Meeting the grade

Monday

Spent a lot of the morning filling in questionnaires. We seem to have a lot of these at the moment. I spend time looking over the Draft Anti Bullying Policy recently emailed to us. I think it is a god strong policy, however it will only have an impact if it is rolled out to schools as part of a focused co-ordinated, hands on training programme for all Headteachers otherwise it is just another policy. I hope this is planned, as the policy deserves it.

In the afternoon I attend a meeting with Alan Borthwick, Derek Haywood, and others regarding the class contact time of 22.5 hrs planned for next year. The meeting discusses a lot of options and we break up after planning a meeting for the New Year. I am quite clear in my mind about how we manage this. I believe that we need to increase the number of specialists in the schools. This does not have to be a music teacher or a PE teacher but maybe a teacher with a specific talent or skill in a curricular area. Specialist visiting staff, e.g. Music, PE and Art could also be used to allow this to happen but this would have to be agreed on a school-by-school basis. I think this one is going to be a hot potato.

Tuesday

Today I am usually in class but I have arranged to see Liz Mc Lean this morning after the Staff meeting. Liz is responding to my e-mail and a letter from my pupil council regarding the toilet facilities in the school which are the original 1968 fixtures and fittings. The boys’ toilets are really poor. The nursery does not have access to their own toilet and this has been raised by the Care Commission as a recommendation. The letter reads:

Dear Liz,

We have been inspecting our toilets to see if they were clean or not. The Pupil Council went around the school taking pictures of the disgusting toilets. The toilets need to be painted and get some heating and new mirrors. They also need bigger toilet cubicals. The toilet rooms are not very clean, the walls are chipped and the windows are cracked and it’s not a nice place. The boy’s toilets don’t smell nice and the floors are always wet. They only have one cubical and they should have at least two of them. The girl’s toilets are far too small and there is a big hole in the wall. The little ones toilet cubicals are so small they need to be bigger because some people can see right over them. The size is okay for the little P1 and 2’s.We came up with the idea of having two big toilets in each side of the school.

Yours sincerely

Innerwick Primary Pupil Council

The meeting with Liz is very productive and we view the school room by room. We get involved in a conversation about projected rolls for the school and I am brutally honest. We currently have 44 pupils; we have 4 leaving in the summer and possibly 4 others moving out of the area. We have 1 pupil enrolled next year. We could be looking at a roll of 37 pupils. The following year we have 8 leaving and 2 possibly enrolling. This could leave us at about 30 pupils. The signs are not good. Housing development work in the catchment area has resulted in no new pupils. The village has an aging population and the majority of children in the village are now in Dunbar Grammar. Currently we have 3 classes, this would not be the case with rolls as low as this. The building improvements that we are facing could possibly be very expensive.

With future pressures on Local Authorities to provide “Best Value” and Audit Scotland breathing down the neck of Authorities that have retained small schools I am forced to admit that the future could be quite bleak. I arrange to speak with Ian Fullerton, maybe he will give me more hope.

After Break I am in class working on Internet Safety with the class. This time it works, well kind of. We need to be upgrades from and ISDN line soon. After school I focus my work with pupils that have produced a murder movie. We edit it down to 1 and a half minutes and show the premier to the rest of the club. We then burn copies on Cd for the Stars and Production Crew .

Wednesday

Peter Peacock has been at it again today. He has stated:

"Improving school performance is the key role of local authorities in education, and the leadership of schools is the key to improved education, the school inspectors find that around 15% of our school leaders are regarded to be weak. That has profound implications for how teachers are managed and how schools are run."

He goes on: "I have made it clear to directors of education that I want to be hearing from inspectors that the number of weak head teachers is declining because directors have taken action to sort the problem long before the inspectors arrive to inspect schools."

This percentage equates to over 300 primary schools!!

I have heard many stories of Headteachers getting moved sideways out of school to posts within an Authority or been given enhanced early retirement, this was viewed by others as reward for being a poor leader. I also know of local authorities that take little action on poor leadership despite poor inspection reports. It is easy to criticise but I want to see Peter coming out and talk about and praise the 85% of Headteachers who are not poor. I believe that we need to be thinking about how we train New Headteachers and how we continue to develop all the leaders in our schools. The current system is too fragmented, possibly even elitist. I would love Mr Peacock to come up with a package that ensures all Headteachers have more access to better training and development.

I spend the morning at John Muir House at the Authority Moderation Pane. There is a fire alarm and we are sent outside for 10 minutes, lovely. The meeting has its usual ups and downs. We agree some decisions easily and others we reject due to a variety of reasons. It is never easy to allocate resources and sometimes leave these meetings with a very sour taste in my mouth. After the meeting I catch up with Morna MacDonald who is now seconded as Pupil Support Co-ordinator in JMH. We discuss the IEP of a pupil and another potential IEP for another pupil.

In the Afternoon I prepare for Ruth Munro who is here tomorrow. I listen in to the rehearsals in the hall.

On the way home I visit the doctor. I will not go into detail but it was a painful visit.

Thursday

Last night Euan was not well and we were up for 2 hours through the night. I sleep in and arrive at school at 9 o’clock.

Ruth arrives at 9:30 and Alison arrives shortly after. Alison is the new E.O to replace Gordon Brown, (If Gordon can ever be replaced!!) We have a very good meeting and we tour the school. I think Ruth saw the huge improvement in the school witnessed the enthusiasm of the staff. I must be doing something right.

After Ruth departs I catch up with Marie Prior who is going to work with the school council on conflict resolution, this ties up with the work Katie Forsyth will be doing on playground games in the New Year. I then spend time with Marie talking about a lottery bid I am making and she has agreed to help me with. I give her the papers to go through and arrange a meeting for January when I hope the bid will be submitted.

Friday

I am in Primary1/2 tomorrow and looking forward to it. I spent 3 years in infants when I first graduated and really loved it.

The pupils will then have an assembly with Anne Lithgow and we will then have another rehearsal of our play.