CPD Team

This is a guest post by Jean Ward of Kirkwall Grammar School, Orkney

Jean Ward, DHT at Kirkwall Grammar School in Orkney has been making good use of our CPDShorts by creating an innovative programme of lunchtime sessions based around them.

The Glow CPDShorts – thought pieces on current issues in Scottish education – were held on four successive Wednesdays at lunchtime; all staff were invited to bring their lunch. These sessions are quick and informal – in order to make the most of time available the sessions are “flipped” with some suggested advance reading or watching.

Jean has kindly shared her programme with us. CPDShorts are freely available to all members of CPDCentral, so if you are a CPDLeader in your school, why not try them out as part of your collective CPD plan and get some lunchtime learning going on!

Wed 2 November. CPDShort 3 – Advancing Waves – what should education be about?

Presenter, John Connell

Wed 9 November. CPDShort 13 – Coaching and mentoring in the context of PRD 

Presenter – Bob Cook’s paper on GLOW and the following YouTube links:

http://bit.ly/cAGz6f http://bit.ly/tTXqR8 http://bit.ly/s0X5cV

(or just ‘search’ coaching and mentoring on YouTube for many more excellent presentations for discussion)

Wed 16 November.  CPDShort 8 – Sharing – the moral imperative

Presenter – Dean Shareski

 Wed 23 November. CPDShort 4 – Motivating all learners

Presenter – Alan McLean

POSTPONED DUE TO INTERNET GOING DOWN!

Although each meeting attracted only a small audience, it was important to those who came that they could share discussion in an informal setting. It was noticeable that most participants were from smaller departments with limited opportunity for professional dialogue.

Please get in touch if you would like more details.

Jean Ward

jean.ward@glow.orkneyschools.org.uk

“Shoogled out of our comfort zone”

Last Tuesday colleagues from across Scotland and from a diverse range of professional interests came together at St George’s for SELMAS Leadership Forum 2010. The theme was COLLABORATION IN A CHANGING WORLD.

We had three speakers. Don Ledingham, Executive Director for Education and Children’s Services, East Lothian Council talked about the East Lothian proposal to consider community-based management of its schools. Don explained the process of debate which has now been set in motion by using the metaphor of sculpting: views of all involved will be heard and any change to the system. For more about the developing East Lothian Question, see Don’s learning log: edubuzz.org/blogs/donsblog/

Our second speaker was Gillian Hunt, Workforce Learning and Development Manager for the City of Edinburgh Children and Families Department. Gillian described a Scottish Government programme called COPS: ‘Collaborating for Outcomes in the Public Sector’ involving colleagues from a range of public sector organisations, such as local authorities, NHS, Police, Prison Service, Care Commission, and Scottish Government. She encouraged all the SELMAS guests to get out of our boxes and think creatively about partnership working.

Finally Iain White, Headteacher of Govan High School in Glasgow, spoke. HMI have commended Ian’s success in developing partnership working with a range of organisations, through the Govan initiative, the Glasgow-Hunter Partnership, Columba 1400 and with primary schools in the New Learning Community. Iain described how the school has built a growing number of valuable partnerships with businesses, helping young people to develop important skills and increase their knowledge of the world of work.

There has been some recent discussion about the usability of Glow. You may have noticed the recent changes in Glow’s interface at national level (see the National Site) or may have been following Andrew Brown’s initiated ‘Glowbetter’ work. While navigation through Glow might be a bit daunting, one of its saving graces for me has always been its ‘hyperlinkability’. It means if you put a resource on Glow, you can copy the shortcut and publish that shortcut anywhere you like, ie add a bit of Glow, or +glow it!

What does this mean? For CPD, +glow usually means ‘now with added collegiality!’. For example, I might recommend a CPD thought-piece (eg Temple Grandin’s TED TV talk – The World needs all kinds of minds). The problem with this approach is it’s an open loop – there is no feedback. I have no idea who follows the link, or what they think about it, or what one thing might they change in their practice as a result of watching and reflecting on the video. But more importantly, numerous colleagues from all over Scotland may be accessing the same video and not realising they have something in common, or know of better examples, or have CPD resources to support teachers of autistic students and so on.

I like the analogy of building escalators not just stairs. By putting that same video onto Glow and asking colleagues to ‘sign up’ you turn a stair into an escalator. Participants get to see the video and also get an instant snapshot of interested colleagues from around Scotland. They can start (or contribute to) a discussion and share practice collegiately.

Try the Temple Grandin +glow version by following the link from CPDFind. Of course, you will need a Glow password for this version.

We have been developing these +glow CPDShort thought-pieces since the turn of the year. A thought-piece doesn’t need to be a video. It could be a discussion paper, an example of student work, a vox pop, results of a survey, etc.

Furthermore, +glow doesn’t just stop at thought-pieces. In future posts I will look at how colleagues +glow lots of different types of CPD; newsletters, face to face events, skills training and more.

Go on, if you are on Glow, start building escalators instead of stairs. You rarely see an escalator marked ‘Out of Order’.  The worst that can happen when you build an escalator is that folk use it as a stair.

So, +glow those thought-pieces and send me a link!

image courtesy of victoriapeckham on Flickr

PARTNERSHIP WORKING – CPD ON OUR DOORSTEP !

Curriculum for Excellence places great emphasis and value on partnership working – the CPD Network reflects that in practice. The seminar on the 17 March will profile the contribution from a range of partners who may not have always been recognised as having an impact on the professional development of teachers and support staff, or whose traditional role may have been focussed on colleagues with particular remits : eg pastoral care, additional support needs, behaviour support.

Colleagues from the school library service, social work services, psychological services, the independent and voluntary sector, health  and SQA will outline resources and experiences which are relevant to the professional development of all staff in 7 minute presentations which will set the scene for “Open Space” follow up activity of discussion and sharing.

We realise that our sample range is not exhaustive and hope that pre, during and post the seminar colleagues will be able to share similar or different examples from their own authorities.   If you have partnership working on your doorstep please share it with us on the CPD blog.

Many of you have been in touch following the recent articles in TESS and in Teaching Scotland about the Learning Rounds. It felt like a good time to give you a bit of an update on what’s happening.

Why all the interest in Learning Rounds?

Because it makes a difference.

In a range of schools and in a number of authorities, Learning Rounds has delivered high quality, sustainable improvements in the learning experiences of pupils. It has helped develop collegial practice and a positive ethos.  

Because it’s affordable

Learning Rounds does not require the services of visiting experts. It builds on the learning and experiences of the establishment staff. Teachers learn from teachers, and learning is shared and collegiate. Costs lie in releasing teachers from their classrooms to observe colleagues. Enthusiastic school leaders have found different ways to achieve this.

Because it’s sustainable

Learning Rounds is not an event, but a process that can become embedded in practice. In one school it is now the starting point for the school  improvement plan; in one authority headteachers are being encouraged to use Learning Rounds to develop the quality of provision; a third authority is promoting it as a tool for faculty heads to support their teams

•  North Ayrshire, where the focus has been on learning at headteacher and officer level across schools,
• West Lothian which has taken the learning across clusters as the theme,
• Angus where the Learning Rounds team has been composed of Faculty Leaders and Principal Teachers across the secondary sector
• Dumfries and Galloway where we have been looking at Learning Rounds in the context of candidates on the Flexible Routes to Headship.

In addition, the team has been supporting Learning Rounds in South Ayrshire, in Scottish Borders and in Edinburgh (including work in the special school sector). We have made presentations about our work at headteacher meetings in a number of other authorities, most recently in Perth and Kinross.

In our team plan, we have  identified four tasks remaining to us. We will:

• complete the pilot programmes
• reflect on, evaluate, and share our experience of Learning Rounds to date
• we will continue to explore Learning Rounds, particularly in an inter-agency context
• we will produce and publish a “How to do Learning Rounds Self Help Guide” by the summer.

CPDAnswers says, not sure about the specifics of the Tapestry Learning Communities but in general TLCs exist to share and create new practice. This would seem ideal for adressing CfE.

The strength of a TLC is the commitment members make to the community, the clarity of purpose of the community, knowing where knowledge and skills resides within the community ie who can do what.  A well functioning TLC builds trust, ensures the work serves all members and develops expertise at all levels.

This thus builds confidence and capacity to journey into the relatively unchartered territory that is CfE.

This a guest post from Stirling Mackie, Head Teacher of Irvine Royal Academy

 “The secret of management is to keep the guys who hate you away from the guys who are undecided”

(Casey Stengel, former manager of the New York Yankees. All other quotes are from Yogi Berra, former player with the New York Yankees)

One thing about learning rounds is that it delivers the exact opposite of Casey Stengel’s advice. In fact it positively rejoices in doing the opposite and mixing everyone up!

I was fortunate enough to attend the conference addressed by Professor Richard Elmore at Hampden Park in Glasgow in 2007(?). It was being able to hear first hand from Elmore which really inspired me to look more closely at this way of aiding school improvement.

My next step was to buy his book ‘School Reform from the Inside Out’. It is a surprisingly ‘easy’ read and confirmed my initial thoughts that there was something in this. However, like so many other ‘good ideas’ other things got in the way of taking it forward (like an HMIe inspection).

However in 2008, North Ayrshire decided to volunteer to be part of the national learning rounds pilot. The journey of everyone involved in that part of the journey is recorded elsewhere. What I want to share is Irvine Royal Academy’s individual journey, which has already taken a somewhat different, or quicker, route (perhaps Virgin Express rather than …well a slower train company).

We were first to welcome the mixed group of headteachers, deputes, authority staff, academics etc etc into our school to observe learning and teaching. It was on a volunteer basis, and for a variety of historical reasons, we had more than enough volunteers.

This brings me to point 1.

 Irvine Royal Academy was a school at a stage in its development where staff were anxious to invite ‘outsiders’ into their classrooms. Two years earlier I think I would have struggled to get more than a handful of ‘guinea pigs’. In other words much preparatory work had been done (‘inadvertently’ and for other reasons) to create an ‘ethos of openness’ in the school. So in asking yourself, will learning rounds work in my school, the first requirement is, “how open is the school culture currently?” In my opinion learning rounds can considerably help the further development of a culture of openness, but to implement it without it, could potentially lead to conflict and have the opposite effect.

‘You can observe a lot by watching’

I was committed to the learning rounds model and wanted to pilot it. I decided to approach Principal Teachers, on the basis that they already had experience of classroom observation as part of the school’s quality assurance procedures. Only two declined the opportunity.

We put them into groups of two/three and set up observations for them in departments that were not their own. A member of the SMT was also attached to each group, and in one case Margaret Orr of the National CPD team joined one of the groups.

Point 2

Principal Teachers adapted to the learning rounds model quicker than the HT/DHT group. They adopted the descriptive voice, and came up with an impressive list of observations, which can easily be turned into an agenda for action.

They thoroughly enjoyed the experience, and interestingly, their observations also caused them to reflect on their own practice, and lead to immediate changes in their own pedagogy and methodology. Is this powerful CPD or what?

‘If you don’t know where you are going you will end up somewhere else’

We always had a clear idea of where we were going. I wanted to involve ALL staff in the learning rounds model. Would staff want to be involved? Overwhelmingly yes. Approximately 80% of unpromoted staff have volunteered to join a learning rounds group. They may not express it exactly as I do, in the big picture of school improvement, but they have real clarity about two things.

1. That this is powerful CPD.
2. That the object is to improve learning and teaching and thereby more fully engage students and raise attainment.

We have planned to set up the next round of observations by unpromoted staff during ‘SQA time’.

‘The future ain’t what it used to be’

Thank goodness! The future used to be a ‘done to’ model. This is a ‘done together’ model. It works for us because of the climate which had been built over the last two years. It might not work in other places. However;

• I have no doubt as to the advantages that this model can bring to the process of school improvement.
• I have no doubt that staff are correct. This is powerful CPD
• I have no doubt that the impact is immediate.
• I have no doubt that this is real collegiality.
• I have no doubt that we will continue to develop the model further.

This post was contributed by Elizabeth Johnston of South Morningside Primary School in Edinburgh

Continuing Professional Development in schools is largely regarded as authority or management driven. Whilst working to attain Chartered Teacher status, I became confident about disseminating the expertise my colleagues and I had to offer our school as practitioners, focussing on concrete classroom applications. A ‘Reflective Practitioners’ Club’ makes this practice accessible and empowering for new as well as experienced teachers, and places it in an educational framework that encourages teachers to work collaboratively. It was agreed that this club would not have members of management, who by their presence, can, perhaps unintentionally, alter the group dynamic, inhibit proceedings, or intimidate would-be presenters! The minutes, however, are always presented to the Head Teacher to keep him informed. I have to mention here that our HT is more than happy to see this kind of ‘bottom up’ development work.

I have chaired the ‘RPC’ since it began in August 2004. Currently, we number around 10 interested teachers who meet every 6 weeks or so. We hold discussions on courses we have attended, educational research, and current approaches and strategies, in order to further the progress of our pupils. One of our members, who could not attend all the meetings, contributed the fortnightly Times Educational Supplements where interesting articles came under ‘any other business’ for discussion at our meetings. We have also carried out some ‘peer monitoring’ to enhance, develop or indeed, change our practice. We devised a simple form to provide written feedback.

Our members take part in presentations and workshops, both as leaders and/or participants. No member is ever expected to deliver a topic formally, but everyone is recognized as having some expertise that can be shared informally. Two other schools expressed interest in developing their own club and have subsequently been invited to attend.

Our meetings offer opportunities for group support and collaboration. Therefore, the only ‘rule’ is a belief system that is not written down, but is expressed in the words and actions of the people in the system.

RPC members feel better equipped with the skills and understanding needed to bring out the best in us, our pupils and our community. We have cultivated a personal and professional respect and are very supportive of each other.

Collegiality at this level brings much goodwill and enhanced practice that can never be budgeted for!

Graham Thomson of SCSSA informed and entertained the participants over 2 hours on the afternoon of the first day of the international summer school. ‘Good schools have good communication’ was the starting point for an inspirational presentation. Good leaders influence and persuade others to do things they would otherwise not have done, and communication to enable this is a key responsibility of good leadership. Graham emphasised the importance of a collegiate approach in school with leaders being aware of their personal qualities and interpersonal skills in the development of good relationships with colleagues.

Graham moved on to talk of how ‘collegiate schools promote the voice of all individuals within the school community’ and this communication is a key feature school improvement. We as leaders need to ‘be aware of the use of language in maintaining effective relationships’. As ‘Hendry’, Graham illustrated the importance of language in a humorous scenario involving 3 of the participants and which clearly exemplified the need for clarity of communication when interacting with staff. This extract focussed on the requirement for all of us to be aware of types of intellectual information including data on what we observe and how this makes us feel.

We know that ‘individuals perform at a higher level when they feel valued and participate in the decision making process in school’, and Graham reflected on the need for praise to be an integral feature of school life. He stressed this use of praise as a powerful instrument to ensure good leadership in influencing others to improve performance.

Graham’s message to us was clear and encouraged the participants to critically reflect on our own practice. How good are we as communicators? What is the extent of our reflection on our own use of language in our communication with others?

The message from this exhilarating session was clear in encouraging us to reflect on our own practices as leaders and for us to realise the importance of the power of communication as a resource in facing the dilemmas and challenges of leadership.

John Johnson of Sandaig Primary is taking Roland Barth’s quote “The most powerful form of learning, the most sophisticated form of staff development, comes not from listening to the good words of others, but from sharing what we know with others” to a new level. With some limited support from the CPD Team, he is setting up an online ‘CPD collective’ where teachers can contribute CPD opportunities using a wiki.

To find out more:

• You can read John’s blog post at Connected Live
• You can see his presentation from a recent TeachMeet in Perth
• You can have a look at the early development wiki for the initiative.

We look forward to being John’s partner in this exciting development.