I have been employed by my LEA as an SEN support teacher on continuous, renewable, fixed-termcontracts since September 1998. I have nine pointsfor qualifications andexperience and two for SEN. I support the children on my case load, in schools throughout the borough, for one hour per week. I am confused as to how the threshold standards apply to me. Can I apply?
Yes, you can. All qualified teachers who are covered by the School Teachers Pay and Conditions and who have nine or more experience and qualifications points are eligible. That includes part-time teachers and teachers on maternity or long- term sick leave or on secondment, as well as teachers such as you who work for local authorities on a peripatetic or similar basis.
Where there is no regular relationship with a particular school - which I take to be your case - the application shoul be sent to the LEA, where it will be dealt with by your appraiser or unit manager. When you complete the form you will be able to include evidence from recent as well as from current experience.
The difficult part for youwill be section three, which deals with pupil progressand performance, and here you will probably need evidence from the SEN co-ordinators you work with. The LEA will then verify this against its own area and school-based data.
The difficult part for the LEA will be ensuring fairness in relation to the decisions reached by headteachers and by other LEAs. That is where the external assessors will be important. As the new performance management framework takes effect this difficulty should lessen.
E-mail your questions on pay to: friday@tes.co.ukMichael Duffy regrets he cannot enter into personal correspondence
