January was always thought of as a quiet and somewhat dull month. Certainly not this year. There has been a real focus on the Scottish Government’s Closing the Gap. This week we have seen the announcement of by the Scottish Government of the new £120 million Pupil Equity Funding scheme. Across Scotland 2,374 individual schools have been allocated money to target support where it is needed the most.
Argyll and Bute Schools have been amongst the schools to benefit from Scottish Government’s Pupil Equity Funding. A National event was held in Glasgow on the 1st of February and details of the funding and the requirements were shared. Further information will be delivered to all Head Teachers at the Head Teachers meeting on the 28th of February.
On the 25th of January I met with Martin Turnball, Youth Services Manager, Brian Smith, Argyll & Bute’s Duke of Edinburgh’s Award Development Officer Alex Cumming, Assistant Director – Duke of Edinburgh’s Award Scheme was interested to hear about the contribution that Duke of Edinburgh’s Award scheme is making to the lives of our young people and how it could be part of tackling the achievement gap. There is much work to be done to ensure this award is available to all our young people and to those who do not have the same level of home support. I am keen to see how we develop this programme and look at how it can be an integral part of our work in schools.
On the 31st of January I was delighted to be invited to the launch of the Catholic Education Week in St Columba’s Primary in Oban. This was a lovely event and the whole school demonstrated the work being undertaken towards this year’s theme of “Developing as a Community of Faith and Learning”. It was such a delight to welcome the director of the Scottish Catholic Education Service, Barbara Coupar to the school. Barbara was delighted to join the school and community and had made mention of the good work being undertaken in the school. A huge congratulation should go to the Head Teacher Minnie McLellan, all the staff and pupils for establishing a real ethos and environment for learning. The ethos is so important when looking at closing the attainment and achievement gap.
A great deal of my time has been spent with the Education Team and discussing how we take forward our work on closing the gap. I know there are many good examples happening across our schools, Early Years settings and Youth Services. Please make sure you share your practice both on SALI and with the Education Officers. I would be happy to hear directly of some of the practices happening that you think are making a difference. Our Children, Our Future is key to developing our education service and how we look at ensuring there is equity within our service.
https://www.argyll-bute.gov.uk/sites/default/files/argyll_bute_vision_strategy_final_web.pdf
Dear Anne,
I hope you don’t mind my contacting you but I have been trying to contact teachers across Argyll and Bute for several years with limited success. I work for the Social Enterprise Academy, an organisation that supports teachers and pupils to develop and lead their own social enterprises.
We provide CPD for teaching staff, workshops for pupils and have a range of learning and teaching resources (in English and Gaelic) that link directly with the Experiences and Outcomes of CfE and several NPA and Wider Achievement Awards, and a number of ASDAN qualifications.
We also run a national award that is recognised by Scottish Government, HIE, SQA and Education Scotland.
An HMIe Inspection noted that many children benefit from the opportunity of working with our organisation and that they have not only developed employability skills but that their school attendance and behaviour have also improved as a result of participation in social enterprise activities.
I know that schools in Argyll and Bute are extremely enterprising and I have noticed that a number of pupils have developed their own social businesses. We have worked with Port Erin and Ulva Primary schools and have also had involvement with Tobermory High School. However, one of the issues raised by teachers is that often the emails from my organisation are blocked.
I would love to be able to contact schools in the area and present them with the opportunity to be recognised for their hard work or offer support with what they are trying to achieve. Due to funding from Scottish Government and HIE our schools programmes are free of charge.
If you would like to discuss any of this further or have any questions please don’t hesitate to get in touch. I would be delighted to talk anything through.
I hope to hear from you soon.
Kind regards
Tracy Rennie
Futures Education Co-ordinator
Social Enterprise Academy
Inverness
01463 238088