Fill this in the week before your performance review so your Service Manager walks into the meeting already knowing where you think you stand. Answer what's true, skip what doesn't fit, and bring it to the conversation as your half of the story.
This is not a test. It is the document you fill in for yourself a week before your performance review, and it is the starting point for the conversation you will have with your Service Manager.
Two things it does:
This is worth 45 to 60 minutes. Do it once, in one sitting, not over five interruptions across the week. Before you start, pull out your last set of goals, any one-on-one notes, and anything the families or team have said to you recently.
Where something went well, say so. Where something did not land, say so. Guessing what your Service Manager wants to hear makes the review less useful for both of you.
The Proud of, Challenges and Strengths sections each have an AI assist button. It will pull from the rest of your form (your role, your goals, the notes you have written) and draft a starting paragraph. It is a starting point. Edit it so it sounds like you before you save or print.
Just the basics. Name, role, service, review period, who you report to, today's date.
One sentence that captures how the last period actually felt. Busy but solid. Harder than expected. Great start, rocky finish. Get it out of your head in a line before you go into detail.
Go through each goal you set with your Service Manager (if you used the Goal Setting Generator, pull the goals from there). Rate yourself honestly, say what worked, say what got in the way. The rating is less important than the comments, that is where the conversation actually happens.
Name the two or three things from this period you want your Service Manager to notice. Impact on children, on families, on the team, on the program. Specific beats general.
The honest one. What did not land the way you wanted. What has been harder than you expected. You do not have to have the answers yet. Naming it is the point.
The capabilities you have used well this period. Reflective practice, family partnerships, behaviour guidance, programming, mentoring, collaborating with the team. Keep it short and concrete.
One or two development areas you want to work on next period. Tie them to the room, to children, to your career. This goes straight into the next performance review conversation and can seed the Development Plan Generator in Team Management.
Where you want to be in 12 to 24 months. Stepping up from Diploma to ECT. Moving from Room Leader to Educational Leader. Building towards Service Manager. Or staying exactly where you are and getting better at it. All valid.
Honest check-in on how you are going, not on what you have produced. One line is enough. If things are hard, say they are hard. If things are good, say they are good. Your Service Manager cannot respond to something they do not know.
The ask. Training, coaching, cover, feedback, a different room, more time to plan, a conversation about something specific. If you do not have an ask, write "keep doing what you are doing", that is valid too.
Your Service Manager will read this before the meeting and use it to shape the conversation. They will bring their own view to the same questions, where they think you have tracked well, where they have seen you stretched, what they want to talk about in the room.
The meeting is where the two views meet. Most of the time they overlap. Where they do not, that is the useful part of the conversation.