First and foremost, Happy New Year from the Parent Council – we hope 2017 is healthy and happy for you and yours.
You may be aware that the Scottish Government has been carrying out a consultation regarding the future organisation of Scottish education. We are sorry to be coming to you so late in the process but the consultation closes today and we hope you may wish to find a moment to complete the online survey (this will literally taken a couple of minutes online)
https://consult.scotland.gov.uk/empowering-schools/a-governance-review/
This has been a very challenging consultation to deal with – hence it taking us some time to finalise our thinking on it (which has been done after a series of meetings with other parent councils in the area).The consultation involved a long series of questions which were diffficult to understand let alone answer from a mere parent’s perspective! However, the Scottish government did subsequently confirm that the issues boiled down to 4 key questions and we focussed on these in our response, which is pasted in below for your information.
Some of the possibilities on which opinion was being sought were
– giving more control of funds directly to head teachers and
– increased centralisation of control (moving this away from local authorities).
The key issues in our response can be summed up as follows:
– the “balance of power” in East Renfrewshire is effective already as there is notional accountability of our elected officials and discretion to do what works for our area
– increased responsibility for head teachers would not be welcome as it is already difficult to recruit head teachers and they have a good degree of autonomy as things stand
– it is everyone’s wish to “close the attainment gap” but this should be done by raising standards for everyone
If you have a few moments to respond to the consultation please do so using the link above. It is not necessary to answer every question – we suggest you simply skip to question 17 at the end and write down your thoughts.
Many thanks
Our Lady of the Missions Primary School Parent Council
PARENT COUNCIL RESPONSE TO CONSULTATION
Dear Sirs
I am the Vice Chair of the Parent Council of Our Lady of the Missions (OLM) Primary School, Giffnock. I am responding to this consultation in that capacity. I am also a co-signatory to the sub-committee which was formed by the Parent Councils of East Renfrewshire in order to make a joint submission.
The questions set out in the consultation appear to me to be designed to be answered by the Education Professionals and accordingly I am not in a position to fully address those. However I will address the following questions which have been suggested as equivalent to the consultation by the Cabinet Secretary for Education:-
- How do we want our schools to be run?
- Where should influence lie?
- What adds value to the learning experience?
- What should parents do within education?
- How do we want our schools to be run
It is important to bear in mind that the Parents Council of OLM are entirely supportive of the aims of the consultation, that is, to close the attainment gap within Scotland. Our main concern however is to ensure that the attainment gap is closed by bringing up the “lower” level rather than lowering the “upper” level.
We consider that the OLM is run effectively. There is a true partnership between the head teacher and staff of the school with parents, children and the Local Authority. The Head Teacher is given an opportunity to lead the school with the support of the parents and Local Authority.
We would have considerable concern if the support of the Local Authority was “taken away” in the sense that direct funding would be given to the school. We do not sense any appetite for the school to have direct funding to deal with their own budgeting, procurement etc. and would be seriously concerned about such a step. It seems to us that this is likely to remove the head teacher and teacher’s focus on their core expectation which is to deliver a supportive education environment with the drive and determination to create excellence in what our children do. We would be concerned that in order to manage a budget the size of a school of OLM (circa 900 children) would require financial/budgeting experience which our teachers do not have which in turn would in our view make it even more difficult to recruit into the leadership positions.
In essence we consider that the way that the school is run works very well and we would be reluctant to see any interference in that which could potentially diminish the learning environment.
- Where should influence lie
This is a difficult question and there is no one simple answer. There should be a multi level of influence in education both by the leadership team of the school, the teachers more generally, the parents and the Local Authority. We are concerned that one of the by-products of the consultation, should direct funding be given to schools and in effect bypass Local Authorities, would mean a diminution in the ability of locally elected members to have an impact locally.
The Council at East Renfrewshire have for many years spent a disproportionate amount of their budget (relative to other Local Authorities) on education. It is very much a local priority and it seems to us important that the Local Authority should continue to make such a determination in implementation of their democratic mandates. We would be seriously concerned that any national funding formula would remove the ability of the Local Authority to make such a determination.
- What adds to the learning experience
We are incredibly fortunate in our school to have a wonderful and supportive group of teachers and leadership team. This is not simply in respect of the “formal” aspects of education in application of the curriculum and standardised testing etc.
The school experience is much more rounded than the formal education alone. There are a wide variety of extracurricular activities from choirs, ceilidh bands, football teams, skiing classes etc. All of those are provided by the staff (and some parents) who are generously giving of their own time.
Much of the learning in school takes place outwith the classroom, both in the home and the more general school environment. We would be very reluctant to see any changes as a result of the current consultation impacting upon this negatively.
- What should parents do within education
It appears to us that the principal role of parents in relation to education is to support the school. The direction, management and planning of the school should be undertaken by the head teacher and the senior management team. It is a parent’s job, in our view, to support that and support the teachers and the children in their learning.
Conclusion
We entirely appreciate that we are in a fortunate position in East Renfrewshire and Our Lady of the Missions in having a very successful school and authority. That however is not achieved without a great deal of hard work and planning. We are very keen for best practice to be shared and lessons learned across various authority areas. We are very much in support of the “West Partnership” initiative whereby East Renfrewshire and a number of other Local Authorities share best practice. I am sure that East Renfrewshire has things to learn from other areas and in the same way the other areas have lessons to learn from East Renfrewshire. It is very much our hope and concern to ensure however that the current very good practices are not lost through implementation of a consultation of this nature.
Yours sincerely
JP Sheridan
Vice Chair
Parents Council
Our Lady of the Missions Primary School Giffnock
