Posted in Admin, Communication, ICT, Ideas, Management, personal on Oct 3rd, 2007 2 Comments »
Spot the likeness?
Actually I’m talking about a skill I’ve developed over the last few years which probably saves my life.
I’m referring to the ability to dictate correspondence. I was out of the office all day yesterday and then had a meeting from 5.00-6.00, followed by a parents’ event at a primary school.
When I rolled into [...]
Posted in Admin, Culture change, Head Teachers, Leadership, Learning and teaching, honesty on Sep 29th, 2007 8 Comments »
I had a fascinating discussion with some headteachers recently about the time they spend on their jobs, the difficulty of their jobs and challenge that such time pressures and other demands present.
I know I’m presenting a significant challenge by asking headteachers to spend up to two days a week focusing upon the teaching process by observing [...]
Posted in Admin, CPD, Management on May 2nd, 2007 1 Comment »
As readers of my log will be aware we are placing a huge focus upon developing leadership skills within East Lothian. However, we must not forget that sometimes people’s ability to lead effectively is seriously compromised by the challenge provided by the huge array of day-to-day managerial tasks.
To support school Head Teacher’s and Depute [...]
Posted in Admin, School visits on Feb 15th, 2006 No Comments »
TFT
I’d like to challenge those who denigrate those of us who decide to work in the public sector. I think the vast majority of people I work with are driven by a sense of service to the public good, i.e. public service!! I find it offensive when suggestions are made that there is something [...]
Posted in Admin, Planning, Strategic on Feb 9th, 2006 No Comments »
9.00-12.00 Meeting with Education Officers. Main item on the agenda was our Service Improvement Plan. This is a key document in shaping the direction of education in East Lothian as schools must take account of a series of obligations which reflect national legislation and local priorities. We have been developing a proportionate approach towards school [...]
Posted in Admin, Parental Involvement on Feb 1st, 2006 No Comments »
9.30-10.30 Met with Les Ritchie from Payroll and Carolyn Walker from Personnel to explore how we might be able to improve the quality of infromation we receive from schools. There is a problem with the accuracy of paperwork coming in from some schools: Are the forms too complex?; are people not taking enough time over [...]
Posted in Admin, Social media on Nov 25th, 2005 1 Comment »
On Wednesday I met with Robert Jones to check out his FreeMIS on-line management information system. As I explained on Wednesday Robert is an advocate and user of open source software. I’d never heard of open source but since Wednesday I’ve been doing a little more homework. It is a remarkable concept - develop something [...]
Posted in Admin, Culture change on Aug 20th, 2005 No Comments »
I’ve been in post for four weeks. In that time I’ve been meeting all of the staff within the Department. These meetings have proved very useful. My over-riding impression is that we are fortunate to have so many committed and professional staff at all levels. I think the opinion in schools can sometimes be that [...]