CPD Team

Our CPD Network Leadership Advisory Group recently had a first meeting.  Our role in this group is to be both reflective and creative in the way through which we inform the CPD Team to contribute to the leadership agenda nationally.  Our action areas include further thinking on the PRD process and models of leadership development at school level.  We are also having a look at the data from the CPD Educational Leadership Survey which authorities completed during March.  We are looking forward to our next meeting in June.

Leadership Advisory Group Members: Gillian Hamilton (East Ayrshire), Charlie McAteer (Dumfries and Galloway), Danny Murphy (Clackmannanshire), Margaret Barclay (Highland), Jim Keegans (National CPD Team) and Margaret Alcorn (National CPD Team Coordinator).

These guys in the photograph enjoyed their Saturday morning at The Standard for Headship awards ceremony in Glasgow.  We all had an opportunity following the photograph session to talk about our experiences in FRH.  We all agreed on the value of coaching, the opportunity to be supported and challenged by our coach as we made progress towards achieving the Standard.  We have just completed the programme…but guess what!  many of our colleagues across a number of local education authorities in Scotland have just started on the next cohort and we will be around to support and challenge them, and can do so now through the FRH Website.

www.flexibleroutestoheadship.com

The target audience for this event is small teams (3/4) from authorities who are interested in learning more about the potential of Learning Rounds to offer system-wide change in the context of Curriculum for Excellence. A team might be made up from authority staff and/or school-based staff.

Each participant will leave with a paper copy of the Learning Rounds Toolkit and a datastick with suggested powerpoint presentations for briefing, training, etc

Intended outcomes:

• Resources and expertise required to use Learning Rounds as a vehicle for system change in schools and authorities are shared
• The potential of Learning Rounds as the basis for a professional learning community is explored
• The implications of the model as a driver of systemic and collegiate change is explored
• Participants record a high quality personal learning experience with the potential to change practice

Contact ruth@cosla.gov.uk as soon as possible, and no later than May 19th, if you want to send a team

I am delighted to confirm that the CPD Network event on 27th May will be in  Radisson Blu Hotel, 80 High Street, Edinburgh, EH1 1TH.      Registration and coffee will be from 0900 – 1000 hours.     The focus of the morning will be on :

• professional review and development
• leadership survey
• CPDReflect

As with the “On Your Doorstep” event, colleagues can elect which discussion group to participate in after brief presentations from Bob Cook, Jim Keegans and Con Morris.   

In the afternoon, we will have the opportunity to meet with Graham Donaldson’s Review team.   Rather than this being a presentation the team are keen to have a dialogue with Network members.

The team would be very interested in hearing from anyone who is thinking of attending this event. It’s one of the biggest in Europe and I believe they are expecting more than 2000 delegates.

The organisers invite delegates to expand their thinking on contemporary leadership and to connect with some of the most innovative practice to make a difference for children and young people.

This year’s speakers include Andy Hargreaves, Ronald Heifitz, Steve Munby, and many others.

If you plan to go please let us know!

Picture by Bill Barber

The first phase of Learning Rounds drew to a close in March and the team are currently involved in scheduling meetings with officer colleagues from participating authorities to reflect on the impact and potential of the approach. The discussions  cover the immediacy of the process in terms of the impact on individual CPD and  explore the beginnings of sustained collegiate activity leading to systemic change which the model can support at both school and authority level.

In the discussions to date with directorates, team members have been able to evidence positive feedback from colleagues who have participated – colleagues who include teachers at all stages in their careers,  middle and senior managers; educational psychologists;  school librarians;  students and QIOs. The value of Learning Rounds has been expressed both in terms of immediate personal CPD impact and in its capacity to provide a structure and process for ongoing collegiate CPD which will support the delivery of Curriculum for Excellence. The positive information held by the team has been mirrored by the feedback which is held at authority level, providing a very positive agenda for discusssion.

The meetings with local authorities will inform the final evaluation of Learning Rounds which is due to be published in June. The CPD Team and SCSSA are very appreciative of  the interest, commitment  and constructive feedback from authorities,  schools and partner agencies during the pilot phase.

Sheila Smith has now completed her secondment to the National CPD Team and has returned to her substantive post in West Lothian.

When you think of Sheila, many of you will remember her leadership of the CPD Network development group, or her work on Learning Rounds, particularly in Angus, or her significant contribution to the development of the Flexible Routes to Headship programme. But for many of us, Sheila will bring to mind fine dining, fashion (especially shoes) and most of all the grand love-a-duck photographic extravaganza (you had to be at last year’s Apex Edinburgh event to get this reference).

Within the team we will miss her sharp intellect, her friendship and her fine sense of humour, although we hope she will continue to be a stalwart of the Network.

Join us in wishing her good luck and happiness back in West Lothian

For the summer term, the National CPD Team has been working on a series of online seminars (or CPDMeets as we are dubbing them). These informal seminars will be held on Glow Meet and will be relatively short (30 to 45 minutes).

In the pipeline, we have contributions from Mairi McAra of GTCS, Margaret Orr of the National CPD Team, Mairi Houston of NQ Online, Stephen McCrossan of the EIS Learning Reps and many others.

First up is Frank Crawford, Chief Inspector HMIE, on the subject of Leadership and Learning. This takes place on Thursday 22^nd April at 10am.

Related links

• More info and / or sign-up for Frank’s CPDMeet 
• Help, I’m a CPDMeet feartie!
• Hey, I’d like to lead a CPDMeet

 For lots of people the highlight of last year’s Summer School was Leadmeet 09.

If you missed it, make sure it doesn’t happen again by getting this date (August 5th 2010) in your diary now. #Leadmeet10 will offer everyone with an interest in school leadership a chance to experience the buzz of the Summer School.

More details to follow – watch this space.

The letters of invitation for this year’s summer school have now been sent out by the Scottish Government to directors and other stakeholders. The theme will be Achieving System-wide Change in the Context of Curriculum for Excellence.

The school will focus on the challenges involved in the implementation of Curriculum for Excellence and will support innovative and creative thinking around leadership issues, as well as practical “hands-on” approaches that can be applied across schools and authorities. The Goverment are also keen to capture learning and practical developments that have arisen from previous Summer Schools.

Each authority has been invited to send a team of three, with the possibility of “bidding” for extra places if wished.

Although the format will be quite different this year, you can expect the usual high quality discussion, debate, fun and new learning.