2024 Doesn’t have to be a personal ‘Ground Hog’ day

Photo By – Stas Ostrikov

“The greater danger for most of us isn’t that our aim is too high and miss it, but that it is too low, and we reach it.” 

Michelangelo

In the time before ATSIL standards and accreditation, first year out teachers were observed and assessed throughout the year. Successful teachers were awarded the ‘Teaching Certificate’ –acknowledging their entry into the service. This may be news to first time players, but the system was very different in that time. Not better, not harder – different.

Teaching has changed in so many ways that and trying to list the changes is like meddling with time itself!

The Performance and Development Plan (PDP) ‘should be viewed as an active document’ and is an annual process for teachers and school leaders to develop their practice.

There are important links between the PDP and accreditation. One cannot be without the other.

Successfully navigating the channel of performance and development is part of the requirements to maintain accreditation. It does make sense. Accreditation gives voice to the profession.

The reality is that many teachers feel that the PDP is something of a personal Ground Hog-day as goal setting, completing mandatory training and compliance tasks blend into a time consuming and largely irrelevant process that barely links to pedagogy. Principals will tell you that managing the PDP process has become another data entry and compliance measure to be completed in the Office.

This is a poor reflection on the vision that was the PDP.

Principals are required to manage continuous school improvement. Benchmarks, progressions, and many other trinkets of data inform the relationship Principals have with managers higher up on the food chain. The overwhelming international evidence highlights the vital role that increased time and resourcing for collaboration and planning has in improving student achievement and outcomes.

Will your 2024 PDP be more the same or will you use it to guide your professional growth?

Teaching has changed, what is the constant?

The core business of teaching children.

Children need support, guidance, and love to grow into the teachers and Principals of the future.