Don Ledingham’s Learning Log

We held a successful conference on the 22nd May with over 170 delegates representing local headteachers, education and other East Lothian Council staff, elected members, parent council reps, community council reps and delegates from outwith East Lothian. Highlights of the day were the sessions presented by Professor Richard Kerley and Professor Dennis Mongon. Richard Kerley had a [...]

I recently met with Headteacher colleagues in East Lothian to discuss Community Based Management of Schools.   The following is a summary of that meeting and will form the core of a briefing paper for members of staff and interested parties in the run up to our conference on Community Based Management of Schools to be held on the [...]

I was invited to speak at yesterday’s  National Conference on Physical Education in Scotland held at Edinburgh University. After an initial preamble, where I indulged myself with a few personal reminiscences, I set out what I thought to be the some of the main challenges and opportunities facing the profession.  As I explained at the conference [...]

This is the second of 6 witness statements reflecting upon Community Based Management of Schools from the perspective of 2017. See Witness Statement (1) 24/3/2017 Witness Statement (2) So you want me to give you an honest opinion on the debacle that has been Community Based Management of Schools? Do you really mean that?  OK [...]

This is the first of six Witness Statements from 2017 reflecting upon the implementation of Community Based Management of Schools in East Lothian. 23/3/2017 I’ve been asked to reflect upon our experience of establishing a Board of Management for our Community Cluster of schools. Looking back it’s hard to believe that we first started to [...]

This is a draft of my next article for the Times Educational Supplement Scotland.  It’s based on a previous post with a good dollop of ideas borrowed from my good friend John Connell.   I reckon one of the greatest challenges facing Scottish education is the way in which people use the third person plural in a negative [...]

Here are all my posts relating to Community Ownership of Schools since August 2006 up to November 2009. Do I add value? August 19th, 2006 by Don Ledingham   Over the summer holidays I found myself thinking fondly of my time as a Headteacher. I’d always enjoyed working in schools and got a great buzz from [...]

John McCann, Director of Next Practice at Scotland’s Colleges, has kindly provided me with a piece on the development of Scotland’s Colleges from their Incorporation in 1993 when they gained their own autonomy.    I will be returning to this on numerous occasions over the next few months.   Introduction   Any reasonable commentator on [...]

Over the coming year we are going to be exploring and considering the benefits of moving our schools in East Lothian to some form of local ownership and management. To that end we are in the final phases of organising a conference to be held late March/early April 2010. A key part of our approach [...]

This is a direct lift from a thought piece from the Innovation Unit’s reflections on mobilising schools and communities.  I think you might be able to imagine my surprise at the degree of concordance between what they are arguing for and East Lothian’s ideas about Community Ownership of schools. System Leadership and Governance Leadership beyond institutional boundaries [...]