A great deal of my work last week was round the theme of leadership. Leadership is so important for all of us in Education. We need to ensure our children and young people are being led by inspirational leaders.

Nothing makes me prouder than hearing about or seeing an inspirational practitioner leading the learning for young people. I am so pleased when I hear of this happening. I have had a couple of conversations with Head Teachers this week who were telling me of how the leadership of practitioners was impacting in their schools and on the outcomes for the young people.

Leadership is important across many areas of our work and on Monday the Budget Working Group met to review the current status of the available budget and the impact across the service of recent service choices decisions. This group is chaired by David Bain, Education Manager and has membership of Head Teachers, Central Education Team, HR and Finance colleagues. Budget and the management of resources is a very important role for leaders and it is key that we make the best use of resources and look at how this impacts on delivery for the young people. My own role in this group is to provide advice and guidance to ensure that decisions made sit within policy and can be delivered.

On Tuesday the Early Years Collaborative Leadership group met and took the opportunity to review all the current work undertaken by the Early Years Collaborative. This group consists of the leaders across multi agencies. The leadership group were very pleased to review the good work happening at Early Years and also hearing of the two nominations in the National Quality Improvement Awards.

http://www.earlyyearscollaborative.co.uk/

I also met with leaders from the EIS and SLS unions. As Head of Service it is important for me that communication is open and transparent. If early discussion and communication is in place then many potential disputes can be resolved early and effectively.

On Wednesday I was feeling the pressure of my leadership role in taking forward the final preparation for the INEA inspection. It was a time of reflection for me and I was reminded that I was not the only person who needed to lead on aspects of work. The Education Management Team were all ready to step up and support me as leader. I was reminded of about how geese work together and support each other. Successful leaders know when they need to ask for help.

Thursday was a great day of seeing leadership in action. The 2016/17 Newly Qualified Teachers had their first two day networking event. I was delighted to speak to the NQT’s about Education in Argyll and Bute. It is always a great joy for me to share my pride and aspirations for Education in Argyll and Bute. This year was no different and I hope I inspired them to be the best they can be for all our young people. The NQT programme in Argyll and Bute has great strength in that it is led by practitioners. The NQT cohort receive advice and support from people involved daily in classroom delivery. My thanks to David Mitchel, Sharon Burt, Janis MacGregor and Mhairi Livingstone who provide this support for probationers. The NQT’s were also involved in team activities to establish positive working relationships.

The leadership of professional judgement as a tool for ensuring our young people are all making the best possible progress is an area of National development. The Assessment Moderation Facilitators Programme in Argyll and Bute is an excellent way to support the professional judgement and build the moderations skills of staff.   A very successful training event took place on Wednesday and Thursday with 32 practitioners involved. This training was carried out by Emma Dudley and Graham Dickie. Emma and Graham have both given considerable time to developing and supporting the Assessment Moderation Facilitators Programme over the past 3 years. This approach has been noted by Education Scotland as developing good practice. We now have over 70 staff who have undertaken the training. Further training is scheduled for November. Please contact Don McAllister, donald.mcallister@argyll-bute.gov.uk if this is something that would interest you.

On Friday I was involved with the other members of the Education Management Team with final preparations for next week’s inspection. Our preparations were made easier by reminding ourselves that there are many good things happening in our schools.

The first meeting of the Middle Leaders Network Group also took place on Friday and was led by Sandra Clark, Education Officer. This is the first of 4 days where the 8 participants began to explore what leadership is and how these individuals will develop their own leadership within their current schools. I hope to catch up with this group soon and share in their success during their leadership journey.

The actions you take as a leader are very important .How you create strategy, build relationships and ensure strong delivery underlines success. An important aspect for any leader at any level is how they support, inspire and nurture others to lead. Leaders need to know themselves.

This week will see my own leadership tested and require me to support, inspire and nurture others as we head into inspection as an authority. A challenge for me will be to ensure time for reflection during the process. I truly believe leadership is absolutely key for the success of our children and leading to success for their future.