News Bulletin January 2005
Happy New Year to all staff. We hope you had a relaxing break. Schools are pretty hectic places in the run up to Christmas! The work, above and beyond the call of duty, entailed in seasonal activities, is much appreciated. Staff News Mr. Derek Curran has been appointed to the post of Rector of the Nicolson Institute and will be taking up post in March. We welcome Helen McAfferty (Itinerant Science covering Shawbost and Lionel while Hamish Budge is on secondment) and Diane Potter (taking up her post as DHT Primary in Sir E Scott). Stephanie Sergeant has been appointed to the post of English / History in Back School and Iain Macritchie is going to Leverhulme Memorial School. Our best wishes go to Alison McLaren who is retiring at the end of January from Bayble School. Congratulations to Morag Maclean, Airidhantuim School, who had a baby girl. Congratulations also to Mandy Murray ( organises primary supply in Lewis/Harris) who got married to Andy Macdonald, Health and Safety Manager for the council. Celebrating Success The Nicolson Institute football teams, both boys and girls, have been enjoying considerable success in national competitions over the last two or three years. This culminated in the senior boys’ team winning through to the final of the Scottish School Boys competition which was played at Hamden Park in June 2004. In recognition of their successes with all their football teams they have been named “The Scottish School of the Year for 2004” by the Scottish Schools’ Football Association. The award was presented by Alastair Borthwick on the 20thof December. Well done to all the footballers and their coaches! Thanks are also due to staff who accompany teams on trips and to those who cover for them in their absence. The Nicolson Institute were also the winners of the National Gaelic Debate for 2004. The final took place in the new Scottish Parliament building. Congratulations Mairi Alice Bartlett and to Trudi MacIver and to who were the winning team. Mairi Alice was also awarded the shield for the best speaker in the series. The team from Sir E Scott School also did very well in this competition. They won through to the semi-final. Our gratitude to our own staff: William Macdonald, Donald Ferguson and Chris Ina Macleod for their tireless efforts in ensuring the efficient organisation and smooth running of all matters relating to the debate. Our staff have also been experiencing success. We would like to congratulate Catriona Macdonald, classroom assistant in Bayble School, who graduated with HNC in Childcare and Education from Lews Castle College this year. Anne Macpherson, Ann Marie Collier, Sue Macdonald, Lorna Hobson, Diane Smithyman, Chris Anne Mackenzie, Christian Latham and Iain Nicolson, (all learning support teachers) successfully completed the Diploma in Learning Difficulties in December. Well done! Hamish Budge, who is working as a CDO for Science and ICT has given a presentation of the work he is doing at the ISE conference in Edinburgh in October. He was demonstrating how one could make Science more interesting for pupils in S1/S2, supported by stimulating visuals. He is now being asked to give a similar presentation at a conference for Scottish Physics teachers which attracts around 260 delegates from throughout Scotland and as such, is the largest meeting for a discrete Science of its kind in the UK and possibly in Europe! This conference takes place in Stirling on Wednesday 1st June 2005. This is recognition of the fact that the work Hamish is doing in our authority is of the highest standard. We are pleased to note that the work of Ruth Campbell, Itinerant teacher of Home economics is also being recognized nationally. Ruth has been asked to develop classroom materials for S1/2 Technology Education and Enterprise by Learning and Teaching Scotland. Policy Folder Schools will soon be issued with a policy folder and copies of all the recent policies in it. The consultation period for the Citizenship, Bilingual Policy Implementation Review, Enterprise in Education and Consultation and Communication policies has just ended and they will be included in the folder when it goes out.. The policies for ICT and Learning and Teaching are just going onto the website for consultation in January. Please ensure that all staff are aware of these policies. Assisted Self-Evaluation A programme of Assisted Self-Evaluation is in progress in schools which have secondary departments. Three such assisted self-evaluations have been carried out to date. The principles underlying the process and the planned programme of ASEs can be accessed on the website in the Quality Assurance section. Quality Management in Education A review of the deployment and effectiveness of centrally employed staff was carried out as part of the Education Department’s programme of reviews, using the Quality Management in Education framework. As part of this review, schools were invited, last session, to respond to a questionnaire. We are grateful to the 30 schools that responded to the questionnaire. It was gratifying to note that almost all responses indicated that Departmental initiatives and processes are having a positive impact on the work of schools. Full feedback on the views of schools have been sent to all school offices. Staffing and Recruitment Schools which have had vacancies, especially over the past two years, will be aware of the problems the department has been experiencing in recruitment of staff. We are fortunate in having been able to recruit high quality staff to some posts, but vacancies still remain in others. The problem is particularly acute in Expressive Arts, Business Studies, Computing, and in dual qualified staff for S1-2 schools. This has led the Department to examining alternative avenues for recruitment. These are:
In the context of such vacancies, we are very grateful for the excellent contribution of supply staff who assist us. A’Chuisle 3 The third National Conference for Gaelic Medium teachers will be held in Aviemore on the 1st and 2nd June 2005. The focus will be ICT. More information will be available towards the end of this term. Choices For Life 2005 “Choices for Life” has been held since 1999, usually in May at the SECC in Glasgow. It has grown each year with every P7 pupil in West Central Scotland invited to the show. Nearly 27,000 attended in 2003. The event is organized by Strathclyde Police and partner organisations such as The Scottish Executive, Scotland Against Drugs, Local Authorities, Radio Clyde and Marks and Spencer. The event is a multi-media show which is delivered in a slick and attractive format. Northern Constabulary are now committed to this event and in June, we hope that all the P7 pupils in the Western Isles will be able to come together in the new Sports Centre in Stornoway and join the main event by satellite-link but with some live presenters as well. More information will go out to schools in due course. News From Sandwickhill School Pupils from Sandwickhill have been busy and successful over the last weeks and months. Here is a flavour of what has been going on: Finlay Smith, a P1 pupil from our GMU was the overall winner of infant art in the Stornoway Amenity Trust competition. Mischa Macpherson, a P7 pupil from our GMU was the overall winner in the |P4 to P7 section in the Stornoway Amenity Trust competition and Mischa was also the overall winner in the competition organised as part of the promotion of the Christmas Spectacular on Tuesday, 21st December. Holly Maciver, A P7 pupil from our GMU won 2nd place in the North of Scotland Cross Country race held in Inverness. Sandwickhill pupils raised £283 for Children in Need. Mischa Macpherson raised £33 by raffling a teddy for Save the Children. Sandwickhill pupils entertained Senior Citizens to a Christmas Tea Party. Before leaving, each guest was presented with a pot containing bulbs which had been planted earlier in the year. This was run as an Enterprise project. As part of their study of People in Society, pupils studied Racism and produced a Pictorial Record of their findings. School Estates With PPP on the horizon and with a number of proposed projects in the pipeline, we thought that the following report would be of interest to a number of staff. It is good to learn from the experiences of others and I would like to thank Gordon Macdonald, HT at SES for this contribution. SCHOOL ESTATES CONFERENCE PROJECT: CONSTRUCTION OF EXTENSION AT SIR E SCOTT SCHOOL INCLUDING LEISURE CENTRE, COMMUNITY LIBRARY, CLASSROOMS AND OFFICES It is probably worth stating from the outset that no matter how well your project is managed, or how ‘problem free’ it turns out to be, a certain proportion of staff will find the whole experience fairly stressful and may react quite negatively at various times. I base this observation on my experience of three projects at three different schools in three different authorities. However, it is equally true to say that a construction project can be a positive and ‘energising’ experience for staff and pupils alike, providing a focus of interest and the exciting prospect of improved accommodation and facilities. To ensure that these positive dispositions and attitudes can be maintained and developed, careful and sustained attention to effective communication and consultation with stakeholders is necessary. This was the single most important factor contributing to the successful management of a project which was complex and challenging both for the contractor and for the school. I would highlight the following aspects as key to the project’s success:
In these meetings the contractor was able to update school management on progress with the programme and flag up any developments likely to impact on the running of the school e.g. temporary disruption of services. School management was able to raise any concerns which had arisen and alert the contractor to any particular events or activities, which might require special arrangements e.g. a temporary suspension of activities in order to allow an exam to progress under appropriate conditions. We found the contractor responsive and flexible. I like to think that this was due, in part at least, to a flexible and responsive approach by the school. There was a mutual recognition of the constraints under which we were operating and a willingness to work together as a team, avoiding unilateral decisions except where these were unavoidable e.g. in relation to health and safety issues. Notes of the weekly site meetings were circulated to all teaching and non-teaching staff the same day.
There were additional opportunities to communicate with staff through our weekly bulletin. Sometimes this would be used to reinforce important outcomes from the weekly site meeting, but the bulletin was also a useful vehicle for looking a bit further ahead, examining potential problems and seeking to involve staff in the planning / management process. Staff were routinely reminded of the need to draw attention to health and safety issues that had arisen or were anticipated. Parents and pupils also received regular updates on progress through the Parent Newsletter and the Pupil Bulletin, reports which were enhanced considerably by the use of digital pictures. We had decided before the project began that we wanted to maintain a photographic record of the development from start to finish and arranged through the Janitor for pictures to be taken from three different viewpoints on a daily basis. Although this was quite a commitment, the end result was well worth it. Apart from creating a fascinating record of a development of huge local significance, the record provided resource material which could be used in various curricular areas. It has occurred to me since that such a record might have a role to play in the event of a dispute between the contractor and the school/local authority, and certainly could have a practical day-to-day application in drawing attention to health and safety issues or in making a case to the local authority for additional support measures.
In conclusion, I would say that the key individual in all of this was the architect. The SES project was very fortunate to have the services of an architect who was not only committed to the idea of creating quality public buildings but also, and equally, committed to the involvement of stakeholders in the design process. Without that commitment, any project will struggle to produce a quality end-product and ‘value for money’ in the true sense of the phrase. |
There was comprehensive consultation with teaching staff on all aspects of the design of the learning and teaching environment - room configuration, ‘fixed’ and loose furniture, IT, floor coverings etc. - so that a real sense of ownership was engendered.