Don Ledingham’s Learning Log

This public information film sprang to mind today when I was faced with over 150 e-mails having cleared my inbox the previous evening
My email inbox normally averages 100 emails a day.  Despite working hard to manage my diary there are many days in the week when I cannot access my inbox between [...]

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 http://video.google.co.uk/videoplay?doci…
Check out the above video.  I can’t seem to embed it but it’s worth watching. It was used at our first Challenge for Change Conference for all East Lothian Council managers back in April.
It certainly captures something of the magic of East Lothian and the varous communities which make it such a vibrant place.
We held [...]

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A Wikipedia image
Mel Ainscow’s assertion that there is more variation within a school than between schools ties neatly into what Professor Richard Teese had been talking about at the recent ADES conference. i.e. socially disadvantaged children’s attainment is significantly lower than their socially advantaged peers.
Ainscow talks of the challenge to “Raise the bar, and close the gap” or as [...]

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Professor Richard Teese
At the recent Association of Directors of Education (ADES) conference I listened to Professor Richard Teese via a videoconferencing link provided through GLOW. Teese led the OECD report into the Quality and Equity of Scottish Education.
The theme of his presentation was “Quality and Equity of Schooling in Scotland”. In the course of his session [...]

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I’ve been invited speak at what is described as an interactive seminar entitled Measuring Outcomes for Children’s Services in Scotland - (I’m a late replacement so my name doesn’t appear in the programme)
The blurb reads as follows:
This seminar addresses the key issues facing performance management within children’s services including:

Making the transition from measuring services on outputs   [...]

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http://www.flickr.com/photos/mike9alive/1032525361/
Over the last few weeks I’ve been giving a great deal of thought to the vexed problem of “time”.
Sheila Laing expressed this very well in this comment on my log:
However, key to number 2 about teachers being empowered to work together to create outstanding learning environments is that TIME is the essential resource to allow this [...]

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http://www.flickr.com/photos/kennyuhh/2917293212/
I’ve been giving a lot of thought to a draft implementation strategy for A Curriculum for Excellence and have identified a key element in its success to be a strong focus on maintaining and supporting the mental health and well being of teachers and headteachers.
All too often people in positions such as mine can focus [...]

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As part of my contribution to the ADES network for A Curriculum for Excellence I have been working with some colleagues to begin to explore a possible a rationale for its implementation across Scotland.
Perhaps any such rationale needs to takes its lead from the new HMIe inspection regime, which could be described as a heroic [...]

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Photo - http://www.flickr.com/photos/f-r-a-n-k/251794370/
I’ve been invited to chair the ADES (Association of Directors of Education Scotland) Network for A Curriculum for Excellence (ACfE).
ADES represents the 32 Scottish Local Authority education departments. The role of the ADES network for ACfE is to support the implementation of ACfE, identify emerging issues and to work with the Scottish Government and Learning and Teaching Scotland .
The [...]

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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 [...]

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