dissatisfied with the headteacher’s appraisal of their performance, we are now required to ask the head of another school or “another person of suitable experience or seniority” to carry out the review. Excellent.

Unfortunately, the chair’s role as review officer is clearly set out in the model policies sent to schools and the performance management training packs we are currently delivering, whereas the new improved version is tucked away in one paragraph in teaching reforms brief number 1*.

The system of selecting external advisers has changed, too. The

training information tells governors how to choose their adviser from the list provided, but the papers now in schools ask us to provide information to enable Cambridge Education

Associates, the Government contractor, to send us an appropriate person of their choice.

I’ve started delivering training with an uncomfortable feeling that the ground is shifting beneath my feet. What is true at the beginning of a training session may no longer hold good by lunch time. Help!

See www.dfee.gov.ukteaching reforms for more information.