Who is this template for?
This template is designed for all teachers in England seeking a clear, supportive, and efficient process for their professional reflection and performance management. It provides a robust framework to evaluate practice against the national Teachers' Standards, prepare for appraisal conversations, and plan for meaningful continuing professional development (CPD).
Why use this template?
Using this template helps you transform your appraisal into a meaningful driver of professional growth, enabling you to take charge of your own development with confidence. It allows you to:
- Take Ownership of Your Development: Empowers you to lead your own performance management through structured, meaningful reflection against the national standards that define your profession.
- Ensure Alignment and Consistency: Provides a clear and consistent framework based on the DfE Teachers’ Standards, ensuring your self-evaluation is aligned with the minimum level of practice expected of teachers in England.
- Facilitate Meaningful Dialogue: Creates a rich, evidence-based foundation for productive appraisal conversations with your line manager or appraiser, focusing dialogue on impact, development, and support.
- Organise Evidence Efficiently: Acts as a single, organised repository for your reflections and evidence, saving you time and reducing the administrative burden of preparing for performance reviews.
- Translate Reflection into Action: Guides you through the iAbacus process to turn insights from your self-evaluation directly into a targeted, actionable plan for your CPD.
- Support Wellbeing: By providing a clear and manageable structure for reflection, this template can help reduce the stress and uncertainty often associated with appraisal cycles.
How does it work?
This template uses the standard, intuitive iAbacus process: make a judgement on your performance, verify it against the criteria, provide supporting evidence, analyse the factors helping and hindering your progress, and build a targeted action plan.
The evaluation is structured across the key areas of the Teachers' Standards:
- Setting Expectations
- Progress and Outcomes
- Demonstrating Knowledge
- Structured Lessons
- Adapting Teaching
- Using Assessment
- Managing Behaviour
- Fulfilling Responsibilities
- Personal and Professional Conduct
Gaining Strategic Insight
For school leaders, this template offers powerful strategic oversight. A Headteacher or Key Stage Leader can use the iAbacus 'Overlay' feature to view the 'Teacher Self-Evaluation & Reflection' abacuses from all teachers in their school or team on a single screen. This provides an instant comparative overview, helping them to assess the quality of teaching and learning, identify patterns in challenges, and plan targeted support and CPD. It also provides valuable insight into staff wellbeing, highlighting where teachers may be struggling and enabling leaders to offer timely and effective support.
Clear, Professional Reporting
With a single click, iAbacus generates a polished, professional PDF report from this template, perfect for sharing with key stakeholders. For a line manager or appraiser, the report provides a rich, organised summary of a teacher's self-reflection, evidence, and planning. It is the ideal document to facilitate a meaningful and supportive professional dialogue during a performance management review, ensuring conversations are focused, evidence-informed, and developmental.
References / Source Material
How to Get Started
New to iAbacus? Discover how this template can support your improvement strategy. Book a personalised demo or start a free trial to explore the full platform. Visit www.iAbacus.com to learn more.
Already a subscriber? You can find this template in the template library within your iAbacus account. Simply log in, create a new abacus, and select it from the list to get started.
