Barry Smith - Stuff and things

I have finally reached the end of the SQH course, all being well after moderation.  It has been a long ‘journey’  and an incredible learning experience that has furthered my knowledge, understanding and ability to do my job and grapple with the complex workings of teaching and learning in school.  I am looking forward to the challenges that will lie [...]

The loss of the Community Liaison Team Active Steps outdoor education provision from our ALPs programme due to funding not being renewed will be a major blow.  Sally Harris and her team have done a fantastic job working with our youngsters in the past year and it will mean a re-think of our programme at [...]

As we are on the home stretch of SQH I am now focussing upon meeting all the elements of the standard for headship.  It has thrown up an interesting challenge for me and no doubt for other participants.  As a principal teacher of pupil support I have responsibility for managing projects but not for managing [...]

I found out at the weekend I have passed Unit 4 of SQH, this is a tremendous relief as I was slightly concerned about whether my submission had covered all the bases.  It was a pleasant surprise to receive my tutor’s comments and I can now look forward (maybe!) to the next 7 months and [...]

Unit 4 of the Scottish Qualification for Headship challenges us to compare our skills and competencies to the Standard for Headship in the context of our progress to date and identify areas of strength and areas for development backed up by appropriate evidence.  As a precursor to my unit 4 submission I’m going to use my blog to help that process [...]

I’ve tried to take my notes for Michael Fullan’s Leading in a Culture of Change and summarise them.  It’s still pretty rough and I’ll be trying to tidy it up in the next few days. The essential concepts have been put in bold. 
It has been very humbling to read a book like this and measure my own [...]

It never ceases to amaze me how ‘full on’ this time of year is.  So far this week we’ve had the change of timetable with all that entails for Pupil Support staff, pre-vocational college induction, S6 induction(where I gave a talk on leadership to our new S6), Thursday and Friday bring our S5 induction, we [...]

While reading Michael Fullan’s excellent book Leading in a culture of change I have come across some very sound, practical advice and information, as well as some great quotations.
Here are two of my favourites:
Attributed to a superintendent from a 1996 study of Leadership, 
“Ten years ago if I had a vision they’d have locked me up, now [...]

I’m doing a lot of reading at the moment about leadership. Both from the point of view of trying to understand myself better but also to understand the preferred styles of those around me and the effect they have on the community they inhabit.  It has given rise to some enlightening conversations with colleagues around the subject.  [...]

I’ve been neglecting the blog a bit recently, a number of factors have combined to cause this, not least the excellent weather!  I’m also doing a great deal of drumming now that we move into the summer so something has to give somewhere. 
Now it is SQH unit 4 time in earnest I think my brain has [...]