Getting to the bottom of it. August 24, 2007
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In my last post I wrote about a job advertised by Midlothian Council. My hunch was that for whatever reason a mistake had been made when advertising the post.
At the time I had emailed their personnel department to confirm all the details were right and was given the assurance that there was nothing wrong in with the ad, thats why I mentioned it in my blog
Today I was contacted by a technician who had probed a little further. They were sufficiently concerned about the possibility of current Senior Technicians taking out grievances against Midlothian Council that they had been insistent in contacting a senior member of personnel staff to discuss the matter.
They immediately realised that there was a problem and contacted the school. This in turn apparently started a blame war, with personnel accusing the school for the mistake and vice versa.
Anyway, the upshot of it is that the post will be re advertised as a full time post and although their website still states the closing day as Friday the 24th the information pack when downloaded from the website states the closing date as 14th September.
Someone the other day asked why I bothered to mention it in the first place. Well, the reason is that I care passionately about my profession. I feel that if employers cant even take the time to ensure that the correct information for their technical support staff vacancies is available then it (1) shows a lack of respect for the important job we do and (2) shows a lack of organisation within the councils technical support service.
Technorati Tags: midlothian council, senior technician
Should we all be working for Midlothian? August 2, 2007
Posted by Brian in : Uncategorized , 2comments
Flicking as I do through the jobs pages of the local councils. I found an advert for a senior technician at Lasswade High School.
Quite amazing really. Over £21k for 30hrs a week and sessional to boot. With no mention of the salary being pro rata that would work out at around £31k a year for a non sessional 35hrs a week post !!!
So whats happened, have Midlothian decided to up its pay rates for technicians? Or have they simply made a mistake? I am guessing the latter of the two.
Advertising for technical support staff within the Lothians has always been something of a hit and miss affair.
Because there’s no one in overall charge of the technician service, personnel departments tend to use outdated job descriptions that hark back to the last technician review nearly twenty years ago. Our posts are often administered by staff who have are not familiar with our jobs and therefore mistakes in the advertising can be made.
So whats to be done? If councils want quality staff then the quality of their advertisments has to be high. That will only happen if and when technical support staff are involved in the recruitment process and outside agencies such as SSERC and STAG are brought into advise about qualifications and duties needed for the post.
If a council cant be bothered to get its facts right at the recruitment stage then it doesn’t give the impression that its trying to recruit the very best person for the job.
Technorati Tags: midlothian, council, support staff
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Over to Fife June 7, 2007
Posted by Brian in : Uncategorized , 1 comment so farI headed over to Fife yesterday to attend one of the quarterly meetings of the Scottish Technicians Advisory Group (STAG).
Technicians from all over Scotland meet at the Scottish Schools Equipment Research Centre (SSERC) quarterly to discuss a variety of topics including Health and Safety, CPD opportunities for technicians and other matters pertaining to the technician service in Scotland.
All 32 local authorities in Scotland are members of SSERC and although for some authorities its quite a journey it is very well attended with members coming from as far afield as Highland, Moray, Aberdeenshire and Ayrshire councils.
A lot of time at the meetings over the past two years has been taken up with the report SSERC and STAG were commissioned to write for the Scottish Executive with regard to provision of CPD and related activities for technical support staff. The report has now been finalised and is in the hands of the Scottish Executive and will also be made available to every Director of Education in Scotland.
It will be available for download from the SEERC website very shortly and I would urge all technicians, or indeed anyone interested in the future of science education in Scottish Schools, to read it.
The report makes a number of recommendations to the executive. I have listed what I think are some of the key points below and would welcome your comments on them.
With the final report having been published, this particular phase of the project has now come to an end. Project officer Phil Muggins is returning to the sunny shores of Inverclyde whilst project manager Brian Richmond will be carrying on for a couple of days a week to make sure that all the i’s are dotted and the t’s crossed. Project Co ordinator Ian Buchanan has retired and, I am reliably informed, will be taking his camper van around Scotland on a grand tour.
There were many other individuals involved in the project and I would just like to thank everyone for their hard work and effort on behalf of all the technicians in Scotland.
Its now all in the hands of the executive and should the worst happen and they decide not to act on any of the recommendations it certainly wont be as a result of lack of effort by the project team.
Key recommendations
Formulae for scales of provision
- There is a clear need for a national agreement on minimum levels of technical support across all Scottish local authorities.
- An agreed formula for calculating the numbers of technicians allocated to each secondary school should be introduced. The formula should mainly be pupil roll based with account taken also of the teaching time for science and technology courses.
- A nationally agreed formula should be used to calculate technician complements only and be separate from arrangements for calculating the number of other non technical support staff in schools.
- Trainee or modern apprenticeship appointments should be in addition to the calculated technician complement.
Central Support Services
- There is strong support for some form of central support service in each authority - managed by a chief technician, technical support service manager or similar appointee.
- The chief technician should have responsibility for managing school based technicians.
Raising the Technicians Professional Profile
- Technicians should be involved with teachers at the development stage of all new science and technology curricula and course materials.
- They should be seen as part of the a professional team and be able to offer assistance and advice - particularly on what is practical given available time and other resources. They should also contribute to making risk assessments (particularly where rocesses will involve them directly).
- Technicians should be entitled/expected to attend relevant national conferences , or similar professional events.
- Having a central technician resource service with a chief technician (or equivalent post) to communicate with heads of service would give technicians a “voice” outwith the school and at the whole authority level.
- Technicians should be interviewed as part of the HMIE school inspections (by an HMIE inspector rather than a “lay” inspector). The quality, or otherwise, of technical support services in schools should be specifically mentioned in the inspection report.
Technorati Tags: stag, sserc, scottish executive
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Science - Keep taking the tablets May 17, 2007
Posted by Brian in : Uncategorized , 5comments
Earlier this week the science department took delivery of 24 tablet PC’s as part of a project to evaluate their use within a school science department.
Our most excellent IT staff loaded them with the required software and they were then split up into groups of eight and distributed around the department enabling each of our science subjects to access them when they wish.
The tablets come with a wireless connection, voice recognition software and screens which after being rotated can be placed flush to the keyboard to enable them to be written on with a special “pen”.
I was pretty skeptical that it could decode my scrawl but it had no problem converting what I had written on the screen in to a fully formatted word document.
The opportunities for their use in Science seem endless.
Finding out how to use them to maximum effect and therefore enhancing the learning and teaching experience of our pupils will hopefully prove a fruitful, worthwhile and fun experience for all concerned.
Technorati Tags: tablet, PC, elcouncil, science
Single Status - The Final Frontier May 4, 2007
Posted by Brian in : Uncategorized , 4comments
On return to Musselburgh Grammar this afternoon I found a copy of the new pay and grading model on my desk. It had apparently been slid under the door of my office this morning and it made very interesting reading.
As the figures have not been officially announced I guess they have to be taken with a pinch of salt and cant be replied upon.
If they do indeed turn out to be true then technical support staff in East Lothian will be placed on a scale that will give then a rise of less than £1 an hour. Other support staff in the school will lose money.
Technical support staff haven’t had a pay review for 20 years now (not for want of trying) and it was hoped that job evaluation would take into account the radical change in working practices experienced by technicians over the past twenty years. It quite obviously has not.
If these pay scales are implemented then East Lothian support staff will continue to be amongst the lowest paid in all of the 32 local authorities.
Being bottom of the pile is not something that sits easy with me, certainly not something I envisaged whilst studying for my ONC and HNC at Stevenson and Napier.
The title of a clash song comes to mind. Any suggestions ??
Technorati Tags: elcouncil, single status, east lothian council
Support Staff Conference May 4, 2007
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I attended a meeting this morning in Haddington.
Various members of Education support staff had gathered to discuss improving links and communication between the differing professions that support the learning and teaching process within East Lothian.
The primary idea is to hold a conference for support staff in order for them to get to know each other, find out about what each job fully entails, network and generally help raise the profile of an important and essential part of the education process thats often forgotten about.
The head of education, Don Ledingham, is passionate about all staff being fully involved in the education process and is working to try to break down the traditional hierarchical structures that can exist within schools to enable this to happen.
We talked about how our varying roles as support staff were generally treated by members of management teams in educational establishments, and it became obvious that recognition of staff’s contributions and value by management, were, to put it mildly, patchy.
The need for teamwork within schools was identified as crucial to enhancing the experience of the pupils at our schools and no doubt this will be one of the topics that will take centre stage when the education support workers conference takes place later on in the year.
Technorati Tags: elcouncil, support staff
Youtube, Google and Science Videos April 26, 2007
Posted by Brian in : Uncategorized, digital imaging, video , 3commentsWhilst talking to a colleague, Irene Sommerville, about the use of videos in the classroom she asked if I knew of any way to download videos from google or youtube.
She had been keen to show a google clip in one of her classes but found that due to the current speed of the network it was impracticable to wait the length of time necessary that the clip needed to “load up” on the google website before being able to be shown.
The only way I knew was to download the google videoplayer but I think Irene really wanted a store of videos that she could call up at a couple of clicks.
This morning Irene told me she had found a website called vixy that will take the URL of the google or youtube video and convert it into an AVI file that can be saved on your desktop etc. If you want to give it a try click on the image below and let me know what you think.
I haven’t really had a chance to try it out but thought I would let people know about it and see if it could be of any use in compiling a database of videos that can be readily shown in schools that struggle with the speed of their connection.
Technorati Tags: youtube, google, vixy
East Lothian Glow Mentors Online April 23, 2007
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I am sitting using the video conferencing facility within Glow. Tess Watson, Robin Strain and Dave”glow boy” Rawson are also on. Its proving very informative and the marratech software is working well.
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All Glow again April 23, 2007
Posted by Brian in : GLOW, Uncategorized , add a comment
Following on from my post this morning I decided to have another go on the Glow portal at lunchtime.
I was surprised when the Marratech video conferencing software took downloaded itself and burst into life. It took me quite by surprise I can tell you.
I will be attempting to use it a bit later on tonight when some of the glow mentors will be going online for a bit of a natter to discuss the finer points of the glow portal.
Now all I have to do is suss out if the firewall will let me through.
Hopefully all should go well and I will be back in the field of play rather than being on the sidelines.
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Technorati Tags: glow, glowscotland, elcouncil, it, marratech
Single Status Update April 23, 2007
Posted by Brian in : Single Status, Uncategorized , 1 comment so farOn returning to work last week I was anxious to update myself on how the single status negotiations had been going in East Lothian.
I found some information on the intranet and the news was as I thought it may be. A collective agreement may not be possible on the pay and grading model.
Unison have stated that it is unlikely that they will be instructed by their legal advisers to recommend a collective agreement. If a collective agreement doesn’t take place then the council could then force through the new pay and grading model without the backing of the unions, but if they do do this it would mean no backdating of pay for staff.
Some of the new terms and conditions have, after negotiation, been revised
- Overtime premium rates will be paid after 37hrs (was after 40 hrs)
- Overtime calculator of time 4/10ths i.e 40% (was 33%)
- Weekend working as part of normal contractual working week - an hourly enhancement of additional 10% (was zero)
- Public holidays - 6 fixed and 6 floating (was 4 fixed, 8 floating)
- Working day defined as 6am - 10pm (was 6am - 11pm)
So what happens next?
Throughout May staff will receive their employee information packs advising them of the predicted outcomes for the grading of their jobs under the new revised pay and grading model. Details of individuals new salary range will be confirmed and employee consultation packs will be attached to the information pack detailing the revised terms and conditions proposals.
I, like thousands of others working for East Lothian Council, will be anxiously waiting for these packs to drop through the letterbox hoping that I am not one of the 15% that will be red circled and lose pay.
Technorati Tags: elcouncil, single staus, job evaluation, unison
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