CPD Opportunities

Well that’s the end of the first week back for the pupils. It has really flown in and everything seems to be going smoothly with everybody in the department getting back into the swing of things.

I have a few CPD opportunities coming up and I have asked for permission for to be out of school on those days. Unfortunately they all seem to occur in the next 2 or 3 months but there’s not much I can do about it as CPD opportunities for support staff are so thin on the ground I really have to try and make the most of them when they occur.

In East Lothian, I have, in the recent past come across managers who are convinced that support staff are not entitled to CPD when of course all staff members of ELC are entitled to advance themselves professionally. It seems though in education that CPD for support staff is not as high a priority as other parts of the council.

I have been working with agencies such as the Scottish Technicians Advisory Group and the Scottish Schools Equipment Research Centre to remedy the lack of provision for Science support staff in East Lothian and to try and get it to the levels found in other local authorities. It’s a slow process but footsteps are being made in the right direction and I hope that in the near future East Lothian will be fully involved in the project by the Scottish Executive to provide relevant CPD and related activities for school science support staff.