Lauren McMahon – Faculty of Language and Communication

For the last four years, I have been working as a Literacy Development Officer within West Lothian Council. This has provided me with a wealth of Professional Development Opportunities which have impacted both on my own practice and that of my colleagues.

I embarked on this development as literacy is core to every child’s education and I was interested in exploring ways in which this could be improved at an authority level in order to improve the learning experience for all.

A major aspect of this post has involved the wider development of debating across West Lothian. I have, for the last four years, run the West Lothian Speaks! Debating competition which is aimed at encouraging S1 and S2 pupils to learn debating skills and develop their confidence. St Margaret’s has participated in this competition each year and is the current holder of the shield. This has impacted on St Margaret’s as I believe that by raising the profile of debating early, pupils are more encouraged to join the school debating club which is highly beneficial to developing their literacy skills. Last year, I launched the West Lothian Public Speaking Competition, aimed at S3, in which 8 West Lothian Schools participated. A member of staff within my department assisted in preparing the pupils for this competition which also contributed towards her CPD.

A further impact on the wider St Margaret’s cluster has been the introduction of the Debating Transition Project. The project, which I developed as a literacy development tool which could be used across the authority, was piloted within the cluster in 2010. This involved liaising with the primary Headteachers and P7 teachers, as well as those in my own department. Feedback from the pilot was that is had been very successful and, consequently, the project was used again as part of the 2011 P7 transition. Recently, I presented the project at a Literacy Network meeting and 3 other Secondary Schools will introduce the Transition Project as part of their P7 Transition this year. Although it is difficult to assess the impact on pupils, there was a general impression that pupils enjoyed the project and the update for the St Margaret’s Debating Club has improved.