Angus MacRury’s Weblog

Tuesday 6th May

Today I have a meeting with Ceri McCrath of Community Windpower who are donatin g a turbine and solar panel to the school as a resourse thatthe children can extract data from to look at the sustaiable power sources. We have to be careful on this one. We are not in support of their development nearby nor are we against it. What we are aiming to do is givre the children as much information as we can about the pros and cons of such projects in Rural area and the potential impact the turbines can have on bird life. We get our photo taken by the Courier.

Later that day I meet with the Kitchen supervisor at DPS to discussour frustrations with the quality of school meals. That said the sevice and product are improving.

12th JUne

Today I get to know the financial position of te school going into next session. Things are not too bad but we do not have a lot of money to splash out.

14th June

I attend the SWAN proposal from Affiniti. THis is really interesting and I listen to why we should but their service it was a real pitch for business. I think we need more, but they have more than matched the criteria that they are bidding for. We will wait and see what BT come up with later next week.

19th June

I have been really frustrated with an ongoing issue that I have to pick up the pieces of every Monday morning. Today in frustration I contact Allan Ross and expain to him my fears about the way the suppoert system is failing some children. He listems to my rambling and is sympathetic to my cause. I thank him for this. We continue to go round in circles…

In the afternoon I meet Glen our Active Schools Co-ordinator. I sign the children up for a few new and different learning experiences next sessions after I waffle on about my “problem” with golf. Poor man just listened and smiled.

20th June

Ruth is her on her last visit as she is dropping Innerwick next session for the bright lights of Musselburgh. I feel eally badly prepared for this meeting and feel that I have wasted her time coming here. I apologise for being in post HMIE flatness. I assure her that all outstanding work will be completed by the weekend. I have enjoyed the visits from Ruth, we both started with ELC at the same toime and the learning curve has been steep at times. Her support has been of a very high standard and I thank her very much for her invaluable contribution over tha past 2 years. I know she will miss the coffee and Christmas play.

In the afternoon I spend about £2000 on intoducing reading material for P1-3 in the form of Storyworlds. We have evaluated this scheme and feel that it will work well for us.

21st JUne

I am shown around Musselburgh Burgh by Lis Imrie. I m very grateful fotr all the time Lis spent with me. I can see there has been a lot done in the school and still more to do.

22nd June

Today it is Sports day. The afternoon begins in glorious sunshine and eveything runs really well until the skies open and we are forced to abandon the day. We arrange to continue on Wednesday next week. After school I meet with a couple of parents regarding a bullying incident.

Friday 23rd June

I am being interviewed for the Acting Headteacher post at Musselburgh today. I feel the interview goes well but I do not get the job.

In the afternoon I stay really late anf I forward my Sand Q and Develpment Plan to Ruth.

15th MAy

Today it is my turn to be on the receiving end of EDR wuith DOn. WE discuss te recent inspection and look at my strengths and development needs. We discuss the EDR process and I chat to him about getting better at organising my priorities and time. THis is a real juggle as a teaching head as you have to wear so many different hats in a day. It is really easy to lose sight (or avoid) the things that are important. As a parent of a child in pre-school I question aspects of my childs school, yet can ignore the very things that I question. Don suggests

TUesday

Start the day with a Staff meeting. At 11:30 I observe a child at another school who has been referred to the Moderation panel. I find this a very interesting experience. In the afternoon I attend the ICT Management meeting where we discuss the Wide area networks proposed for the Authority. I think we should go all the way for the best and fastest we can get, on the other hand I understand that the cash is not there to make this work. Why can we not get this type of thing right? There are fantastc resources available to us if we had the speed and connectivity. The LTS website has fantastic resources on it but we cannot acces or utilise it due to the cart being before the horse. Why do schools in Scotland not get E -credits that we can spend? Do Scottish Local Authorities compromise Educational connectivity to pay for other things. There is still along wat to go before we can convince the local and National politicians that connectivity to schools should be prioritised.

17th May

Today I have a meeting with Ross Morrison to dicusss the renovation of the school toilets. This is a projct that the pupil council took ahead and it is great to see that there letter writing is paying off.

18th May

Today I am in West Barns having a meeting with the P6/7 children from Innerwick Stenton and West Barns who are all travelling to York for a week at the end of May. The meeting goes well and I get the feeling that the children are getting excited.

24th May

Today I am at the Authority Moderation panel and it is my last one as I have sat for 2 years on this panel. I am glad that I have been party to this decision making process. Some of the decisions over tha past 2 years have been very hard. Some have been very frustrating too.

25th May

Today we have a Science roadshow in for P1-4 looking at minibeasts. The show goes really well and the follow up work in the classes is of a very high standard.

In the afternoon I chair the Cluster Heads meeting.

29th-2nd June We are all in York

Day one we visit Beamish and have a great time on the tram and getting soaked eating our lunch.

At 5:30 we arrive in Scarborough at the Hotel. We immediately name it Faulty Towers. Everyone settles in.

Day 2 We are heading into York to the Minster after a tour and a workshop we make our way through the Shambles to the Castle Museum. It is then on to the York Dungeon. Scary Stuff. In the evening we 10 pin bowl in Bridlington.

Day 3 We make our way to York via EDen Camp. What a superb place to visit. I could have stayed all day. After Eden we headed to York to visit Yorvik and have a ghost tour of the city. In the evening we have Bridlington leisure pool all to ourselves. I try out the flume in order to chechk the risk assessment.

Day 4 We are in the Sea Life Centre in Scarborough until lunchtime. In the afternoon we make our way to Flamingoland and have a great time on all the scarey rides you can thingk of. In the evening we have a really fantastic Disco in the Hotel.

Day 5 We are heading home but stop of at Hartlepool Quay on the way back. What a fantastic place to visit. The children really enjoy the tour odf the boat. We arrive back at 6pm after a really busy week. The total cost of this trip for pupils was £150 a real bargain.

May 1st

I find myself in school today doing final checks before the Inspectors arrive tomorrow. I know I should be at home but sometimes you just have to go in against your will. I have a very productive day, where I complete my Presentation to HMIE. I am not sure if I can post this up but if I can I will put it here. I know that it is too long but I need to say what I need to say just ask Ruth Munro who has had to suffer my ramblings for 2 years.

May 2nd – May 5th

I am going to be very guarded about what I say as I do like my job. The week has been very busy; I think my presentation went well. (they didn’t fall asleep). The staff are feeing tired as the observations have been full on all day Wednesday, saying that the staff are feeling positive about the process and are finding the inspection interesting.

8th May

Today is feedback day and the reporting inspector is back as is Ruth Munro who unintentionally decided to race him down the A1 or her way to Innerwick. After feedback I am allowed to give a broad-brush statement to parents about the inspection. This will go out later in the week.

9th May

We have a routine Fire Drill today. I try to do it unannounced and while a class are at PE to see how it goes. The drill is really good and all pupils are lined up outside within 30 seconds.

10th May

Today I have EDR with all school staff. This has in the past proved to be a very difficult process to manage in the school. However we approach it in a very positive manner and the staff are assured that the process is very fair and productive noe. I still think there must be a better way to do this kind of stuff. If I think about It I will not be sharing it here as I will be off to make my millions.

11th May

From one extreme to another. Today I am at East Links Family Park with The Nursery. This is linked to the theme of Springtime and Animals. The children have a fantastic time as do the parents and staff. Lovely Coffee. We take loads of photographs with the digital camera and the Digital Video camera, which we will present, to the parents next week using our new Digital Projector. In the afternoon I chair 2 staged assessmrebt meetings that prove to be very productive in terms of getting additional information and support for the pupils. It really does work.

Friday 12th May

LEADING IN A CULTURE OF CHANGE with MICHAEL FULLAN

This proved to be a very interesting day but not for the content from Michael. There were a number of ELC Headteachers at this event and it was great to catch up outwith HT conferences and School. Am I convinced about what he was saying? No.

18th April

Alan Borthwick and Liz Morris are in school today discussing school options regarding a transfer of staff. The meeting goes well.

In Nursery we are experimenting with digital video and taking photographs of each other. The children are superbly confident at this and the results are as good as most adults in terms of originality, composition and content.

19th April

I have a long and productive meeting with Ruth Munro completing the Authority and School pre0-Inspection evaluation. We are both very confident that we have a balanced view of where the school is and what we need to further develop. In the meantime we are still making sure that all the displays are refreshed and visually stimulating for the inspection. This is not an easy task so new into a new term. In the Nursery the children are now interviewing and recording themselves on the digital camera. We are playing the results back instantly and we are having a great laugh at the questions and answers. We are also watching what is going on in the background which is sometimes more entertaining.

20th April

In the afternoon I head to see Jo Beverage at Elphistone who gives me some sound advice about the inspection process and about being honest. After this meeting I head with Jo to Whitecraig to the Small schools meeting which is very interesting. The interior of Whitecraig is very visually stimulating and I steal a few ideas for return to Innerwick.

21st April

Today we have the school photographer in so all classes are disrupted till after break witrh family group shots and so on. In the nursery we are making electronic books using I-photo from the photographs taken by the children. The book are superb and of a high quality. They are so easy to make that this will be further explored.

24th - 28th April

The calm before the storm. This is a strangely quiet week in the school. I am in class all week and everything is running well. On Tuesday I catch up with Morna MacDonald who takes me through all the paperwork for our Staged Intervention children, all appear to be in order apart from couple of tweaks here and there. Later in the week I attend the Cluster Heads meeting. I wonder why we get such manic weeks then have periods of calm such as this. I think it must be related to Lunar activity.