$scope variable being copied, not referenced in Kendo-UI window - angularjs

Question

I have a situation where I am passing a $scope variable into a Kendo-UI window, and any changes being made
All of this sits in one controller.
So in my main controller, I have a $scope.searchTerm variable which I initialise to "Enter search term"..
in my HTML, I call peopleSearch.open() as below on my main controller
<td><span>GSP</span><span ng-click="peopleSearch.open()" style="font-size:8pt;" class="glyphicon glyphicon-plus-sign"></span><td>
This simply opens this kendo-ui window declared below, and covered by the same controller:
<div kendo-window="peopleSearch" k-title="'Person Search'"
k-width="900" k-height="500" k-visible="false"
k-content="{ url: 'parts/peopleSearch.html' }"
k-on-open="peopleSearchVisible = true" k-on-close="peopleSearchVisible = false"
k-modal="true"></div>
The Kendo-UI window template, again, covered by the same controller is as below. Note that there is an input bound to $scope.searchTerm. When the window opens, the input is initialised with "Enter search term"...so it is obviously bound the $scope.searchTerm variable.
<section>
<div class="myAlerts">
<alert ng-repeat="alert in alerts" type="{{alert.type}}" close="closeAlert($index)" >{{alert.msg}}</alert>
</div>
<div>People Search</div><br/>
<div>{{searchTerm}}</div>
<input type="text" ng-model="searchTerm" style="width:400px;"</input><span> Enter surname or part of surname to search the Active Directory</span>
<br/><br/>
<button ng-click="performSearch()" class="form-control" style="width:400px;">Search</button>
<br/>
<br/>
<div>
<div>{{searchTerm}}</div>
<table class="table table-bordered table-condensed" style="cell-padding:0px;cell-spaing:0px;font-size:10pt;">
<thead>
<tr>
<th>Name</th>
<th>Initials</th>
<th>Title</th>
<td>Office</td>
<th>Email</th>
<th>Company</th>
<th>Department</th>
<th>Telephone</th>
<th>Mobile</th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tbody>
<tr ng-repeat="people in peopleResults">
<td>{{people.displayName[0]}}</td>
<td>{{people.initials[0]}}</td>
<td>{{people.title[0]}}</td>
<td>{{people.physicalDeliveryOfficeName[0]}}</td>
<td>{{people.mail[0]}}</td>
<td>{{people.company[0]}}</td>
<td>{{people.department[0]}}</td>
<td>{{people.telephoneNumber[0]}}</td>
<td>{{people.mobile[0]}}</td>
<td></td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
</div>
</section>
However, when I start typing and press perform the search:
$scope.performSearch = function()
{
prPeopleService.findPeople($scope.searchTerm).then(function(people) {
$scope.peopleResults = people;
$scope.addAlert('success', $scope.peopleResults.length + ' people located');
},
function(response) {
$scope.addAlert('danger', 'There was an issue trying to look people up from the Active Directory...');
});
};
The $scope.searchTerm being passed in as a parameter is the initial "Enter Search Term"...and not the value being entered into the input field...which is bound to $scope.searchTerm....as if it took a copy to start with, then decided to detach itself.