Is this normal?

[ChazzerChaser]

Is it normal for feedback for teachers on their observations, re areas they need to improve, to be shared with the other teachers in a meeting? I come from a work environment where this kind of info would be between the manager and the member of staff only, with private and confidential slapped all over it. Is this normal practice in schools?

[FieryChipotle]

Not in my school or any school I have worked in! What was the context?

[ChazzerChaser]

It was a list with different types of feedback, all areas to improve rather than strengths, with names against them. So effectively sharing individual feedback. The purpose was about how staff could help each other improve.

[AHardDaysWrite]

No, that's really not odd. General trends can be shared with staff but it should be anonymous. Specific feedback should only be given to the teacher privately.

[AHardDaysWrite]

Really not on, not odd!!

[Littlefish]

No, not normal. In my school, if the Headteacher had done the observation, then he would share it with the person being observed, and with their Phase/key stage leader. If the phase/key stage leader had done the observation, then it would be shared with the Headteacher if there were any concerns. I certainly wouldn't consider it normal practice to share it at a meeting.

[travispickles]

Depressingly familiar. All dressed up as 'peer support '.

[ChazzerChaser]

Thanks. I thought it very odd and something that would never ever happen in my profession. Yes I think it was in a peer support way. Which we might have but never with a breach of confidentiality like that

[PurpleAlert]

We have always been told that lesson observation feedback is strictly confidential- if teachers choose to share it with others that is up to them.

Totally not on.

Seems more like name and shame than peer support

[Finola1step]

Not on. General trends can be fed back to whole staff (e.g. If diagnostic marking is an issue in a particular subject, that kind of thing). Nothing with people's names on. Do you have a union rep?

[Goblinchild]

General trends focusing on points of improvement is how my schools have done it.
So after a round of observations, there'd be a bullet-pointed list of things that need sorting, and sometimes you'd spot an issue that had been raised in your observation. But unless you said 'Oh, that was me' it wouldn't be known by the rest of the meeting.
This was undermined by heavy suggestions of ' X, perhaps you could work with Goblinchild on class management' when it is known to be a strength of mine. Or 'Goblinchild, perhaps you could work with Y on ICT skills' when Y is amazing at jazzy IWB stuff.
Then the bullet points become far more obviously attributable.

[ChazzerChaser]

That's exactly what they'd do at my place. There might be general feedback which you could recognise as your own but no one else would unless it was claimed by you.

And no union rep I found out today. Hmmm