Anne Hutchison (Support Officer for Professional Development), Hazel Cunningham and Nicola Soroka (Probationers Supporters) and colleagues in the Curriculum Support team welcomed educationalists from the Flemish Community. This gave them a flavour of life in Falkirk’s schools and an overview of the unique support provided by the Council for Probationer teachers.
In the morning, the group visited Airth Primary School, Grangemouth High School and St. Mungo’s RC High School, where they had the opportunity to meet staff and pupils.
In the afternoon, the group participated in the Induction Meeting for next session’s Probationer teachers.
We would like to thank GTCS for providing the opportunity to work with a great group of people! Thanks also must go to Julie McKenna, Paul Dunn, Stephen Phee and their colleagues for making the group welcome in their schools.
It was a pleasure to host our visitors from Belgium and a wonderful opportunity to discuss and compare our different learning communities. We learned lots too!
And we were very grateful to you for taking them! Thanks,
Tom
Thank you very much for the excellent study visit and for your hospitality. We were impressed by the systematic approach in your induction programme for new teachers and by the excellent teaching and learning materials Falkirk Council provides to teachers. We also found the school visits inspiring, in my case especially as regards to how schools thoughtfully implement curricula. So, ‘Dank u wel’ (thank you very much).
Liselotte Van de Perre
curriculum co-ordinator, Flemish Agency for Quality Assurance in Education and Training
Thanks for the interesting study visit. The induction programme for new teachers and especially the appointment of probationer teachers for a whole year is excellent. It gives young teachers the opportunity to grow.
The school head and the deputy of Airth primary school have given us a warm welcome. They gave us also an idea about the way they work with their team and how they support the professional growth of their teachers and assistant teachers. It was nice to have open reflections of all the members of the school team. Thanks!
Marc Van den Brande
Secretary-general Network for Catholic primary schools in Flanders
and Chair of the Flemish Primary Education Council