Don Ledingham’s Learning Log

I visited the Dovecot Tapestry Studios this evening which is situated in a £5 million refurbishment of the Victorian Edinburgh Infirmary Street Baths . I had a secondary motive for the visit as it was in that very pool that I learned to swim.

The renovation of building was exceptional - sensitive to it’s history - yet a modern and welcoming space.

We took a tour ’round the studio and met David Cochrane. David explained that he had joined the studio straight from school as an apprentice - contradicting my unspoken expectation that he must have studied art at university. He explained the weaving process and showed us some of the work to which has contributed.  He then showed us one of his own creations which had taken him 9 months to produce. I couldn’t believe that it was a tapestry at first - it looked much more like a high quality photograph or painting of  shimmering water.

I was impressed with David on three counts: firstly his understated manner; secondly, his obvious passion for what he does; and thirdly, his mastery of his craft which has been developed through the best sense of an apprenticeship by learning from a fellow craftsman.  It reminded me of my great grandfather - George Ledingham, of Clatt, Aberdeenshire, who produced these minature model ploughs in 1895 as part of his apprenticeship as a blacksmith.

It’s a great shame that we don’t really value such practical skills in our modern age.

It was during a chat with Fiona Langskaill from Bridges Project that she showed me a document they had produced entitled “Bridges to Employability”.

In the document which isn’t avaiable on-line I came across a brilliant, yet simple (as brilliant ideas tend to be). idea. They have described an employability index ona six point scale and have identified criteria on a sliding scale where a 6 would indicate that a young person was very employable.

The thing I liked about this idea was it’s potential in relation to A Curriculum for Excellence, and More Choices More Chances.  What if a key purpose of the curriculum up to the age of 15, in addition to the traditional acquisition of knowledge, was to enable every young person to acheive level 6 in the employability rating?

I really believe this has the potential to help schools to redirect some of their current focus.

When I get back to work tomorrow I’ll try to give some more details but I just wanted to get the idea down before it escaped somewhere in my ever decreasing grey matter!

The Scottish Government issued A Consultation on the Next Generation of National Qualifications in Scotland on the 10th June 2008. The authority will be making formal response before the closing date of the 31st October 2008.

I thought it might be useful to try to work out my own perspective on the questions. In a future post I’ll consider how these responses might be reflected in a school curriculum.

Q1. Do you welcome the intention to update all qualifications at Access, Higher and Advanced Higher in line with Curriculum for Excellence? Please comment on any implications to be considered.

It seems sensible to update all qualifications to reflect A Curriculum for Excellence

Q2. Early consultation has identified the ‘best’ features of Standard Grade and Intermediate qualifications as:

the ‘inclusive’ approach to certification contained in Standard Grade; and

the ‘unit based’ structure of Intermediate qualifications.

Are there any other features in the present Standard Grade and Intermediate qualifications which should be included in the new qualification at SCQF levels 4 and 5?

The new qualification should reflect the ‘unit based’ structure of intermediate qualifications.

Q3. One of the proposals is to grade units. Do you agree that units should be graded A-C rather than pass/fail?

I’d support the grading of units as it would maintain motivation throughout the course and give feedback to students on progress.

Q4. Do you want graded units to count towards the final award?

I believe the grading of units should contribute to the overall award.

Q5. Which option for introducing compensatory arrangements would you most support?

Please tick one option or suggest an alternative.

Option A Extend the range of grading in course awards to grade E.

Option B Recognise unit passes only.

Option C Compensatory award at the level of the course studied with no grade awarded.

Option D Compensatory grade C award at the level of course below that studied.

Option E Compensatory grade A award at the level of course below that studied.√

Q7. Do you agree with the proposal to offer literacy and numeracy awards at a range of SCQF levels (3 to 5)? If not please offer an alternative.

I agree with the proposal - for students following a more vocational programme of study such an option would be welcomed by employers.

Q8. National Qualifications at Access 3 (SCQF level 3) do not have an external examination. Do you agree that any new awards in literacy and numeracy at SCQF level 3 should have an external examination?

I’d like to see an external examination for literacy and numeracy for all S3 students

Q9. Should the weighting between the internal and external assessments for the literacy and numeracy awards be equal? If not should more weight be attached to the internal or external assessment? Please explain.

Difficult one! I’d go for more external weighting as it would enhance the credibility of the qualification.

Q10. When should young people be assessed for literacy and numeracy awards? Please tick one option.

Option A At the end of S3 as part of the summer diet of examinations.√

Option B In the December of S4 as part of a winter diet of examinations.

Option C At the end of S4 as part of the summer diet of examinations.

Q11. Do you agree with the proposal to allow the study of Highers and Advanced Highers over 12 months, 18 months and 2 years?

The more flexibility we can give individual students over the length of study the better.

Q12. Do you agree with the proposal to introduce a winter diet of examinations?

YES

Q13. If you agree with the proposal to introduce a winter diet of examinations, what subjects and levels of qualifications might first be offered?

Numeracy and Literacy.

Q14. Would you agree with changes to the system which allowed the most able students to bypass qualifications at lower levels and begin study for Highers from S4 onwards?

Totally agree with this proposal. This would enable the two year Higher course to become a reality from S4. Some students may be able to sit some highers after one year thereby allowing a two year Advanced Higher course.

Q15. Do you have any other ideas for increasing flexibility within the senior phase (S4 to S6)?

I would promote the possibility of students choosing to follow some courses within a virtual learning environment.

Q16. It is intended that planning for the new curriculum should commence in 2008/09, with approaches based on the new curriculum introduced from school year 2009/10. This suggests that the new and revised qualifications and any increased flexibilities would be required from 2012/13 onwards to ensure smooth progression between the curriculum and qualifications. Is this indicative timeline realistic? Please comment on any implications to be considered.

This timeline is demanding but some key elements of the new qualifications should be in place by that time - especially Numeracy and Literacy. I don’t see the need to compromise the potential of new curriculum by having to rush through if we aren’t ready. What all schools should have in place by that time is a curricular structure which is able to deliver the new qualifications by 2012.

A couple of months ago I joined my colleagues on the Leadership Team of East Lothian Council on a weekend course entitled “The Innerwick Experience”. The Leadership Team is made up of: all Heads of Service, e.g. Head of Education, Head of ICT and Finance, etc; the four Directors - Finance; Planning; Community Services; and Education and Children’s Services (me); and Alan Blackie - the Chief Executive.

Back in October 2007 East Lothian Council received a negative Best Value Report:

Accounts Commission deputy chair Isabelle Low said: “East Lothian Council has so far made limited progress in establishing Best Value for its local population, which is of particular concern considering its advantages. And its lack of openness and lack of leadership have not served it well.

Since that time there have been huge changes in the Council, and the Leadership Team have been working on developing a more positive culture which is focused upon the needs of the population of East Lothian. I wrote about our first meeting back in July of last year when  we considered the kind of culture we would aspire to in East Lothian.

Building upon the work started by Alex McCrorie, our team, led by Alan Blackie have been gradually developing our capacity to work together - as opposed to the silos which were a characteristic of the past.  A key step in that journey was our “Challenge for Change”conference held in April that was exceptionally well received and which began to develop a sense of belonging to a worthwhile organisation that could make difference to people’s lives. I don’t think anyone would claim that we are anything but at the beginning of that road - especially with the impact of Single Status, and the associated feelings of being under-valued; the challenge of meeting efficiency savings; and the fact that our customers haven’t yet been able to see a difference.

Having only created the Leadership Team in July last year and with only one meeting a month the “team” dimension was fairly limted - and so it was that we decided earlier this year to organise an event which would allow us to build our capacity to operate as a real team where we knew, valued, trusted and supported each other - but most importantly improved the way in which we led our colleagues and delivered our services.

We made a conscious decision to devise and deliver the course from within our own resources - some similar management team building courses can cost up to £4000 per person. We used the Innerwick Field Study Centre (£10 per night per person) and aside from the contribution of two drama coaches the programme was delivered by East Lothian staff. 

I think all of us had some reservations prior to attending the event, but on reflection the programme was a great success and more than met the outcomes we had set ourselves. I won’t go into the actual detail of the programme but it put us in a variety of situations where we had to rely upon each other, care for each other, make use of each others’ strengths and -most importantly - work together. Throughout it all we kept coming back to how might we work more effectively in the future and change the way in which we currently did things. It was the creativity, courage and honesty which emerged that made it such an exceptionally powerful team experience. 

It all came together when we were asked to try to create a collective metaphor to represent our vision for the kind of service we would like to provide for the people of East Lothian Council. We started off trying to create an arrow, showing a sense of purpose and direction but this was felt to be too focused upon us as opposed to our customers; then we tried a shape which involved supporting people and moving them from one place to another, but this was thought to be too much like a conveyor belt and created a dependency culture; then we struck upon the idea of a doorway, through which people could choose to enter and which led into a space where they were welcomed and supported - we also created high above our heads (and out of sight of users) a network of canes which linked us all together.  As we discussed the idea it reinforced the idea of a single doorway to services, a customer facing organisation, an organisation which was well connected (but where the connections are out of sight), and, lastly, an organisation which welcomed others to join it.  One of the observers commented that she really wanted to go through the doorway and enter the space. This led back to the discussion back in July of last year when one of the possible strap-lines had been “East Lothian: A Space to Grow”. Certainly it seemed to strike a chord with all of us present - a place which enabled people to grow and develop. The idea of giving people space is also a critical concept in creating a healthy public service, i.e. to choose and have a personalised service.

The difference between now and July ‘07 is that we now have the bond, the capacity and the shared commitment to actually deliver such a vision.  As is normally the case I’d like to thank all those who worked so hard to put this event together but without any doubt the group which made it the success it was were my colleagues who showed such immense commitment towards each other and who, above all else, showed that they care about delivering a high quality public service to the people of East Lothian.

My last hope that we can consider ways in which we could allow others within the organisation to benefit from such a transformational experience.

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 to put it out before they taught the course as they wanted to “remain in control”. For me it was a timely reminder about how much work is still to be done in terms of changing our approach to learning.

In the past week I’ve come across three personal examples of how the delivery of learning is changing - firstly, my brother is taking a work related course at St Andrew’s University - he will be following the entire course on-line; secondly, I’ve just started a on-line course to improve my French; and thirdly, I was speaking to the one of my son’s friends who just got a an “A” in one of his Highers and had to teach himself two of the units, which had not been covered by the teacher, by accessing materials available on the web. If these examples seem anecdotal and hardly scientific then I plead guilty but perhaps it is their very ubiquity which lends them weight in supporting a growing realisation that “we” can no longer remain in control of the learning process.

The common arguments against such a phenomenon are that “children can’t learn by themselves” and “You can’t transfer university type learning to a school environment”. However, to accept such statements is to accept the status quo where the learning process is essentially controlled and governed by the teacher - especially in terms of the content, rate of progress and depth of content.

If we are going to change the way in which we work then perhaps we need to destabilise the status quo thereby freeing teachers to adopt different roles and engage learners in learning as opposed to absorbing information?

Keeping this in mind I wonder if David Eaglesham, the General Secretary of the Scottish Secondary Teachers’ Association, perhaps provides the catalyst when he said he doubted whether A Curriculum for Excellence could live up to its aims without the provision of curricular resources.

I agree that there is a need to provide resources but I wouldn’t provide them in the form that they have come in the past. My alternative approach would be to create a virtual learning environment for every certificated course provided by the SQA. These course materials could be accessed by students at a place and time of their choosing - I’d like to think GLOW could play an important role here. The key point here is that the materials are for the student - not the teacher.

Over the course of the last year I’ve spoken to senior students from many schools and without exception they all said they would have welcomed the chance to access their entire course on-line. That’s not to say that they didn’t want a teacher but that they wanted their teacher to work in a different way.

So what would be the outcome of such a step - surely it will replace one form of spoon-feeding with another? Well not if we prepare for such a change in a gradual, well managed and progressive manner - the teacher would take on much more of a tutor’s role where students have to use their tutor to expand and deepen their knowledge. In so many ways this ties in with what Jerome Bruner spoke about recently at the Tapestry Conference in Glasgow when he said that educational systems were “too easily routinised” (sic) and that there were too few opportunities for students to “share hypotheses”, “reflect upon alternatives ” or “reflect upon controversy”.

Bruner wants teachers to seek out “inter-subjectivity” (I think I prefer this term to inter-disciplinary) by contextualising their subject within the wider world - but how often do teachers manage to do this in the pressure to get through the content of a course?

Such a shift in the model of certificated course delivery would also influence the type of learner that a young person would need to be before commencing such courses. The requirement for children to be ready to operate as independent, metacognitively aware, and technically able learners will in it’s own way provide further impetus for the radical changes that are required in the first three years of secondary education.

Our eldest  boy (he’s the one launching himself into the darkness!!) returned from Australia on Friday.  I know this sounds like a terrible cliche but he did leave as a boy and has returned a man.

I’m now more convinced than ever of the value of a gap year experience - or at least something before university life - especially for boys.  His brother has followed his lead and deferred entry until 2009.

The warning sign to the right of the picture was not lost on his mother.  But sometimes they just need to do their own thing…. 

During the summer I try to organise my diary for the coming year.  I’ve been putting in two half day visits to schools each week where I’ll spend some time with the headteacher in a pastoral/support capacity, before visiting teachers to explore how Curriculum for Excellence is being taken forwards in the school.

Last session I ran a series of Leaders of Learning meetings  in each of the clusters.  These meetings with teachers really helped to provide me with a grounded perspective of the issues facing teachers and schools. In my new role I would like to extend such opportunities to meet colleagues from throughout our service and that’s why I’m considering holding a weekly “Listen and Learn” meeting.

The “Listen and Learn” meeting would involve me inviting six members of staff from a variety of education and children’s services establishments to meet with me from 4.15 - 5.15 for cup of coffeee and a blether - this would be repeated with different people on a weekly basis. Over the course of the session I could possibly meet 180 staff in this way.  I’d also intend to hold similar “Listen and Learn” meetings for staff at John Muir House but they could take place during the day.

Individuals would be invited at random from staff lists and would receive a personal letter of invitation.  At first I thought I would invite a group of people representing a variety of levels and specialisms to each meeting but there might be more to be gained from having some kind of focus at each meeting - e.g. inviting six P1 teachers into the office to talk about the challenge of transition from nursery classes; or six maths teachers to talk about how they cope with large class sizes in S3; or six social workers to talk about how they manage their workload?

The purpose of the meeting would be very much in line with “what it says on tin” i.e. listen and learn - with me doing the listening and learning - although I would be more than happy to try to respond to people’s questions and concerns.  My hope would be that such regular meetings with staff could influence policy and ensure that our practice stays in touch with the needs of those who deliver the service.

I’d welcome feedback about this idea but in the meantime the dates and times are in my diary!

I was invited to speak at the 2008 Scottish International Summer School on School Leadership being held in Edinburgh this week at  the prestigious Surgeon’s Hall.

The event follows the Harvard model - which I attended last year.

Today’s programme focused upon Leadership for Learning. I was one of a panel of four who presented our own personal insights into how we operate as “Leaders of Learning”. It was a challenge to keep to the ten minute limit so I opted to simply describe how this Learning Log and my School Visits programme have contributed to my own and the authority’s development.

I enjoyed listening to my colleagues on the panel and was particularly intrigued when Karen Prophet(Headteacher at Firrhill High School) described how they have moved away from a punishment/sanction based behaviour management system - it chimed with one of my recent posts

The Summer School is a very worthwhile addition to the Scottish educational landscape and I’m sure it will continue to evolve over the next few years into a learning opportunity with an international reputation.

I’ll be checking out the Summer School Blog to see how the programme unfolds.

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 County Civil Grand Jury serves as a “watchdog for citizens of the county.”

A Civil Grand Jury is charged with a grave responsibility. The Civil Grand Jury serves as an ombudsperson for the citizens of San Mateo County. The jury may receive and investigate complaints by individuals regarding the actions or performances of county or public officials. The attention of the entire county is centered upon an active Civil Grand Jury, and its every act is a matter of public interest. Malevolent and unfaithful public servants are uneasy, while honest citizens and the conscientious public servants are reassured. Therefore, Grand Jury service calls for diligence, impartiality, courage and responsibility.

Empowered by the state judicial system, the San Mateo County Civil Grand Jury submits meaningful solutions to a wide range of problems. The San Mateo County Civil Grand Jury is a volunteer, fact finding body with the potential to recommend constructive changes.

John was particularly interested in the Jury’s finding in relation to the question:

Are school districts in San Mateo County utilizing online and virtual classroom programs to expand and supplement the curriculum?

The recommendations made by the Jury in relation to this question are certainly worth reading and go way beyond what an offical might suggest. 

Looking further into the previous Jury Reports I came across the “Performance Review of San Mateo County Education Office” Within the system the Jury can gather evidence, call witnesses and make visits - all which strengthen the validity of the process. 

In Scotland, local authorities were recommended by the Audit Commission’s Report of 1993 to establish audit committees which have evolved in most authorities as Scrutiny Committees, which according to a 2005 report have proliferated but whose “effectiveness is patchy”.

The “audit committee” process in Scotland is dominated by the need to fulfil the requirement to audit of accounts - see  audit committee principles

There are three fundamental principles which define the expression “audit committee principles” and these are that there should be effective mechanisms in place to provide;

• independent assurance of the adequacy of the risk management framework and the associated control environment within the authority;
• independent scrutiny of the authority’s financial and nonfinancial performance to the extent that it affects the authority’s exposure to risk and weakens the control environment; and
• assurance that any issues arising from the process of drawing up, auditing and certifying the authority’s annual accounts are properly dealt with.

None of the various scrutiny systems in Scottish local authorities go anywhere near the scope and range of the Civil Grand Jury.  In most cases the Scottish system is based upon elected members who review and scrutinise the work of their peers. Given the ever growing expectation for public service to be more transparent and to involve citizens in a meaningful manner I wonder if we could develop something akin to the system. I’m not arguing here for the removal of elected member involvement in the scrutiny process but I am intrigued by the potential of a Civil Grand Jury to:

“submit meaningful solutions to a wide range of problems” and “act as a fact finding body with the potential to recommend constructive changes.”

I’m sure there a number of issues that we face in East Lothian which would benefit from a citizen’s perspective upon which policy and practice could be developed.

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: