Supervision and appraisals

[Cupcake1984]

Hi all.

 

I'm pretty new to all of this so I'm just going to give it a go a see! I was wondering if anyone could help with a couple of questions;

 

1) How often do we need to be doing supervision and what sort of formats settings are using / recommend?

 

2) We do our appraisals once a year, is this enough? and can anyone recommend a good format?

 

Many thanks :-)

[Guest]

I think that to get the best out of supervisions they need to be fairly regular, maybe every 3 months? and targets for improvement or areas of development should be set. That way you are keeping an eye on staff's progress. I've attached a format I've used but it's easy to tweak it to suit yourself. Finding time to do supervision and appraisal is difficult I think, so I have got senior staff ( if you have them) to do supervisions of their room staff and I do the senior staff. Acas has a good section on appraisals and supervision with some formats I think, they are very good at most things!. I think Ofsted are looking for a process that shows you know where your staff are at, and are monitoring them to show an impact on children's learning and development, otherwise, why bother to do them?!

 

Good Luck!

http://www.acas.org....?articleid=2927Appraisal and supervision record.doc

[Cupcake1984]

Thanks Sunshine,

 

That's a great help, at least I know I'm on the right track. It's hard to know sometimes if your doing the right thing!

 

Thanks again :1b

[Guest sn0wdr0p]

I do mine once a term and keep a record including actions to be taken by me with dates for completion.

[Stargrower]

Thank you for sharing your document Sunshine!

[abijac]

Hi is this record used just for supervision or appraisals as well. We were told that that they were different and had to be done separately I am getting very confused by supervision

[hali]

supervisions are like mini apprasials - got to do my 1st one after about 4 yrs next month

[finleysmaid]

Supervision meeting record 2012 blank.docx

here's my supervision sheet.

The appraisal form is a psla one so i can't post here but it includes problems/training etc etc

i do supervisions xmas and spring then appraisal in the summer

[abijac]

When we did the EYFS training we had a session on supervision. We were told the difference was appraisals are more about how you think the staff member is performing and how they can develop whereas the supervision was more a for the member of staff to get any concerns about work or personal issues to you. That's how I understood it anyway. Gathering some ideas for sheets ready for after half term.Wish me luck!

[finleysmaid]

to be honest i think you can use supervisions as you see fit...it is more about the idea that you are evaluating your staff performance and asking them relevant questions....so in other words managing them!!

[Guest mukerjee1]

Thank you Finleysmaid and Sunshine.

[Guest]

We do supervisions every term and an appraisal in the summer and/or year end. Like sunshine61, my senior staff do them with their teams, and then I do them with the senior staff. The staff are able to ask their supervisor if they wish to have an additional meeting with myself (i.e. if there is something they do not want to discuss with their supervisor) They have been working really well, and we find they are good opportunity to give praise and motivate people to progress further. I like the fact that everything is documented and you can actually see the progression throughout the year. The appraisals are more complex and they are carried out by myself (manager) and the owner (she's the one who has the power to give payrises! LOL)

[LKeyteach]

Thank you for sharing your documents. It is always helpful, rather than having to reinvent.

 

If there has not been a culture for supervision meetings, how have you introduced them?

Think I feel a little scared, as my staff are all mature ladies some with backgrounds in other professions, but retrained as practitioners.

I suppose I have to be positive about them and see them as supporting our working relationship.

 

 

I do do appraisals by the way!

[finleysmaid]

i just sell it as an opportunity to chat. Once you've done it a couple of times then it doesn't seem so daunting and if you are doing appraisals then you won't have any problems...after all what are they going to say????

[mundia]

A number of the settings I work with have introduced supervisions (where they weren't already in place) by looking at contracts and job descriptions. Effective supervision cant happen without these, and quite a few nurseries I work with didn't have them or they were outdated and vague. For example, a few didn't have any references to key person responsibility and what that looked like in their setting.

 

Overall, the feedback has been overwhelmingly positive, despite many people feeling anxious about what they should do, how they would find the time etc. But once they started, they really value those times and also valued the time and opportunity to look at JDs with the staff, and really think about what their job entails. The knock on effect of this has been sharper recruitment procedures, which has started to prevent some of those issues around recruiting people unsuitable for your setting.

 

I never had supervisions whilst I was teaching, it wasn't that well known in the maintained sector. I now wish I had...I'm sure many of the issues I struggled to deal with would have been better approached had monthly supervisions been part of our culture.

[Guest]

I just have a little notebook to record mine. No one has ever asked to see it, but maybe Ofsted will!

[Guest]

I actually don't think that supervision or chit chats as we call them are like mini appraisals,

 

they are 2 way conversation and i am not setting actions or goals for them, i am empowering my staff to sort any problems or niggles to sort themselves.

It is also having a conversation about their key children and parents

Appraisals are the time for looking at actions for improvment

[Orangejabberwocky]

I went on a course and was told a supervision should be done every 6 weeks!!! So I do one every half term and have a yearly appraisal.

 

You should also be checking if they could have any changes to their CRB like driving offences etc?

 

We disuss any concerns the member of staff may have either about key children or collegues or work in general. Some settings alternate supervisions with 1:1 or a 'direct' supervision, so during a session if there is something that you want to target or focus on with that member of staff you can.

 

hth

[lynned55]

If I did supervisions on a 1:1 every 6 weeks I would spend one week every half term having to employ extra staff to cover us being out of session. this in turn would lead to us going bankrupt in a short space of time!!

 

Working within (and with) such an experienced and long standing team I really dont feel i need to do it so regularly anyway. A it is now statutory we are doing once a term with the third term being appraisals. That said I can honestly say we struggled to fill the boxes with the 'right sort' of comments during the last ones. Any concerns had already been raised and discussed as and when they occurred, so really all of us ended feeling what a waste of time!!

Edited February 27, 2013 by lynned55

[louby loo]

If I did supervisions on a 1:1 every 6 weeks I would spend one week every half term having to employ extra staff to cover us being out of session. this in turn would lead to us going bankrupt in a short space of time!!

 

Working within (and with) such an experienced and long standing team I really dont feel i need to do it so regularly anyway. A it is now statutory we are doing once a term with the third term being appraisals. That said I can honestly say we struggled to fill the boxes with the 'right sort' of comments during the last ones. Any concerns had already been raised and discussed as and when they occurred, so really all of us ended feeling what a waste of time!!

 

Totally agree! What other business 'dictates' what needs to be done, whilst at the same time financially restricts you from physically being able to do it!

 

I've joked that I will record our 'set-up' time [pack-away setting] and use this as evidence of supervision meetings, the whole time is spend talking about issues/planing/ children etc anyway.

 

Thats 5 hours a week x 4staff x 38 weeks a year of 'work talk'............. now if we could only up-date the LJ at the same time we'll be laughing!!!

(I might work that out later - but maybe not, it might depress me )

[debs1]

Just been looking at supervision session as i don't do anything formal like that. However, i am in close contact with my staff daily and we do make time to discuss any concerns. I always pass training onto staff and ask them if there is anything they would like to do. I also advise if i think something would benefit them.

Surely this is more beneficial than taking staff away from the children who are supposedly our priority!

The system has gone crazy!!!!! Safeguarding......yeah right!

Think it should be communication in question and whether managers/supervisors are actually spending any time in the nursery rather than spending all day in an office.

[Guest]

Sorry for digging this back up, but i wanted some info on supervisions and after reading these posts i have to say its a mixed bag! Thus making me none the wiser!

 

I would have thought supervisions would be to make sure staff are doing there job to the standard expected of them, and by checking the evidence of this is up to standard. So basically looking at learning journals, and children's files, any notes that have been made etc.. to make sure that both developmental and safeguarding issues have been both recorded and dealt with correctly. It might just be a comment made by a child during observations that was overlooked by a staff member at the time, that actually needs further monitoring or questioning.

 

Also checking a few child's "learning journals" to make sure they are at a standard required.. would this be part of supervisions or something else?

[sunnyday]

Mr B - not sure if this is any help at all - but here is a record of a recent staff supervision - I would never be bold enough to suggest this is the way to 'do it' but seems to be working for us :1b

 

Staff supervision for forum.docx

 

 

 

Have to 'fess up that I was completely resistant to this to start with - very much taking the attitude that we work together in one room - speak daily - have productive staff meetings - and so on, and on and on! But, actually I have found these meetings really useful - especially the chance to speak individually to staff and to produce a record for them to sign and keep :1b

 

I should know by now that sometimes if you give something a try it can be really useful :1b

[SazzJ]

Supervisions are ideally done once a term though committee would prefer monthly - no chance

 

The form has:

What do you think is going well? Why?

What do you think is not going well? Why?

Any matters raised by leader

Actions

[Guest]

Lets be honest, one of the reasons supervisions have now been "introduced" is to reinforce settings to be more vigilant with how their staff are performing, and to put more of the blame onto settings if they fail. Yes i believe it's a good idea to supervise, but we always have anyway, it just wasn't seen to be a compulsary task so settings could simply argue they wasn't to know about these tasks and shift the blame. Now settings have nowhere to hide... Yes this is a good thing and this should result in less children being failed, but at the same time it gets the "powers that be" off the hook. Am i being mean?

[Guest]

supervision is a MUST in the eyfs frame work it is not an option.

they came about because of the findings from the Plymouth case review

[juliebowyer]

When we did the EYFS training we had a session on supervision. We were told the difference was appraisals are more about how you think the staff member is performing and how they can develop whereas the supervision was more a for the member of staff to get any concerns about work or personal issues to you. That's how I understood it anyway. Gathering some ideas for sheets ready for after half term.Wish me luck!

I recently asked this question of my SIP and she confirmed the same. Supervision should specifically be about a practitioners key children, any safeguarding issues they want to share, discussions about a staff's lead area and a staff members professional development. Appraisals are about a staff members performance and putting in place training to support professional development.

[Guest]

I recently asked this question of my SIP and she confirmed the same. Supervision should specifically be about a practitioners key children, any safeguarding issues they want to share, discussions about a staff's lead area and a staff members professional development. Appraisals are about a staff members performance and putting in place training to support professional development.

I don't suppose you have a 'supervision' proforma you would be willing to share?

[Cait]

Devonmaid there are a few earlier in the thread

[zigzag]

I went on a training yesterday and another manager on the course gave me a good idea, I thought I would share with you. When she was doing her supervision with an under performing member of staff she used the Ofsted grade descripters and asked the staff member to rate her performance to them. She said it made it easier for her because there was something in black and white to show the staff member and it made it less personal.