posted by: Trish Torz, Service Manager, Schools & Learning
The afternoon of the primary Head Teachers meeting last week gave us a good opportunity to reflect on key national expectations in relation to curriculum and assessment. Drafts of the newly developed Angus Standards for Health and Wellbeing were shared and this provided a great opportunity to ensure everyone was confident in their intended use. Head Teachers were reminded of the process of planning from the Experiences and Outcomes and evaluating overall progress within a CFE level using the Angus Standards. We also discussed the role of progression pathways as the route to get from the planning stage to the end outcome.
Lots of great work is happening within our schools and progression pathways are being developed for a range of curriculum areas – we must not forget to share our work with our colleagues!
This coming session Angus Standards and progression pathways will be developed by our visiting teacher teams for Physical Education, Music and Art and Design. Angus Standards will also be developed for Sciences, Modern Languages.
Clarity of expectations relating to curriculum rationales and three year strategic planning was achieved through a focused workshop. Head Teachers received related written guidance on this. It was really great to hear how Linda Cartlidge, Head Teacher at Inverkeilor PS has worked in partnership with parents and pupils to develop the school curriculum rationale. Coureen Peters, Head Teacher of Whitehills PS was also able to share her partnership approach to developing her school’s three year strategic plan. Huge thanks go to both of these colleagues for their input which was very well received.
A wee reminder that there will be no separate meetings from now on for the Primary Head Teacher Consultative group. It was agreed that all afternoon agendas for Primary HT meetings will be planned from the collated list of HT CLPL requirements agreed at our meeting in June 2015. However, the Consultative group still has a key role to play in sharing information and in bringing any worries, concerns and issues to our attention and from our next HT meeting, this group will meet at the end of the afternoon session. Please make sure your cluster has a nominated Head teacher on the group.
Finally, we gave a good send off to our colleague, Angela McGechaen, who is leaving us at the end of this term to take up her new post at Barnhill PS in Dundee. We wished Angela the very best of luck and thanked her for being a great colleague throughout her varied career in Angus.