ABSTRACT
The need for a national appraisal scheme for teachers was first discussed in Paragraph 92 of Teaching Quality (DES 1983). Two years later, Better Schools (DES 1985) laid down markers for the establishment of a national framework. Her Majesty’s Inspectorate (HMI) then produced the occasional paper, Quality in Schools: Evaluation and Appraisal (DES 1985), which was particularly successful in focusing subsequent discussions. After a protracted period of debate, pilot studies were set up in Croydon, Cumbria, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Salford, Somerset and Suffolk, which started in January 1987 and continued into 1989. They were overseen by a National Steering Group which recommended a national framework for head teacher and teacher appraisal. Following a period of consultation, Kenneth Clarke (Hansard, December 1990), the then Secretary of State for Education and Science, announced that the appraisal of schoolteachers should be compulsory, and therefore ‘it is a duty for employers and an entitlement for teachers’ (p.292). Regulations were then laid before Parliament, and School Teacher Appraisal (Circular 12/91, DES 1991a) was published on 24 July 1991; the scheme itself commenced in September 1991.
