Underlying all appraisal and professional development programmes is a fundamental problem.

How can all the evidence that is recorded and gathered be collated so that it can be used not only as a portfolio of evidence of current practice, but also as a way of showing how practice is developing and improving?

As we know, to be recorded fully so that evidence is available for the inspectors, professional development programmes generate large numbers of documents, reports, videos recordings, and pictures.

Trying to collate them and arrange them can be as complex and time consuming as actually gaining the evidence in the first place.

Which is why, as schools take on board the new appraisal and professional development requirements related to the pay and conditions regulations, storing and retrieving evidence has become a key issue.

What is particularly useful in solving this problem is a purpose-built approach which not only handles all the data but also fits in exactly with DfE and teaching union guidance.

An approach which links lesson observation with objectives and standards frameworks and allows you to collect evidence using one unified system throughout the school.

A system that gives you and your colleagues in the leadership team up-to-date observation reports and data for the whole school, all for a very modest cost of £975.

This not only enables you to make decisions and focus attention on issues as they emerge, but also means that when Ofsted comes calling you can show at once what you have been doing to abide by the new regulations.

Such is the thinking behind Filio – an approach to the 2013 pay and conditions regulations that works across the whole school, allows everyone to understand that they are all being treated in the same way and fits perfectly in both primary and secondary schools, with both teaching and non teaching staff.

If you would like to see a demo please email me at Sarah.Ridgway@filio.co.uk or call 07966 338059.

You can read more about it at http://www.filio.co.uk/