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The Professional Development module — also referred to as Performance Management or Appraisal — manages your school’s annual staff appraisal process from start to finish. It takes each member of staff through objective setting, an interim review, a self-review, a final review, and formal sign-off in a single, structured workflow shared between the appraisee and their appraiser. Because appraisals are confidential by nature, the module has fine-grained controls over who can see each record, while still giving your Professional Development Manager the oversight they need to quality-assure the process across the school.

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The Appraisal Process

The module guides each appraisal through four distinct phases in sequence:
1

Objective Setting

At the start of the appraisal cycle, the appraiser and appraisee meet to agree objectives — typically three or four per person. Objectives can be created from scratch, copied forward from the previous year, or drawn from a template linked to the member of staff’s Staff Type (e.g. Teacher, Head of Year, Site Staff). Each objective must include:
  • Indicative evidence / success criteria — how you will both know the objective has been met.
  • Professional development needs — what support or training is required (can be marked TBC or N/A if not yet known).
Once both parties are satisfied, the appraisee and appraiser formally agree the objectives on the system.
2

Interim Review

Part-way through the year, both parties meet for a mid-year check-in. Either the appraiser or the appraisee can add an interim comment against each objective. Once every objective has an interim comment, both parties agree the interim review on the system.
3

Final Review

At the end of the year, the appraisee completes a self-review for each objective and submits it — this automatically notifies the appraiser that the record is ready for final review. The appraiser then:
  • Rates each objective as Met, Partially Met, or Not Met.
  • Adds overall comments covering professional standards, strengths, areas for development, and a summary.
The appraisee adds a final comment, and the appraiser completes the review.
4

Sign-off

The completed appraisal is formally confirmed by both parties. A copy is automatically emailed to the appraisee and appraiser, and the record can be printed at any stage.

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Key Features

  • Configurable Staff Types — define types such as Teacher, Head of Year, or Site Staff, each with their own template objectives to accelerate the objective-setting meeting.
  • Flexible objective creation — add objectives individually, copy them from the previous year’s appraisal, or select them from a staff-type template.
  • Professional development tracking — development needs are recorded against each objective and remain visible throughout the cycle.
  • Formal agreement at every stage — both parties confirm their agreement at objective setting, interim review, and final review, creating a clear audit trail.
  • Confidentiality controls — the Professional Development Manager can see all reviews unless marked confidential. An individual review or an entire Staff Type can be marked confidential so that, for example, senior leader appraisals are not visible to other senior leaders managing the system.
You can print the appraisal record at any point in the cycle — useful for pre-meeting preparation or for filing a paper copy alongside any required HR documentation.

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Roles in Professional Development

Appraiser

Conducts and agrees the appraisal for their assigned staff. Adds interim and final review comments, rates each objective, and completes the formal sign-off.

Appraisee

The staff member being appraised. Agrees objectives at the start of the cycle, contributes interim comments, completes the end-of-year self-review, and adds a final comment before sign-off.

Professional Development Manager

Manages the module and can view and quality-assure all appraisal records across the school (except those marked confidential). Configures Staff Types, templates, and the appraisal cycle.

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Get Started

Getting Started

Configure your Staff Types, set up the appraisal cycle, and begin the objective-setting process for your staff.