A sign of summer is without a doubt Sports Day and since we held ours today in beautiful sunshine it brought it home to me that I haven’t blogged this term! I like to muse about things and do enjoy spending a few minutes jotting things down about our school and community throughout the session. However, this last term has just flown past in a blur and, even though I know that things will work out and come together, I seem to be spinning slightly more plates than usual.
This is partly because I was off in the big city of Glasgow at a two day conference twice in two weeks. This rarely (never) happens. I do not go very far afield not because I am not interested but usually it is at an impossible time or it costs too much. These events were Scottish Government initiatives and they were about things that we are going to be involved in. There was also no cost to the school! They were also subjects that run through the core of my beliefs and values when it comes to life in general and education in particular so off I went along the motorway.
One conference was all about The Early Years Collaborative which brought together people from every local authority in Scotland. There were colleagues from health, social care, police, education and loads more. The focus was on our very youngest members of our communities and their families. It was really interesting and often moving in many ways. Early Learning and Childcare is the new title for pre-five education but I was heartened to hear and witness that the child centred, family focussed approaches were still at the heart of all our ideas and hopes to make the early years as positive and enjoyable as possible for all our very young children here in Scotland. It was also interesting to work with and discuss issues with colleagues from the other services and think about issues that we face in Education from a different perspective.
The conference this week was all about our Learning Community being involved in the Scottish Government project to raise attainment for all and work towards equality for all here in Scotland. The message from both was clear- we believe in Scotland and our people and we want to be able to say that Scotland is the best place to grow up in and go to school. That is a very powerful statement to make and no one is pretending that it is going to be quick or easy but the energy and commitment in the main conference centre and the seminars and discussion groups was evident throughout.
It was a challenge leaving school, especially at this time of the session. For me though it gave me a wee boost of why I believe so much in education and it gave the awfully clever DHT and I food for thought to share with our staff. However, that is for next session because just now, like most schools in Scotland we are just trying to get everything in place before that final bell next Friday. It has been as always a challenging, enjoyable and at times frustrating session. Yes, I am ready for my holidays! No, I can’t see how we’ll get everything done in time but experience tells me that we will. I know that I will relax and enjoy all those books I have set aside for my holiday reading. I also know that come August I’ll be thinking about how we make things better for everyone and we will all come back ready for another session amazed at where the time went!