How to Create a New Professional Standards Template

In Perspective, members of the Senior Leadership Team (SLT) have access to the templates used by staff to record their Professional Standards. These templates ensure consistency across the school when assessing staff and provide a structured framework for performance and development discussions.

Only SLT members can manage and maintain these templates, so it’s important that those responsible understand how to create, edit, and distribute them effectively.


Viewing Existing Templates

To view templates currently available in your school:

  1. Click Perf Mgmt on your main toolbar.

  2. Select Edit Templates from the Professional Standards panel.

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Once on the page, you may notice a large number of templates. Use the filters at the top to narrow your search.

  • For: Indicates the audience for the template (everyone, SLT, headteacher, or a specific staff category).

  • Required: When enabled, the template is marked as mandatory for the audience. Required templates always appear at the top of the staff standards list and include call-to-action buttons to prompt completion.

To edit a template, click Edit. If this option is greyed out, it may be:

  • A default Perspective template, or

  • Locked by your trust or upper management.

In such cases, you can create a copy and edit that instead (see the “Creating a Copy of an Existing Template” section below).

 


Creating a New Professional Standards Template

There are two main ways to create a template:

  1. Create a brand new template from scratch – ideal if you want full control over the structure and content.

  2. Copy an existing template – useful if you want to modify a template without affecting the original.

Creating a Brand New Template

  1. Click Perf Mgmt and select Edit Templates from the Professional Standards panel.

  2. Click New Template > Create New.

  3. Enter a template name and, if needed, a detailed description.

  4. Use the For drop-down to define your audience (headteacher, SLT, everyone, or a specific staff category). If you select a category, ensure staff have been assigned to it via Settings > Manage Users.

  5. Decide if the template should be required. Hover over the info icon for more detail on this feature.

  6. Click Create New to open your blank template.

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Adding Content to Your Template

You can build a template by adding statements, which are the criteria staff will assess.

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1. Adding Existing Statements:

  • Click Add Existing to open the side panel.

  • Select the statement type (text or grade) from the dropdown and click Add Statement.

2. Adding New Statements:

  • Click Add New to define a new statement.

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  • Text statements: Provide a title and save. These are simple, free-text fields.

  • Grade statements: Provide a title, select Grade as the type, and choose a criteria scale (e.g., 1–5 or Strength/Needs Development).

    • Descriptors for each grade explain exactly what constitutes that rating. For example, a “Quality of Teaching” statement with the grade “Above Expectation” will include specific criteria defining that level of performance.

    • If your school uses a custom grading scale that isn’t in the system, contact perspectivesupport@angelsolutions.co.uk.

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Once all statements are added, click Save. You can preview the template using the Preview button. Your template will now be visible to the audience you selected. From the All Templates page, you can toggle it on or off if needed.

 


Creating a Copy of an Existing Template

If you want to start from an existing template:

  1. Click Perf Mgmt > Edit Templates.

  2. Click New Template > Copy From Existing.

  3. Select the template from the dropdown and click Create Copy.

Copy.PNG

You will now have a copy that you can freely edit without affecting the original. Don’t forget to update the title, as it will include “copy” by default.

Copy 2.PNG

 


Trust-Wide Templates

If your school is part of a trust, you can create templates for use across all schools. Feedback collected via these templates can be analysed in Observatory, giving trust leadership insight into performance and development across the entire trust.