As part of the forthcoming package of attendance support materials from ES we have co-designed a series of Senior Leaders National Events on this topic. We are looking for your support in communicating these professional learning discussion opportunities with the school leaders in your linked authorities.

The sessions are running over three consecutive Monday’s from 24 February to 10 March, all from 3.30pm to 4.30pm

Session 1 – 24 February 2025

Improving attendance: Systems (Senior Leaders in Primary Schools)

This session will take a look at improving attendance and engagement within primary schools, with a focus on ‘systems’. It has been planned with senior leaders in schools and will include presentations from Loch & Cairns primary schools from South Lanarkshire. They will highlight their learning community approaches towards creating and sharing policy and procedures. The session will also build in time for discussion on engaging learners online to support improving school attendance.

Book via Eventbrite here

Improving attendance: Systems (Senior Leaders in Secondary Schools)

This session will take a look at improving attendance and engagement within secondary schools, with a focus on ‘systems’. It has been planned with senior leaders in schools and will include presentations from Duncanrig secondary school, South Lanarkshire, highlighting their engagement in collaboration with the West Partnership, and evaluation tools used to support focus on developing a school policy. Dunoon Grammar school, Argyll & Bute, will focus on their partnership with Education Psychology Services as well as other partners, including third sector. The session will also build in time for discussion on engaging learners online to support improving school attendance.

Book via Eventbrite here

Session 2 – 03 March 2025

Improving attendance: Culture

This session will take a look at improving attendance and engagement within primary and secondary schools, with a focus on ‘Cultures’. It has been planned with senior leaders in schools and will include a presentation from Greenwood Academy, North Ayrshire, and will focus on their approaches to improving learning engagement, recognising ‘push & pull’ factors experienced by young people at home and at school. This cross sectoral session will also build in time for discussion on embedding change in school at all levels to support improving school attendance.

Book via Eventbrite here

Session 3 – 10 March 2025

This session will take a look at improving attendance and engagement within primary and secondary schools, with a focus on ‘Practices’. It has been planned with senior leaders in schools and will include a presentation from Dunoon Grammar School, Argyll & Bute, and will focus on their approaches to using current and historic data to support transitions, recognising that the use of data at all levels in school informs planning and the effective use of resources. This cross sectoral session will also build in time for discussions on early interventions at transition periods, mental wellbeing support and parental partnership practices.

Book via Eventbrite here

Scottish Disability Sport are offering a limited number of free Inclusive PE workshops this year to Local Authorities .

Preference will be given to LA’s that didn’t have a funded workshop in 2024, and otherwise, they’ll be allocated on a first-come-first-served basis.

Any interested Local Authorities  should email Alison Shaw  with their preferred dates/times/venue. Contact details below

Alison Shaw

Scottish Disability Sport

alison.shaw@scottishdisabilitysport.com

COURSE FULLY BOOKED – NEW DATES WILL BE ANNOUCED SOON

VENUE:          Virtual

DATE:             Friday 21st March 2025

TIME:             1pm – 4pm

WHO:             Early Years Settings

Oh Lila is a child friendly resource suitable for use with children aged 3 to 6 years and aims to build resilience and protective factors in young children, helping them to develop social skills and encouraging them to communicate. Oh Lila can be linked to the Curriculum for Excellence, particularly around Health & Wellbeing but other areas too, such as Creative Arts.

Two members of staff from each setting should attend this training.

Please note that there is no supply cover available for this training.

On completing training, learners will have:

• An increased awareness of the key themes of Oh Lila and how they relate to building resilience in
• Increased confidence, skills and knowledge to use the Oh Lila resource and to manage disclosures from children in line with organizational
• An enhanced awareness and understanding of the problems caused by alcohol and that by strengthening the foundation (early years) of life can prevent problems later as young
• An increased awareness of local and national strategies and

The Oh Lila resource pack does not talk about alcohol or any other substances.

How to book a place:

• Scottish Borders Council staff can sign up via Business World

All Early Years Settings have been supplied with the Oh Lila resource pack.

Please have your centre’s pack to hand for the session.

 You can also attend this as a refresher session.

For more information on training and resources http://www.ohlila.org.uk

This course is free to attendees; however there is a charge to Borders Alcohol & Drugs Partnership. Please ensure you have confirmed your availability before requesting to attend.

Recruitment to Into Headship Programme 2025

Into Headship is Scotland’s national programme for teachers with relevant leadership experience, who are aspiring to a headteacher post within the next 2-3 years.  The purpose of the Into Headship programme is to further develop the skills, knowledge and understanding, professional values, abilities and commitment for participants to move into headship with the confidence to lead a dynamic school community. Successful completion of the programme leads to the award of the Standard for Headship which is a mandatory requirement for all newly appointed permanent headteachers in publicly funded schools in Scotland.

The updated national guidance document will be made available within the coming weeks.

We are pleased to confirm that recruitment for the next cohort of the Into Headship programme is now open. The interview date for Scottish Borders Council applicants will be Wednesday 26 March and the closing date for applications will be Wednesday 19 March.

Application Process

Applicants should submit a completed form, and an endorsement form from their line manager to CLPL@scotborders.gov.uk by Wednesday 19 March. Applicants will then by invited for interview on Wednesday 26 March to confirm that they can demonstrate appropriate experience and professional learning in leadership, relevant to local context.

Application and endorsement forms can be accessed by following this link:  https://professionallearning.education.gov.scot/learn/programmes/into-headship/

Programme Funding

It is anticipated that funding to support the fees will continue for the 2025 cohort, however this is subject to the outcome of the budget bill process in Scottish Parliament and subsequently Scottish Ministers’ agreement. Travelling expenses are not included as part of the funding.

If you have any queries or would like a chance to speak to a past participant please contact CLPL@scotborders.gov.uk and we will be happy to help.

As you know, our Leadership+ offer launched late last year. Leadership+ is a series of one-off bespoke webinars which complement the work of Education Scotland’s leadership programmes, and we started this offer in December with webinars from Dr Karen Edge and Dr Simon Breakspear.

 We can now announce the speaker for our third session, and we’re delighted to share that it is Dr Paul Bloomberg! He will be joining us on Monday 24^th February, 4pm-5pm to share his webinar From People to Process: Advancing Agency through Complex Change.

 This session will focus on the development of capacity for inclusive and equitable approaches to leading learning. Change is inevitable, yet navigating it effectively in schools or organisations demands a balanced approach that harmonises the human experience with collaborative practices. By cultivating learner agency at every level, using asset-based approaches, individuals within the system can become active participants in shaping innovation rather than passive recipients, ensuring change is meaningful and sustainable by fostering ownership and adaptability. This one-hour webinar introduces the Seven Circle Model, a holistic framework for understanding and addressing the interplay between relational and technical aspects of change, all while keeping equity at the core.

We anticipate high demand for this event, so would encourage you to sign up quickly. If a number of you in your establishment want to sign up, then why not watch together, learn together and take forward your post-event plans together?

Please click here to register for a place at the webinar

Please note this session will not be recorded, but following the webinar Dr Bloomberg will record a 15 minute summary of his session, which will be housed on the Leadership resource page Education Scotland website.

Leadership+ is offered to anyone in a leadership role in Scottish education, across sectors (this includes classroom practitioners, ELC and CLD practitioners, middle leaders, and school, setting and system leaders). The aims are:

• to enhance leadership learning across pertinent themes
• to encourage critical thinking in leaders at all levels.

As part of our PLL Community of learners (past and present) you benefit from prioritised spaces at Leadership+ sessions, as we will advertise these sessions to you before we advertise more widely.

You may also be interested in the following events being delivered through BRL+ (linked to our Building Racial Literacy programme). The links below will take you to Eventbrite where you can find further information, and register to attend.

Tuesday 11^th February, 4pm-5.30pm

Angela Saini – Keynote and Q&A

Tuesday 11^th March, 4pm-5.30pm

Neil Spiers – Sometimes Doing Your Homework Isn’t The Priority

Wednesday 26^th March, 4pm-5.30pm

Jeffrey Boakye – Race, Gender and Power in Education

“What does it mean to be on track in ELC 3 or 4 in literacy and numeracy?”

The early years team are facilitating a session with ELC practitioners from 1.30pm – 3pm on Monday 24^th February 2025 in three locations across SBC to moderate professional judgements about being on track to achieve early level by the end of P1. Please click the link to find out more and sign up. https://forms.office.com/e/YJJNWSD0Ec

Bookbug Local Authority Steering Groups Spring Update

Bookbug training session dates will go live from Monday 3 February. Click on the link above for further information on:

• Bookbug Session Leader Training Full / Refresher
• Bookbug for the Home Training Full / Refresher
• Session Leader training

Our Building Racial Literacy programme is hosting 3 upcoming BRL+ webinars which are open to all educators and education leaders in Scotland. We would appreciate your help in sharing these among your networks. To help with this we have attached a pdf which has the Eventbrite registrations hyperlinked, and also QR codes so the poster can be printed and hung on a bulletin board.

BRL+ is a suite of standalone sessions from the Building Racial Literacy Programme Building Racial Literacy | Programmes | Professional learning programmes, webinars and events | Professional Learning | Education Scotland team. They are for all educators to learn more about racism and other experiences of inequalities, and how they manifest in education.

The upcoming webinars are as follows:

Tuesday 11^th February, 4pm-5.30pm

Angela Saini – Keynote and Q&A

Tuesday 11^th March, 4pm-5.30pm

Dr Neil Spiers – Reflecting on the Effects of Poverty in and out of the Classroom

Wednesday 26^th March, 4pm-5.30pm

Jeffrey Boakye – Race, Gender and Power in Education

We request that everyone registering to attend an online event via Eventbrite take a moment to review our Online Code of Conduct.

Climate Ready Classrooms – Inspire Learning Live Lesson Programme – Supporting Schools with Learning for Sustainability experiences and British Science Week – Calling all Primary 6 pupils and their teachers.

Climate ready classrooms for Primary Schools is a series of workshops and activities, delivered by Keep Scotland Beautiful and ScotDec. It is delivered to the whole of the Scottish Borders at the same time via Teams. By taking part pupils will gain an understanding of the climate emergency and biodiversity crisis and take action to address these issues in their own way. Aimed at Primary 6 (but composite classes can take part too) The series of three workshops are on Wednesday 26th February, 5th March and 12th March (9.30am-10.00am). Teacher information session Monday 24th February 2.00pm – 3.20pm (during in-service day). Please nominate one or more teachers who will be joining from your school/s and enter their information into this form. They will be sent further information and asked to save the dates. Nominate HERE Any questions please email Helen.orde@scotborders.gov.uk     https://www.keepscotlandbeautiful.org/climate-ready-classrooms/

When – 13th May 9.30am-11.45am

Venue – Inspire Building, Tweedbank

A practical session which moves through the three following questions:

• What are the prevalent views of masculinity amongst many of our young people?
• What socio-cultural factors are shaping these views?
• What evidence-based strategies can we employ to challenge regressive, dominance-based models of masculinity and promote a healthier, more aspirational understanding of what it can mean to ‘be a man’ in today’s world.

The training empowers staff to approach topics often considered sensitive and taboo within the male world (mental health, the impact of pornography, online influencers etc) but also helps to bring back the joy of masculinity and the potential of our gender to counter the overwhelmingly negative social narrative around masculinity.

Target Audience – All Pastoral Staff