Q forTeachers

Hi you dont automatically progress up the UPS and you may need to write a brief account of what you do to sustain and enhance your teaching / learning. When I did mine I had to do this so governing body could decide.

There are set criteria for UPS 2 & 3 and you have to prove that you are meeting these successfully; it is not an automatic progression.

?
Does this mean that it is done through your performance management and if you pass the performance management cycle and meet your targets then you should be eligible for progression? Are there any forms do fill in, or as Cheeky Chops said, did you write a statement/application to governors?

It should be automatic - funnily enough I've been checking this today as there is a delay with my UPS 3. As long as you have had positive feedback from your Performance Management cycles for 2 years, have met targets and you've not been subject to any kind of complaints procedure or formal warnings, it's a given that you will progress. That said, the head teacher will probably need prompting (this is the problem in my school we've had a change of management and it hasn't been looked at). You do not need to submit any evidence for UPS2 or 3 - it's not something you have to apply for like UPS1.

Just to add... I can't remember the exact wording but all you have to do is sustain the standards of performance you were meeting for UPS 1.

Copied from the TES:

Teachers on the upper pay scale receive the usual salary rise when the pay scales are uprated. However, progression on the upper pay scale is performance based. Governing bodies make the decisions on progression, based on recommendations from heads. Teachers don't normally move through the upper pay scale more frequently than every two years

Hmmmm, sounds like different schools make take different approaches to it. We also have management issues at present - no HT and also an acting deputy so I'm probably going to have to do some prompting too.

?everyone

In my school it's generally automatic as long as you meet your targets set during PManagement

From NASUWT: "The fundamental criterion to be met by the teacher is:

'the performance of the teacher has been sustained at the post-threshold level in each of the four (threshold) standards for the relevant period.'

The starting point in the decision-making process will be the performance of the teacher over the previous year...

Teachers should be progressed to UPS3 unless they have been subject to a formal unsatisfactory teacher procedure.

The payment may not be made at this time due to administrative problems but it is important that teachers are informed that they have been progressed to UPS3"