School Leadership - A Scottish Perspective

I am just in the middle of four parent consultation evenings, two at each of the schools I lead. Having completed the first two, I have been thinking about what it is these regular events bring to the school, and the learning of the pupils? Firstly, of course, the parent evening is the opportunity to inform parents or guardians of the progress in learning of the pupils. This is a key responsibility placed on all teachers and all schools. I have always contended that, if schools have good open channels of communication with parents, there should be no surprises for parents when they attend these evenings. Any issues, successes and achievements should have already been shared by teachers. This should be an opportunity to explore the direction of travel and how the teacher, parents and pupils can work together to help the learners achieve all they can. Timings are important. We moved ours to November as we, and our parents, believe this was the best time to review and share progress of ...

In my last post I wrote about some of the key steps to consider when undertaking enquiry approaches to individual and school development. In this, I wish to share the benefits of such approaches as identified by ourselves and others. We have been using this approach for over four years now, and the reason we are so committed to the continuation of this is because of the benefits brought to our learners, each teacher and the schools in which we work. We also think there are benefits for the system of education and other schools and I touch on some of these at the end of this piece. Attainment and achievement has risen for all our pupils. They have greater understanding of their learning and this is deeper than we were previously able to evidence. Pupils are more informed and engaged in their learning and have clearer insights into their strengths and development needs. They are more able to articulate where they are in their learning and where they are heading next. They are becoming ...

For over four years now the schools I lead have been using practitioner enquiry as a vehicle for individual and school development. In that time we have transformed our attitude and practices in regard to professional development and whole school development. We are about to embark on our fifth year of enquiries into practice and we will shortly be sharing our plans with colleagues from another school as they begin their own journey with practitioner enquiry. This engagement, as well as the fact that we have new staff of our own, has led me to consider and identify the steps we have been taking in our previous enquiries. I think it is important that teachers are clear on the process of carrying out an investigation, and so I have identified the key stages that need to be followed.  It is these that I am sharing with you in this post. They come with huge health warnings. The first is that enquiring into practice should not be seen as a linear process, even though I am giving you...