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PRINCIPLE
FOUR: EVALUATION An
Investor in People understands the impact of its investment in people on
its performance. Findings 10
The development of people improves the performance of the
organisation, teams The
focus of all development activity around the school plan enables a very
clear evaluation to be undertaken in relation to the impact of learning
on delivery of the plan. The quarterly review identifies 'on plan' and 'off
plan' performance and to review the causes of variants. As learning is
linked directly to the plan and its progress, the review includes a
careful review of the learning actions taken and the impact they have
had on moving performance forward. The
cascade nature of the review process and the frequent review within
teams of individual contribution enables the impact at individual, team
and whole school level to be identified. 11
People understand the impact of the development of people on the
performance Members
of the senior management team were quite clear on the 'costs' of
development activity. This is particularly an issue in an organisation
with tight staffing resources and in which the withdrawal of a front
line teacher or, indeed, one of the many support staff who are vital
ingredients to delivering service is a particularly 'costly' event. The
school invests significantly in supply cover for development activity as
well as maximising the use of colleagues to support the development of
others. It
is not surprising, therefore, that the senior management team are
equally active in identifying the benefits that arise from that
investment and closely monitoring the levels of improvement in school
performance that it is generating. "The evaluation we make is not wholly co-ordinated as the impact spreads in a number of areas. What is clear is that the frequent review of the development plan at school, departmental and subject level enables us to plot clearly the improvements we are making. " Interviewees
across the school can identify both personal performance improvements
arising from particular learning exercises many of which were not
`formal' courses. Through the regular departmental meetings, they are
also aware of how the development both of themselves and others is
helping to improve both departmental and whole school performance. "The
discipline for learning policy was rolled out in September 2000 with a
lot of 12
The organisation gets better at developing its people. The
post course evaluation process enables care to be taken in ensuring that
learning processes are meeting their objectives. As
much of the external development is delivered on a Council wide basis
through Dundee Education Department, there is opportunity only to
influence rather than to decide on any remedial action. However,
interviewees shared examples where constructive feedback both given
directly at the conclusion of an event and via more formal communication
from the school had enabled changes both in content, structure and
faculty to be made in a number of these programmes. As
a learning institution, the school looks closely and critically at its
own in-house activities and again employees shared comments on those
which had been amended or, indeed, deleted following critical analysis. "The quality and relevance of
the in-house and in-Council programmes has Conclusions
with regard to the Principle of the Standard All Indicators met.
Potential Development Areas None identified |