready for the next one, but mostly pissed off that someone whose knowledge and opinion I don't trust is going to come and 'check' my work. Again.

[Mostlyjustaluker]

How do other people feel about this? In uni we were told 'weighing the pig does not make it any fatter'. If you spend all your time assessing staff and yourself how are you or aht improving what you are doing.

This is madness.

[peacoat]

It's a good quote! I also like this one - "Does it sell more beer?" i.e. is it producing a benefit for the students?

Thing is, I don't need a review to know how to lead my faculty well (particularly by someone who knows nothing about my area - I'd welcome a review but the specialists in the borough though). I don't need a dragon breathing down my neck to make me work hard.

All it does is distract me from doing the work which will directly benefit the students by making me fill in paperwork and explain to someone else what my job is, so that someone can tick a box on their 'to-do' list and get a future promotion.