Posted in Culture change, Curriculum for Excellence, Ideas, Strategic, TESS on Jun 8th, 2009 5 Comments »
One of the conclusions I’ve gradually come to over the years is that in order to facilitate real change in any system it’s necessary to change the landscape. It’s come to me slowly and for all that I believe that focusing upon cultural change is still fundamentally the correct route to improvement - I’ve also [...]
Posted in Head Teachers, Health, Ideas, Management on Nov 13th, 2008 6 Comments »
http://www.flickr.com/photos/mylifestory/2191672292/
Earlier this week I met with one of our most experienced and exceptional headteachers who is due to retire at the end of the session.
In a bespoke winding down arrangement we have agreed that she can take ten days unpaid leave during the year. She has spread these days over the course of the year to provide [...]
Posted in Ideas, Uncategorized on Oct 26th, 2008 4 Comments »
photo: www.flickr.com/photos/emdot
What might be the effects of the credit crisis on education?. Sorry of this seems overly negative but sometimes you can only prepare for the future if you try to imagine it. Here’s my list in no particular order:
1. More pupils may come into the state education system from the independent sector - some independent schools [...]
Posted in Accountability, Assessment, Curriculum for Excellence, Ideas, Learning and teaching, Using data on Aug 21st, 2008 2 Comments »
“You don’t fatten the pig by weighing it” An evocative phrase used by those who would rightly challenge the concept of over-assessment or too frequent external assessment or inspection. A Head Teacher’s Union leader even described the English Ofsted as the “Office of Pig weighing”. The use of the phrase has taken on a global currency as [...]
Posted in GLOW, ICT, Ideas, LTS, Learning and teaching on Aug 5th, 2008 4 Comments »
I was chatting recently with a former colleague about “A Curriculum for Excellence“. He has responsibility for developing learning and teaching at his school and was telling me that they are going to give every pupil comprehensive course support materials for each of their certificated subjects - once the course has been completed. The teachers didn’t want [...]
Posted in Accountability, Corporate, Education Committee, Ideas on Jul 27th, 2008 No Comments »
My good friend John Connell’s blog is always worth a read and so it was this week when I came across his post about the Civil Grand Jury system in San Mateo, California.
The San Mateo County Civil Grand Jury is an independent investigative body created by the California State Constitution. Composed of nineteen citizens, the San Mateo [...]
Posted in Consultation, Corporate, Curriculum for Excellence, Ideas, Learning and teaching, Partnerships, Planning, Strategic on Jul 24th, 2008 3 Comments »
I’ve just had a very positive meeting with some senior colleagues from Queen Margaret University. The new QMU has just been built in East Lothian and has been named as one of the top 10 modern universities by the Sunday Times Good University Guide. It’s mission statement reads as follows:
To enhance the quality of life and serve communities, through [...]
Posted in Ideas, Integrated Children's Services, OUtcome agreements, Parental Involvement, Partnerships, school based management on Jun 15th, 2008 3 Comments »
Over the last few weeks I’ve been continuing to exploring the concept of school based management.
Some authorities in Scotland have implemented the concept of Learning Communities based around the secondary school and the local primary schools, Glasgow runs New Learning Communities, Falkirk has Integrated learning communities and South Lanarkshire has Learning Communities.
Each of these schemes has very [...]
Posted in Curriculum for Excellence, Ideas, Learning and teaching on Jun 10th, 2008 11 Comments »
This morning I met with colleagues from our Cultural Services Department to discuss how we might promote the East Lothian Council’s commitment to:
“Embed Scottish history, culture and heritage throughout school life and make every effort to support Scotland’s languages - both Gaelic and Scots.”
The associated outcome that schools have to work towards is:
“All children and [...]
Posted in Accountability, Culture change, Ideas, Leadership, Leadership Dilemmas, Management, Partnerships, Planning, Policy, Power/influence, Public Services, TESS, professionalism on Jun 8th, 2008 5 Comments »
Every educational leader, regardless of position, has to wrestle with the powerful temptation to intervene or to meddle in the business of those whom they manage. The logic is fairly simple - “I’m being paid to manage and to be accountable for the work of others - so it’s reasonable that I take action in order [...]
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