Strengthen Leadership at all levels

This is one of the key objectives in Our Children, Their Future and I have been delighted to certainly see this in action over the past week.
On Friday the 21st of April I was involved as part of the interview panel for the Into Headship course with SCEL.  We had a fantastic day interviewing 12 candidates who were all keen to share their views on leadership and how they felt they could contribute at School and Authority level.  The candidates were put through some challenging questions but all gave good answers.

The following Monday 24th of April I was delighted to visit the new Digital Hub in Dunoon and we were taken through our paces in relation to coding and programming.  The P6 and P7 digital leaders were very impressive showing great leadership skills and supporting their class mates and the adults present.  This is a very important part of our work – the leadership of our young people.  The digital leaders were also given the opportunity to link the world of work to their tasks.  Aileen Goodall our 16+ Officer shared with the young people how their digital skills can be used in the world of work.

 

 

 

 

 


On Tuesday 25th of April leadership was the theme of the Head Teacher conference in Inveraray.  There was lots of opportunity to reflect on the key objective from Our Children, Their Future and the improvement area from the INEA inspection of 21st March 2017.

Gillian Hamilton, CEO of SCEL and Shona Taylor, Area Lead Officer Education Scotland were both key speakers challenging us all to ensure out leadership is leaderships for improvement and for developing leadership in others.

It was a real pleasure and privilege to mark the amazing leadership of one of our Head Teachers – Sine MacVicar.  Sine is retiring at the end of June after being Head Teacher at Dunbeg Primary since August 1973.  Sine has been nominated in the Scottish Education Awards for the lifetime Achievement and also in the National TES Awards as Head Teacher of the Year.  We wish her every success in both these events.

It was also the final Head Teacher meeting for Geoff Urie Head Teacher, Hermitage Academy; Fiona Johnson, Head Teacher Kilmartin and Achahoish Primary Schools, and Cathleen Russel, Head Teacher Innellan and Toward Primary Schools.  We wish them all well and thank them for their leadership contributions.

On Wednesday 26th of April it was a delighted to see the skills and leadership that three groups of our young people achieved in the Youth Enterprise Argyll & Bute Award.  Two teams from Lochgilphead High and one from Dunoon Grammar took part and it was great to see the skills the young people had developed over the course of their journey in enterprise. The three companies were all well developed and successful. There unfortunately had to be one winner and it was Westcoasters from Lochgilphead High School.

On Thursday 27th of April I introduced a presentation to the Economic Forum on enterprise in schools.  The presentation from Paul Gallanagh, Principal Teacher and Barry Wilson Depute Head Teacher on the enterprise activities in Dunoon Grammar it was very impressive and demonstrates clearly from Our Children, Their Future the key objectives of:

  • Equip young people to secure and sustain positive destination and achieve success in life, and
  • Strengthen high quality partnership working and community engagement.

Priority actions for the Education Service through the vision and strategy of Our Children, Their Future are to:

  • Focus on effective educational leadership;
  • Promote career long professional development for all staff;
  • Provide professional learning opportunities for front line services, and
  • Maximise the use of resources.

Leadership is essential for us all in our daily lives as we deliver a first class Education Service.  We must all take opportunities to develop our leadership and make sure it is making a difference to our children and young people.

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