EI for Support Staff
A framework to ensure all support staff in schools (including bursars, maintenance, assistants, technicians, office staff, etc) have access to quality professional development and can help create a culture of continual improvement.
The Forgotten Cohort
We conducted workshops all around Australia with leaders, bursars, library staff, teaching aids, office staff, IT, and maintenance staff (to name a few) all getting an opportunity to have input into the framework. What we built was a best-practice framework for professional staff working in schools, which reflects the importance of their work.
Collect 360 degree feedback
Collect and reflect on feedback data. Feedback is collected from self-reflection, peers, supervisors, teachers, other staff.
Set goals based on your feedback
Set a S.M.A.R.T. development goal. After reflecting on feedback Support Staff come together to set tracked development goals following a S.M.A.R.T. outline – Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic and Time-Bound.
Plan and track your development goals
In the EI portal Support Staff record reflections, activities they have tried, learnings gained from peers, and insights from coaching/mentoring conversations. All this is recorded as an achievement diary which can be printed and shared.
Measure your progress
Support Staff can, if they want, get progress feedback on the area they have been working on. A smaller set of surveys is used to get progress feedback. Support Staff can compare how they have progressed.
Engage with an “always on” approach
Support staff are a vital cog to the successful running of a school. As such, support staff should be continually improving so we’ve made the process simple and easy to do every year. Support staff start from the top again and discover what next to improve.
