Response 362250701

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Page One

1. What are the strengths of the current governance arrangements of Scottish education?

Commonality re approach to inclusion
Commonality re approach to corporate parenting
Commonality re admissions
in my own authority support and challenge from the centre that is focused on narrowing the gap and raising attainment
Vision and support with infrastructure- reduces postcode lottery
Minimises postcode lottery

2. What are the barriers within the current governance arrangements to achieving the vision of excellence and equity for all?

Some authorities stretched and funding across Scotland seems inequitable- some authorities hardly hit while others hit hard

We are shaping and delivering our vision for all under current arrangements- be careful what you wish for = some innovations waste money - free schools and academy schools and may be shiny politically but do not have an evidence base- everyone knows now that the stakes are raised and all council employees are working their hardest to deliver

3. Should the key principles below underpin our approach to reform?

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Yes
No
Are there other principles which should be applied?
commit to an inclusive society and inclusive communities-truly excellence for all -equity and inclusion and excellence are complimentary and not competing

4. What changes to governance arrangements are required to support decisions about children’s learning and school life being taken at school level?

Some limited devolving of funding, for instance around evidence based interventions- be careful though , that this is not an enormous waste of money- example is, school pays learning unlimited £1000s of pound to do an inset because their stuff looks good, and its a one off and has no impact whatsoever.

E.g. funding for resources around classroom assistants could be devolved to school clusters to deploy how on local basis.
Traded services is not the answer hoever.

5. What services and support should be delivered by schools? What responsibilities should be devolved to teachers and head teachers to enable this? You may wish to provide examples of decisions currently taken by teachers or headteachers and decisions which cannot currently be made at school level.

More family learning programmes
Inclusion and admission decisions should be done at arms length from schools, otherwise you would create two tiered schools.

Schools that would in demand would select and schools that are not would take pupils left.

6. How can children, parents, communities, employers, colleges, universities and others play a stronger role in school life? What actions should be taken to support this?

Stronger community interface- this is strengthening via the role of the Ed Authority.

7. How can the governance arrangements support more community-led early learning and childcare provision particularly in remote and rural areas?

Not sure but again council run early childcare, is on the whole regarded as better than private providers. and has far more capacity to meet the needs of a range of children.

8. How can effective collaboration amongst teachers and practitioners be further encouraged and incentivised?

Via professional update, families of schools, twitter, the attainment agenda is already encouraging this and there is more on than ever- pedagoo events etc.

9. What services and support functions could be provided more effectively through clusters of schools working together with partners?

Associated support services such as education psychology , social work, attendance support. Many clusters work effectively already.

10. What services or functions are best delivered at a regional level? This may include functions or services currently delivered at a local or a national level.

Look at the example of clacks and stirling -not a great success.

It would great to centralise funding for LAC children so councils are not paying each other and charging each other .

11. What factors should be considered when establishing new educational regions?

How feasible this is- whether there is benefit - this would slow progress massively in terms of the government agenda.

12. What services or support functions should be delivered at a national level?

Education Scotland role needs a rethink.

13. How should governance support teacher education and professional learning in order to build the professional capacity we need?

Ensure teacher numbers adequate.

14. Should the funding formula for schools be guided by the principles that it should support excellence and equity, be fair, simple, transparent, predictable and deliver value for money? Should other principles be used to inform the design of the formula?

no one can argue with that, but it is not as straightfowward as that.

Deprivation clearly should be factored into this heavily.

15. What further controls over funding should be devolved to school level?

Target it towards evidence based interventions that are child focused.

16. How could the accountability arrangements for education be improved?

Get stability in terms of education Scotland.

17. Is there anything else you would like to add regarding the governance of education in Scotland?

Councils should be judged on their performance- if they the performance is effective they have clearly done many things well and this should inform judgements about their future. We need to avoid public money ending up in private hands with little impact made. Effective schools for all that look are community schools must be part of this vision.