Where performance management works best is where it is used in a positive way to develop people and improve on what they’re already doing. Certainly, the new system is much tighter and much more rigorous. Performance management is about an annual cycle, and eventually teachers will set themselves objectives for improvement in the classroom and in their professional practice. Throughout the year, there will be development and taining for them to achieve those objectives, with team leaders monitoring that progress and offering support.

I think the secondment initiative - calling in experienced teachers to work for a short time as advisers in the education office - has really worked, and it’s shown a lot of forward thinking by the LEA. I’ve talked to other schools outside the authority and I know they would love to have had access to a good team who had recent and relevant experience of working with management in schools. I think Liverpool has been ahead of the game here.