Empowering Schools: A consultation on the provisions of the Education (Scotland) Bill

In my experience it is difficult to find time to focus on the curriculum and on learning and teaching as my role is very management heavy.

I spend huge amounts of time dealing with building management issues, child protection issues (that were previously picked up by social work), increases in violence and aggression from pupils towards staff, covering classes or trying to source supply when staff are absent, recruitment and retention issues, etc...

Providing adequate support from the relevant services would enable headteachers to get on with the job of supporting and developing learning and teaching. E.g. adequate admin hours, adequate FM/Janitorial hours, adequate support from staffing and business support, online systems that are easy to use and work properly, etc...

We need to find ways of getting parents and the wider community to engage more with the school.

Funding to release teaching staff to plan and run parental workshops could help.

Support with getting more parents to join the parent council to ensure that a range of groups are represented.

Funding to release staff from ASG schools to support collaboration and to set up shared drives, etc.

Local context must be taken into account as generic charters that are one size fits all are not successful.

All of our stakeholders currently have a lot of input in our plan, expecially school staff. I would hope that any new approach would enable this to continue and would not be overly prescriptive.

Advantages:
We would be able to select staff that we have interviewed and we best belive fit within our school context.

We would have more say in how we organise the staff in our school. More flexibility.

Disadvantage:
The recruitment process is long, time consuming and drawn out. Unless it is streamlined, this process could take headteachers away from the business of leading and managing learning and teaching.

Advantages:
We know our school context inside and out! We have a good understanding of what types of staff would fit in well with our families, pupils and with current staff.

We would be able to ensure that our staff have a wide variety of skills and attributes to bring to share - this enriches the team and enables us to learn from one another (particularly if there is a professional review process in place that is being used effectively).

We would have a degree of choice in who works with our young people as compulsory transfer does not work in all instances.

It may reduce staff turnover as staff would not have been placed in any school but would have chosen to apply for that particular post in that specific school.

Disadvantages:
The recruitment process is time consuming and drawn out. THe more involvement heads have, the more time will be taken up (particularly in schools with a high staff turnover).

I liked the way that the PEF funding was organised and think we could do the very same with all school funding.

For PEF - we were asked to provide a break down of what we intended spending the money on, which sat alongside identified targets/groups. If the improvement plan is sufficiently detailed, heads should be able to say what their priorities are and should be able to budget accordingly.

As above - the PEF plan was linked to the school improvement plan and clearly stated what the priorities were and what interventions the money would be spent on (including costings).

I would not mind parents and stakeholders seeing how much things cost. In fact it might do them good as they would be able to clearly see how decisions are made.

All of this would work well if partners are more heavily involved in school improvement planning and decisions relating to priorities.

There is actually a lot of really good professional learning out there but HTs struggle to access it due to issues with staffing and other duties. If duties that are not really the role of HTs are removed then I feel HT would be free to take part in professional learning events.

Support in financial planning, to ensure full understanding, would be useful.

Many staff have observed that over the last 5 years, parents are less and less involved with the education of their children and whatsmore, appear to have an expectation that teachers and other school staff will do most of this work.

Whilst we have a keen interest in developing the whole child, it would not be possible in the 6 hours we see children for each day to teach them all of the skills and knowledge reqiored for them to be well rounded, competent citizens.

Without the partnership between parents and staff, our jobs just becomes overwhelming but because we are all so committed, we try and try to do more - but this in turn has led to an decrease in staff well-being.

I think each role should be clearly defined. As a parent you have a responsibility to....
The staff at school will support you in this by...

I think there is too much emphasis on teaching staff and not enough on parents.

Early intervention is key. If we don't get it right from the beginning we are setting ourselves and the children up to fail (or to have a bigger battle, which could have otherwise been reduced). We need a consistent 3-18 approach and this must be a holistic one.

Pupil voice is crucial. Without their voice and views, we cannot possibly work towards the goal of getting it right for every child.Adding it to the HT charter would raise the profile and would make children feel empowered. The more say they have in their learning (all aspects of) the more they will engage and participate, leading to improved outcomes for all.

Keeping it general would provide schools with the flexibility to ensure taht pupil groups and learning conversations are set in such a way that matches their own context. I think this flexibility is important in ensuring this is a sucess.

I would always encourage councils to collaborate with each other but do not think this can be forced.

In the Highlands, the context between one authority and another can be extremely diverse and so collaboration may be a fruitless task.

I think councils need flexibility to make their own alliances and ones that work best for them.

For example: we are part of the Northern Alliance and the opportunities to share best practice between our schools and council is very beneficial. I think if folk see it working they will be more likely to do it.

The best thing you can do is support the facilitation of such alliances.

Schools publish their plans and so why wouldn't we publish regional plans. Transparency is crucial.

Change takes time. Providing that plans have clear timescales attached to them, I don't think there is a need to be so specific.

People need time to plan change, implement it, review it, tweak it, try it again and then embed it.

This process can take weeks, months or years and on order for it to be successful it should be given what is deemed appropriate.

Forcing the speed of change leads to stress and anxiety and makes people ill.

Change takes time. Providing that plans have clear timescales attached to them, I don't think there is a need to be so specific.

People need time to plan change, implement it, review it, tweak it, try it again and then embed it.

This process can take weeks, months or years and on order for it to be successful it should be given what is deemed appropriate.

Forcing the speed of change leads to stress and anxiety and makes people ill.

There is an acknowledgement that: education needs to be focused on
and responsive to the needs of individual children and groups of children.

Steps have been taken by the GTC to ensure that teachers are fit to teach and continue to reman so.

Professional review is noted to be paramount and it should be stated that it must take place annually and be a quality discussion.

Teaching staff would benefit from supervision session, like the ones that social workers and health professionals have.

The role of the teacher has changed dramatically over the years and until the balance is redressed, teachers would benefit from regular time to offload. We are all trained in coaching, reflecting and mentoring in HIghland but struggle to find the time to use these vital skills.

Headteachers would particularly benefit from supervision sessions.

Teaching staff will be eternally grateful to you for re-establishing a sense of respect for their professionalism. This has long been forgotten about.

The functions, as set out, appear to be appropriate.

All of them. The whole school is involved in educating a child, from the cleaners to the cooks to the janitors to the crossing patroller. All should be recognised for the part they play and for their professionalism in carrying out their bot of the jigsaw.

Fees must be seen to be fair and proportionate, particularly in light of the lack of pay increases for staff in this sector.

That is a huge question:

In simple terms I think you can only start from what it is we want and expect from the workforce and then have clear information relating to how we ensure that we have what we need and we are maintaining these standards.

A diverse group of people who have had various roles within care and learning would be best suited to this. In my experience we often have people at the top making decisions about education and educators who have never stepped foot inside a classroom. This has to change.

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