Posted by admin on August 18, 2016 ·
by Kenneth Muir, Chief Executive, General Teaching Council for Scotland. Continuing our guest blog series featuring Informed Scotland subscribers writing on the theme Making connections across the learning & skills landscape.
STV’s Scotland Tonight programme recently asked the question ‘What makes a good teacher?’ The programme reminded me of a visit I made a few years ago to several schools in Ontario, Canada, which is often held up as one of the best performing education systems in the world. Two things struck me at the time…
First, the extent to which all Ontario teachers were able to share the province’s relentless focus on three, easily understood priorities – improving levels of literacy, improving levels of numeracy and, perhaps surprisingly, building and enhancing the confidence of the public in the education system. It really didn’t matter with whom I spoke – school principals, senior managers, class and support teachers, even parents; all could articulate clearly what they and the education system were striving to deliver.
This focus on three priorities isn’t a million miles away from the focus in Scotland being given to literacy, numeracy and health and wellbeing in addressing the Scottish Attainment Challenge, but perhaps what is missing is the clarity given in Ontario and suggested by the new Cabinet Secretary John Swinney as being key to supporting teachers in their work and simplifying the landscape.
The third priority has particular impact – to what extent is Scotland seriously addressing the issue of talking up the teaching profession in a way that gives users of our education system, and the wider public, confidence and which attracts students to become teachers and those wishing to change career to enter the profession?
There is much that is positive about Scottish education and the public should have real confidence in the sheer hard work and dedication that Scottish teachers put into their work, day in, day out. In my view, there can be no greater responsibility and no more invigorating a career than helping give future generations of young people the skills and confidence to add real value to Scottish society. Yet, how many teachers sell their profession to the captive audience of students in their classrooms?
There are hundreds of young people leaving school each year for whom a career in teaching would be an attractive, fulfilling option. Is it time for the main organisations in Scottish education – GTCS, Education Scotland, the trade unions, SQA – led by Scottish Government to launch a public campaign to raise awareness of the commitment, and range and quality of work carried out day to day by the vast majority of teachers across the country?
Teachers I talk to find it particularly infuriating when they work hard to deliver high quality learning and teaching and all they, and their students and families, hear about are negative views being presented over and over.
This is not just a media issue. It is incumbent upon everyone in Scottish education to talk up the high quality work that is done and, despite the problems that do exist and must be addressed, such as workload and bureaucracy, use that positivity as a lever to encourage greater understanding of what being a teacher involves and encourage more people to become teachers.
In short, it’s time to take a lesson from our cousins in Canada; it’s time to talk up teaching.
For further information contact Martin Osler, Director of Communications, Digital Development and HR [email protected]
Website: www.gtcs.org.uk YouTube: GTC Scotland Twitter: @gtcs
Read previous guest blogs in the series, including those from SCEL, Clyde Gateway, EDT Scotland, SCQF Partnership and UCAS.
Posted by admin on July 5, 2016 ·
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The Scottish Government’s new Delivery Plan for education was this month’s big item. It’s likely to remain the focus of attention for the schools sector for the foreseeable future, with proposals such as national standardised assessment and changes to local authority governance creating a stir. Unlike most documents of its type, there is very little in the way of ‘padding’ – it’s worth reading all 26 pages. However, we’ve provided our subscribers with edited extracts of the main items for ease of reference.
There are plenty of other reports to keep you occupied over the summer. Statistics include annual school and university leaver destinations, Modern Apprenticeships figures from SDS, and a new interactive data explorer from UCAS to analyse their new equality stats for individual universities.
Reports to highlight include IPPR Scotland’s Jobs and skills in Scotland, House of Commons Science & Technology Committee’s Digital skills crisis and City & Guilds Group’s Skills Confidence 2016.
It’s also been another busy month for teacher development and leadership including Scottish College for Educational Leadership’s new Training for Excellence for headteachers and Paul Hamlyn Foundation’s new Teacher Development Fund for the arts.
As it says in our blurb, Informed Scotland sets out to ‘provide intelligent summaries without political or sectoral bias’ – the June issue is no different. However, it’s hard to ignore the outcome of the EU Referendum when this month, as usual, there are numerous items involving various forms of collaboration with the EU and other EU nations. It is to be hoped that this kind of activity, and the synergistic impact and benefits it achieves, will continue whatever the future holds.
On a lighter note, a quick observation of the growing use of the word ‘literacy’. Apart from the obvious, other uses we’ve covered recently include financial, digital and emotional literacy. Add ‘ocean literacy’ to the list! To find out more, take a look at the EU funded Atlas project led by Heriot-Watt University Centre for Marine Biodiversity & Biotechnology.
Become an Informed Scotland subscriber so you can keep on top of all the developments. Email [email protected] to request a sample copy.
Posted by admin on June 10, 2016 ·
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The best word to describe the latest issue of Informed Scotland is ‘intense’. Almost every page features an important or significant report or announcement. The increased intensity of focus on learning and skills last month was palpable, mainly – but not entirely – due to the new Scottish Government placing education at the heart of its plans.
So many reports are worth highlighting – here’s just a few to whet your appetite:
A cluster of reports focus on reducing workload associated with school assessment and National Qualifications, including the first recommendations from the Scottish Government’s Working Group, updated guidance on progression from Education Scotland, and detailed evaluations and actions from the SQA.
Then there’s the latest Scottish survey of numeracy in schools; a review of widening access to higher education in Scotland from the Sutton Trust; a report on developing teacher leadership from SCEL, a UK inquiry into financial education in schools, and a Citizens Advice Scotland study of Bridging the Digital Divide.
A UK white paper on higher education has numerous implications for Scotland, and there are two reports on university–business engagement from NCUB, including The Step Change, their Growing Value Scotland Task Force final report.
And take a close look at a HEPI report on underachievement of young men in higher education – in its foreword, UCAS Chief Executive Mary Curnock Cook states, ‘On current trends, the gap between rich and poor will be eclipsed by the gap between males and females within a decade’. An important warning not to take our eye off that particular ball.
On a lighter note, we think we’ve found the number one contender for oddest new course title of the year from SAMS UHI: ‘My Seaweed Looks Weird’… unless you know better?
This edition marks four years since the first issue of Informed Scotland in May 2012 – when youth unemployment was 23.1%, we had Standard Grades and 37 colleges, and digital wasn’t a hot topic…
Want to keep on top of all the developments? Become an Informed Scotland subscriber. Email [email protected] to request a sample copy.
Posted by admin on May 11, 2016 ·
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With political lockdown in place for the Scottish Parliament elections, April was the quietest month for a while. That said, there was no shortage of interesting developments.
Reports worth highlighting include the UK Commission for Employment & Skills’ Working Futures on labour market projections; the Institution of Mechanical Engineers’ Big Ideas on the future of engineering in schools; the Scottish Negotiating Committee for Teachers’ progress report on its review of supply teachers; and Carnegie UK’s InterAction, encouraging more and better collaboration between universities and third sector organisations.
Once again Developing the Young Workforce (DYW) was a ‘hot topic’. It was therefore interesting to discover, through conversation with a subscriber from business, that not everyone associates DYW with delivering the Wood Commission recommendations. It’s a useful reminder of the impact of names and brands on communicating messages, and of the need to take people with you when changes are made. We make no apologies therefore for a bit more name dropping from time to time!
Our subscribers are always encouraged to look beyond their natural ‘go to’ places for items – it’s not always obvious under which heading some articles should appear, especially as collaboration between sectors continues to grow. And some threads, such as digital skills, weave their way throughout the learning & skills landscape.
We also look ahead to a learning-packed week with National Digital Learning Week, Learning at Work Week and Learning Disability Week all taking place from 16th May.
Finally, congratulations to the Scottish College for Educational Leadership for selling out their inaugural conference taking place this week! Find out more about their work via the latest Informed Scotland guest blog Developing teacher leadership with SCEL – co-creating the future. All past blogs can be found here.
Want to keep on top of all the developments? Become an Informed Scotland subscriber. Email [email protected] to request a sample copy.
Posted by admin on April 25, 2016 ·
Image is © Andrew Mackie
The Scottish Parliament 2016 election will have taken place by the time we publish the April edition of Informed Scotland – too late to provide subscribers with our usual pre-election selection of relevant links.
We’ve therefore published a very brief ‘Election Extra’. It contains links to some of the manifestos and resources focusing on or highlighting learning and skills issues.
Resources include video from the GTCS Teaching Scotland and EIS Scottish Educational Journal education hustings, Education Scotland’s You decide website, and Moray House School of Education’s Election Briefings.
Manifestos include those from FSB Scotland and ScotlandIS, University & College Union Scotland and YouthLink Scotland.
Not a subscriber? Contact [email protected] for a free copy.
Become an Informed Scotland subscriber to keep on top of all the developments. Email [email protected] to request a sample copy.
Posted by admin on April 18, 2016 ·
by Fearghal Kelly, Development Officer, Scottish College for Educational Leadership. Continuing our guest blog series featuring Informed Scotland subscribers writing on the theme Making connections across the learning & skills landscape.
What actually is teacher leadership and how do we develop it? That’s the question that the Scottish College for Educational Leadership (SCEL) asked me to explore with stakeholders in Scottish education between November 2015 and March 2016.
In the planning stages I initially made the mistake of thinking that this meant I would need to begin by reading up as much as I could on ‘teacher leadership’. However, it quickly became apparent that if I was to go out and find out what others thought teacher leadership was, I needed instead to be exploring ways to carry out an engagement.
It was at this point that SCEL pointed me in the direction of U.Lab and Theory U. Theory U arose from MIT and is a way of leading change ‘by co-sensing and co-creating the emerging future’. U.Lab is a free online course led by MIT, to support practitioners from a wide range of disciplines to use Theory U to lead change.
Although I came to the U.Lab course late, it was clear that this could be of use for our engagement. I therefore set about creating workshops, discussion questions and an online approach for engaging on teacher leadership based on Theory U. You can see this approach here.
The engagement involved over 1,000 stakeholders and saw me cover over 5,000 miles across Scotland, and many of the outcomes and themes arising can be viewed on scelengage.com.
What was fascinating was that, despite some variations across the country, there were so many common themes. There was a widespread agreement that SCEL’s concept of what teacher leadership involves is broadly the right one, which is reassuring. There were also a number of common messages around what needs to be done to further develop teacher leadership, which will be useful for SCEL and others going forward.
SCEL has already launched its inaugural conference with a focus on teacher leadership, taking place on 12 May 2016, when many of the themes arising will be explored further.
What was clear to me throughout the engagement process was that basing it on Theory U had enhanced the sessions and the outcomes. It resulted in sessions which were participative and provided a professional learning experience for those involved, whilst also resulting in rich outcomes as opposed to a ‘to do list’ for SCEL.
We’re lucky to have a thriving U.Lab community in Scotland and I’m currently in the process of sharing my learning with them. If you think that Theory U could be useful in your work feel free to contact me or check out the U.Lab Scotland website.
For further information contact Fearghal Kelly [email protected]
Website: www.scelscotland.org.uk LinkedIn: SCEL Twitter: @TeamSCEL
Read previous guest blogs in the series, including those from Clyde Gateway, EDT Scotland, SCQF Partnership and UCAS.
Posted by admin on April 11, 2016 ·
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It was another particularly busy month with the rush to publish or make announcements before ‘purdah’ began ahead of the Scottish Parliament Elections.
The main publication was the Commission on Widening Access final report, A Blueprint for Fairness. All 34 of its recommendations are included in an annex as a handy reference for our subscribers.
Other items of note include an evaluation of the implementation of the ‘Donaldson report’ on teacher education and development, and an interim report from the Making Maths Count Profile Raising Group.
Plus the launch of Education Scotland’s National Improvement Hub, SQA’s Digital Literacy Learner Guides, and plans for a new Professional Baccalaureate.
There are numerous funding announcements, statistics, new courses and qualifications.
As usual we’ve found some innovative items to highlight, including a new Kiltmakers Academy, a Masters in Comics & Graphic Novels at University of Dundee, a RookieOven start-up academy for 16–19 year-olds, and a dance company in residence at Moray House School of Education.
With the Election looming, we’ll be publishing a very short (unbiased!) Informed Scotland supplement later this month with links to manifestos and resources relevant to learning & skills.
Thanks to Joan Mackay from Education Scotland who last month told us, ‘I approach the arrival and reading of Informed Scotland in much the same way as my 11 year old looks for his Beano’!
Become an Informed Scotland subscriber to keep on top of all the developments. Email [email protected] to request a sample copy.
Posted by admin on March 10, 2016 ·
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During any pre- ‘pre-election’ period there’s always a rush for those in power to make announcements before business goes into temporary stasis. With the Scottish Parliament Elections approaching in May, learning & skills activity has been ramping up for a while; there was no let-up in February.
The Education (Scotland) Bill was passed, and the Scottish Parliament’s Committees were busy publishing reports on Race, Ethnicity & Employment, Work, Wages & Wellbeing, and Post-Study Work Visas.
Scottish Apprenticeship Week took place earlier than usual, presumably to avoid the elections. As well as the latest Modern Apprentice statistics from Skills Development Scotland, there were surveys by Scottish Gas and Prudential, a summary of the role of colleges from Colleges Scotland, and a new APlayer video channel from Apprenticeships in Scotland.
Then there were action plans from Scottish Enterprise on Manufacturing and the Scottish Funding Council on Gender. Plus UCAS’s annual statistics and lots of new courses, centres of excellence, toolkits and partnerships…
Reports worth delving into this month include FSB’s School Ties on business engagement with schools, Nesta & Tech City’s Tech Nation 2016, Eurydice’s review of Entrepreneurship Education in Europe, and NCUB’s Changing State of Knowledge Exchange.
Favourite tweet from a subscriber: @tonyfinnA ‘Well done. Issue 37 is a mine of information.’
Become an Informed Scotland subscriber to keep on top of all the developments. Email [email protected] to request a sample copy.
Posted by admin on February 10, 2016 ·
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Once again there was no festive respite… In fact the opposite was true, with education high on the political agenda it seems everyone in Scotland’s talking about learning and skills. It’s been a mammoth task to make sense of all the activity – Informed Scotland 37 is the biggest issue yet!
A number of major reports were published, in particular the Scottish Government’s National Improvement Framework for Scottish Education.
Then there was the OECD’s Improving schools in Scotland review, the extensive UKCES Employer Skills Survey and the first Developing the Young Workforce annual report.
There were also interesting reports from SCDI (with Royal Society of Edinburgh, ScotlandIS and BT) on Digital solutions to the productivity puzzle and Universities UK on the Supply and demand for higher level skills to mention a couple.
Skills shortages and gaps were highlighted again, with construction, forestry, hospitality, engineering and digital sectors raising particular concerns.
There was a plethora of statistical releases plus new resources, new courses, new centres of expertise and new projects. And look out for UCAS’s new Career Finder and an updated My World of Work from SDS.
As 2016 is Scotland’s Year of Innovation, Architecture & Design, some favourite innovations in this edition are Cumnock Academy and Ayrshire College’s Me2U work experience project, Lingo Flamingo language workshops to tackle dementia, and University of Edinburgh medical students’ You Can Be A Doctor website.
Our third annual Learning & Skills Hottest Topics list is included for a bit of light relief. See how many on the 2015 list you can predict before sneaking a look… There’s also a round-up of another busy year for Informed Scotland.
Become an Informed Scotland subscriber to keep on top of all the developments. Email [email protected] to request a sample copy.
Posted by admin on January 7, 2016 ·
Image is © Andrew Mackie
Here’s our annual list of Learning & Skills ‘Hot Topics’ that made it onto the cover of Informed Scotland over the past year:
1. Developing the Young Workforce (a related topic was 5 in 2014, see below)
2. Digital skills (3)
2. Enterprise & entrepreneurship (-)
4. Partnerships & agreements (2)
4. Raising attainment (6)
4. Science, technology, engineering & maths (STEM) (10)
4. Skills shortages & gaps (4)
8. Widening access (6)
9. Apprenticeships (1)
9. Construction sector skills (-)
9. Gender balance, bias & gaps (7)
9. Knowledge exchange (8)
9. Leadership (-)
9. National Qualifications (-)
The list was produced by fairly unscientific methodology – the position of some items will no doubt prompt debate – but we think it captures most of the main issues last year.
It’s no real surprise to see the Scottish Government’s Developing the Young Workforce (DYW) strategy at the top, featuring on seven of the ten covers in 2015. Although DYW wasn’t on the list in 2014, ‘Work experience, internships & work-related learning’ was 5th and ‘Youth employment & employability’ was 5th in 2013.
‘Digital skills’ has appeared at or near the top for the third year running and we expect it to remain one of the hottest issues in 2016. ‘Leadership’ sneaked onto the list, as predicted. Probably the biggest surprise is that this is the first year ‘Enterprise & entrepreneurship’ has made the list.
Missing from this year’s list is ‘Innovation’ (9th last year), however we have a feeling it will be back next time as 2016 is the Scottish Government’s Year of Innovation, Architecture and Design. Expected to climb up the list are ‘Widening access’, with the Commission due to publish its final report this year, and ‘Raising attainment’ as the Scottish Attainment Challenge is embedded and debate continues on the newly published National Improvement Framework.
What are your predictions for 2016? Let us know what you think – tweet us @InformedScot or comment on the Informed Scotland page on LinkedIn.
Make it your New Year’s resolution to be better informed about what’s happening across learning & skills in business, schools, further & higher education, community & adult learning, and government & wider society. Contact [email protected] to receive a recent sample copy and find out how to subscribe here.
