The pupil voice

A particular highlight today was meeting with a group of ten S6 students at the end of the day. All those involved have just returned from a school trip to South Africa where they were involved in various works of charity. The purpose of the meeting was to give the students the opportunity to share various fundraising ideas with me. I really enjoyed the meeting as it reminded me why I chose teaching as a career. I was really impressed at how passionate they are about raising money for charity and how well they function as a team. I have absolutely no doubt that those I met today will all go on to pursue interesting, varied and successful careers.

James Gillespie's Primary School

This evening I had the opportunity to meet the Parent Council at JGPS. This gave me a chance to introduce myself to parents and to share thoughts on how we are getting on as a school and what we need to do to be even better. Several points were raised for discussion. They included: Improving communication with parents of Primary Children, Update on Rebuild and Decant, my expectations as far as ethos is concerned and School uniform.

I am grateful to Anthea Grierson (Headteacher) for inviting me.

Well done to those responsible for the displays around the school - I thought they were terrific!

Gaelic Medium Education (GME)

As many will know, James Gillespie's caters for pupils wishing to continue from Primary School with Gaelic. This builds on their GME experiences at Tollcross Primary School. On Thursday of this week I attended a conference In Glasgow for Headteachers of schools with GME to share practices and to learn from others who developed further in this field.

The conference began with an excellent presentation from Dr Antonella Sorace, Professor of Developmental Linguistics at Edinburgh University, on the benefits of Bilingualism. It was suggested that bilingual children aren't necessarily more intelligent than their monolingual peers but that they do have an extra gear. One of the questions I asked was whether further benefits accrued for children who spoke more than two languages and whether the existing research evidence shows that bilingual children perform better academically. It was suggested that the research evidence we have, carried out by Dr Wilson MacLeod from the University of Edinburgh, supports the view that being bilingual offers benefits to children in their learning.

Interestingly and coincidentally, I notice that in this week's edition of the Times Educational Supplement, ''Pupils who speak English as an additional language have achieved an academic breakthrough, with new figures showing a higher proportion have gained five 'good' GCSEs than their native English-speaking counterparts for the first time. Experts attribute their success to the drive and aspiration of immigrant families, combined with the educational boost provided by fluency in more than one language.''

These are interesting developments in schools as far as supporting languages are concerned. As someone who grew up in a bilingual environment, where there was a dominant view that suggested exposure to to an additional language may overload and confuse children it is refreshing to see views that prevailed for generations being successfully challenged. I will return to this particular topic in future blogs as I see enormous benefits of building on the diverse cultural and languages base we have at JGHS.

Parents' evenings

On Wednesday evening we hosted a curricular information evening for parents of S2 parents and on Thursday evening we did similarly for parents of pupils in S4 and S5. It was great to see large numbers of parents in attendance.

During my presentation to parents of S2 parents I sought to reassure everyone that our new courses in S3 and S4 are good to go and that staff are well prepared. I find it helpful to be able to draw on experiences gained from when I was a Principal Teacher of Physics in 1988 at the time Standard Grades were being introduced. At that time there were similar concerns from parents, particularly in regard to the structure and form of the examinations.

S2 pupils are requested to returned completed course choice forms on Monday 12 March. As a result of feedback from parents of S4/5 pupils, the return date for forms from those pupils has been changed to Monday 19 March.

On both evenings a number of very interesting questions were raised. In the coming weeks I will reflect further on how we can continue to augment and adapt our curricula to best meet the needs of pupils.

We are grateful to Audrey Brown from Stevenson College for sharing with parents what Edinburgh's colleges are able to offer our students in addition to our in-school provision.

Return from holidays

After a welcome week's holiday, it was back to business as normal on Monday. Pleasingly, staff and pupils returned refreshed and rested after the break. I sometimes wonder how, in years gone by, we managed to go from New Year to Easter with no breaks!

On Tuesday my day began with an hour on correspondence and speaking with a few staff about the continuing implementation of Management Restructuring. Following this, along with Anthea Grierson, HT at our neighbouring Primary School, I attended a meeting at HQ in connection with our planned rebuild. The planning is going well but there will undoubtedly be significant challenges ahead.

Our South African tourists returned safe and well on Tuesday afternoon. They were weary after the travelling and adventures of the last 9 days but all I spoke with were enthusiastic about what they had achieved. I look forward to hearing more about their work in the coming weeks. Some S6 are planning a gap year to return again next year to assist in the continuing work being led by Mr Wallace.

As Tuesday was Shrove Tuesday it was lovely to get home at a reasonable hour and to share freshly made pancakes with our daughters.

Lessons for life

The following instructions for life, attributed to the Dalai Lama, were sent to me earlier this evening by a friend. These 'instructions' will make good reflective topics for assemblies.

1.Take into account that great love and great achievements involve great risk.
2. When you lose, don’t lose the lesson.
3. Follow the three R’s:
- Respect for self,
- Respect for others and
- Responsibility for all your actions.
4. Remember that not getting what you want is sometimes a wonderful stroke of luck.
5. Learn the rules so you know how to break them properly.
6. Don’t let a little dispute injure a great relationship.
7. When you realize you’ve made a mistake, take immediate steps to correct it.
8. Spend some time alone every day.
9. Open your arms to change, but don’t let go of your values.
10. Remember that silence is sometimes the best answer.
11. Live a good, honourable life. Then when you get older and
think back, you’ll be able to enjoy it a second time.
12. A loving atmosphere in your home is the foundation for your life.
13. In disagreements with loved ones, deal only with the current situation. Don’t bring up the past.
14. Share your knowledge. It is a way to achieve immortality.
15. Be gentle with the earth.
16. Once a year, go someplace you’ve never been before.
17. Remember that the best relationship is one in which your love for each other exceeds your need for each other.
18. Judge your success by what you had to give up in order to get it.
19. If you want others to be happy, practise compassion.
20. If you want to be happy, practise compassion.

Holiday

It was great to spend lots of time with the family this week. The weather was mild for this time of year so we took advantage and had nice walks and cycle trips around Edinburgh. To finish the week off we visited my younger sister and her family in Stonehaven. Yesterday we enjoyed a walk out to Dunnottar castle. It was great to get a complete break from work for a few days and to recharge the batteries for going back to school tomorrow.

The skill to learn

I came across a quote this morning which made me think about what we're trying to achieve in schools.

'So the model that says learn while you’re at school, while you’re young, the skills that you will apply during your lifetime is no longer tenable. The skills that you can learn when you’re at school will not be applicable. They will be obsolete by the time you get into the workplace and need them, except for one skill. The one really competitive skill is the skill of being able to learn. It is the skill of being able not to give the right answer to questions about what you were taught in school, but to make the right response to situations that are outside the scope of what you were taught in school. We need to produce people who know how to act when they’re faced with situations for which they were not specifically prepared.' (Papert, 1998)

Reflections on Curriculum for Excellence

One of the many challenges facing Headteachers of all of Scotland’s secondary Schools is in reassuring parents and pupils that the revised S3/4 Curriculum for Excellence (for the current S2) is ready to go and is at least as good as what we currently offer. A few days ago we learned that East Renfrewshire Council has decided to postpone for a further year but all other Councils remain on track with the current S2 entering the next phase of implementation when they start S3 in June of this year.

A friend recently alerted me to this succinctly presented and plain English summary from the BBC on what Curriculum for Excellence is about. I like this version from the BBC but I think that there needs to be more discussion around the assumption that the 3/3 model is superior to the 2/2/2 version. Parents and teachers are, understandably, anxious about what some perceive to be as less time preparing for exams. Exam results often dictate the tone of HMIe reports and results are the means by which school leavers are selected for the various destinations beyond school. Some will argue that if you remove league tables of school comparisons of, for example, % of S4 roll achieving 5+ Highers by end of S5 then we would, at the stroke of the pen, remove many of the ills associated with our Scottish system. In regard to the current (proposed) 3/3 model the parents I have recently worked with across 2 schools are opposed to it as they see more advantages accruing from the traditional 2/2/2 model. Some colleagues I have worked with see the first phase of the 3/3 model as an extended version of the current S1/2 which, they suggest, lacks challenge, relevance and rigour. Others see the 3/3 model as centrally/externally driven and, in the absence of discussion and debate, are resistant to change without a sound rationale. There are also though a number of teachers I work with who consider that a further year of a broad general education (BGE) enabling pupils to deepen their learning and develop learning skills as a change for the good.

Over the past few years schools have evolved in different ways to suit the needs of their learners in their particular contexts. I would suggest that across our schools we need to more closely consider where learners are at in their particular 'journeys' before committing them to a further year of a BGE in S3 where they may be treading water. We know from research that, in terms of literacy alone, children's backgrounds have a significant bearing on what they are capable of by the time they start school. This gap does not necessarily disappear by the time they are in their early teens. It could therefore be argued that some children need more time to develop before leaving the BGE phase and entering the more intense senior phase. It follows therefore that some children may be ready to begin the senior phase before the end of S3. Some schools have facilitated this in recent years by allowing pupils to sit exams early. The assumption or requirement that all children should wait until S4 before embarking on exam preparation needs further discussion/ debate if hearts and minds are to be won. In the meantime, I suspect that some schools will continue with the 2/2/2 model. In so doing, one shouldn't assume that the 2/2/2 structure and a BGE are mutually exclusive.

Based on discussions I have had with teachers over the past few weeks, I am satisfied that JGHS is ready and raring to go. For the coming session we will continue with a 2/2/2 model with all pupils selecting 8 subjects as they enter S3. On entering S5 they will then reduce to 5 subjects. In the next two years our school will continue to develop the range of subjects on offer in order to ensure that we are catering for all of our pupils. In addition we will seek to ensure that ‘employability skills’ are integrated across the curriculum.

Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much.

At morning break on Friday, I thanked staff for their support and hard work during my first four weeks and chose this poem entitled 'Unity' to draw attention to the wonderful work they do and to emphasise the importance of teamwork with parents when working with children. Children always do best when parents and teachers work closely together so I was very pleased to see that almost all parents came along to our S4 parents' evening on Wednesday.



UNITY

I dreamed I stood in a studio
And watched two sculptors there,
The clay they used was a young child's mind
And they finished it with care.

One was a teacher; the tools he used
Were books and music and art;
One a parent with a guiding hand
And a gentle and loving heart.

Day after day the teacher toiled
With a touch that was deft and sure
While the parent laboured by his side
And polished and smoothed it o'er.

And when at last their task was done
They were proud of what they had wrought,
For the things they had moulded into the child
Could neither be sold nor bought

And each agreed he would have failed
If he had worked alone.
For behind the parent stood the school
And behind the teacher, the home.

Anon. * 1998

S4 parents' evening

This evening's meetings gave teachers and parents the opportunity to meet to discuss the progress of S4 pupils. I was delighted to see that most S4 pupils were represented on the evening by their parents/carers. These face to face meetings allow for information to be exchanged and strategies to better prepare pupils for the exams to be explored.

It is my experience over the past thirty years that pupils do best when parents and school staff work closely together to support children's learning. With over three months to go before the final exams begin there is still plenty of opportunity for pupils to put the hours in and do even better in the final exams. I would like to take this opportunity of offering a sincere thank you to all parents who came to school tonight and urging those who were unable to attend to make an alternative time to meet with us in the next few weeks. When parents and teachers work together pupils always do better.

My first JGHS Parent Council meeting

Tonight was my first opportunity to meet the Parent Council at JGHS. I was delighted at the very large turnout and at how welcoming and supportive the parents were. To begin with, Janis Croll (Acting DHT) updated the meeting on progress with the rebuild and the decant arrangements. There then ensued a good discussion on some of the issues that are likely to arise as the rebuild progresses. I am pleased that we are making good progress with our arrangements and look forward to confirming specific timings in a few weeks.

In my Headteacher's report I took the opportunity to share my first impressions of Gillespie's. As mentioned at assemblies with pupils, I have found the pupils to be:
Hardworking, Motivated, Courteous, Respectful and proud of our school. This provides a great platform for us to build on as we plan for the future!

I gave a brief report on where we are with Management Restructuring and our intentions for Curriculum for Excellence as our current S2 progress into S3 in June this year. More information on this will be shared at the information evening with parents of S2 pupils on Wednesday 22 February.

The evening ended with an opportunity for informal chat with a few parents over a very welcome glass of wine. In my previous post At Liberton HS I had the pleasure of working with a very strong and dedicated Parent Council. Reflecting on the evening's meeting I am thrilled and excited to find that the JGHS Parent Council is also very committed and supportive. With this level of support I am confident that the challenges in the years ahead will be overcome.

Rebuild and management restructuring

The day began with a meeting with colleagues from across the council to discuss progress on the new building that will begin in 2013. Areas discussed included: Restoration of the 'A' listed Bruntsfield House; Relocation arrangements in Darroch, Design of windows, parking arrangements during the rebuild, alternative accommodation at the main school and staffing. As headteacher, an overriding priority for me during this planning period is to ensure that learning and teaching can take place with no interruptions during the rebuilding process.

In the afternoon I met with David Wright (Head of Schools) to discuss some of the details of how management restructuring is to be implemented at Gillespie's following interviews last Thursday. David's experience and insight, gained from having been a headteacher in two secondary schools, is beneficial as we try to get the best possible structure for Gillespie's.

After a few more meetings with staff to discuss various excursions, I met with Alex and Bethany (Co-chairs of our Student Council) to discuss feedback from the recent student council meeting. Requests made by students included: mirrors in girls' toilets; an alternative social space for S1s during lunchtimes, additional bins in the school, S1 lunch arrangements and access for S6 students to suitable study areas when they are not in classes during the day. All of these issues will be discussed/progressed with the appropriate staff in the next week or two. All in all, it was a productive day but I missed having the opportunity to meet with and interact with the wider student body.

Children see, children do

I came across this short video clip on a blog by Ewan McIntosh. Ewan suggests that If you're a loud, stressed out, unhappy teacher then you'll generally have loud, stressed out and unhappy pupils in your classes. I agree with him. Its a powerful and thought provoking clip that highlights how much a child's attitudes and behaviours are influenced by their parents. Click here to view.

Visit to Sciennes Primary School

This evening I had the opportunity to meet the Parent Council at Sciennes Primary School. Sciennes is a very popular, high performing school and is one of a number of schools that are in the JGHS cluster. On arrival in the school I was very impressed with the displays of pupils' work adorning the walls.

The meeting gave me an opportunity to meet with members of the Parent Council and to learn a bit more about Sciennes. In the coming years I very much look forward to visiting Sciennes, working with colleagues and meeting the children to help plan for their move to the High School. Thanks to members of the Parent Council for making me so welcome and to Alison Noble (Headteacher) for inviting me along tonight.

Internet Safety

February 7th is an important date for your diary as it marks ‘Safer Internet Day 2012’ which promotes safe, responsible use of the internet and mobile devices.

The e-Learning Foundation is a major supporter of this event and is keen to ensure that as many schools, parents and pupils are aware of it, what it is about and what resources are available.

Resources are available for Parents, children and teachers as well as
packs specifically for Primary and Secondary schools.

All of this information is available from their website at:
www.saferinternet.org.uk
Please visit the site and help spread the word.

The whole is greater than the sum of the parts

Following the 2001 McCrone review of teachers' pay and conditions one very important outcome was the hiring of additional staff to support classroom teachers. This group of staff take on a range of tasks including: photocopying, banking, filing, typing etc. At a time of unprecedented curricular change in schools, these staff are crucial in freeing up teachers so they can focus their energies on tasks directly related to children's learning.

As I continue to settle into my new post at Jghs, one of the many challenges I face is to learn about what goes on behind the scenes. One example of this is the work undertaken by our classroom assistants. This morning I had the opportunity to meet with our team of classroom assistants in order to learn about what they contribute to the school and to get their views on what might change as, for example, we prepare for the building of our new school. What struck me again today, as has been the case with others i've met across the school, is how highly everyone thinks of the school. Pupils and staff are really proud of our school and work hard to ensure that high standards are maintained. I am really keen to build on this excellent teamwork as there will be many challenges for us in the weeks and months ahead.

The Times They Are a-Changin'

Earlier today I met with headteacher colleagues to share thoughts on how we are going to build ICT into our learning and teaching in the next few years and what type of hardware we should be providing for pupils and staff. With a background in Physics, as I do, I have always been interested in gadgets and utilising technology to enhance learning. The rate at which technology is advancing and the fact that we have finite budgets poses particular challenges for school leaders as we prepare our pupils for an increasingly technological world.

In all of Edinburgh's schools it is planned to have wifi in place by the end of 2013. This is a really exciting development. Such a facility offers enormous potential for us as teachers to embrace and utilise technology in different and more creative ways. By way of example, almost all of our pupils have devices (phones and other hand held digital devices) that are capable of connecting to the internet. Should we continue to ban these from being used in classrooms or do we change tack and encourage teachers and pupils to integrate them more fully into classroom learning? How do we ensure that pupils who cannot afford the latest gadgets are not disadvantaged? How we do ensure that learning is enhanced rather than diminished by a more technological approach? What support and professional development do we offer staff and parents to prepare them for this type of learning?

If you have thoughts on the answers to these questions then I would like to hear from you!

Does spelling matter?

Earlier this week, I was embarrassed to discover that one of my titles (Practice makes perfect) contained a spelling error. I'm sure you can work out which word was incorrectly spelled! Thank you to 'anonymous' for pointing this out.

Does it matter if parents receive a letter from their child's teacher which contains several misspelled words? Should we be concerned if an application form for a teaching job is littered with spelling errors or the title deeds to our property is incorrectly punctuated? Similarly, when a child's annual report is sent to parents, should the school take steps to ensure that the spelling, grammar and punctuation is accurate? During my teaching career I have come across a minority who argued that such attention to detail doesn't matter, but thankfully, the vast majority I have encountered over the years agree that spelling does matter and that we, as teachers, should lead by example.

As Headteacher in my last school, one of the expectations I had of my staff was that at least one colleague should proof read any letters prior to being posted. Gillespie's is a much larger school and, as one would expect, much more correspondence is generated. In the coming weeks, I will be interested to see what the quality of our correspondence is like.

By drawing attention to this issue, I know I will now have to take extra care when writing my blog!

Year of the dragon - 2012

At our early morning Pts' meeting we discussed the arrangements for next week's prelims, management restructuring and the 'Speakers for Schools' initiative. This Friday meeting with pts is an excellent Jghs tradition and is one I am keen to continue with. Friday is my turn to be on call and, as the morning was very quiet, I took the opportunity to visit a few classrooms and catch up on correspondence.

At morning break I learned about another long standing Jghs tradition - the cake club! By joining, as I have done, I agreed to bake a cake to share with the other 40+ members when my 'opportunity' comes around. When earlier this evening I shared with my wife what I had committed to she expressed considerable concern at the possible health risks that may lie in store for my unsuspecting colleagues.

I value weekends as I get a bit of space to reflect on the week's progress and they provide me with the opportunity to spend quality time with Alice and the girls. We try to ensure that the girls' homework commitments are completed on week nights to free up time to relax. The girls are now 8 and 11 and I'm aware that before too long they'll want to spend more time with their peers rather than with mum and dad.

During this weekend we will celebrate the Chinese new year by taking part in a number of events with friends. On Saturday we will join the Chinese community at Liberton High School for a few hours in the afternoon and on Sunday we will go out for lunch with a number of other families that have also adopted kids from China. I would like to take this opportunity of wishing all of you, and especially our Chinese families a very happy and prosperous new year.

S6 Ceilidh

Well done to the S6 pupils who arranged a ceilidh this evening to raise funds for Amnesty International. I'm really proud of everyone who came out tonight to support such a worthy cause. The very impressive sum of £430 was raised for a very worthy cause.

The tawse - thirty years on

My day started with a secondary headteachers' meeting at Firrhill High School. A range of issues were discussed including: timing of in service days, management restructuring, campus police officers, budgets and pupil exclusions. This latter topic often attracts media attention, particularly when annual statistics are published, and, on the thirtieth anniversary of corporal punishment ending in our schools, is an issue I wish to reflect on.

As one measure of indiscipline in schools, the number of exclusions from schools has decreased in recent years but, as is often erroneously reported in the press, this reduction is not because of targets set for schools and headteachers. The improvement is down to improved practices in schools and much stronger and effective joined up working between schools, parents and external agencies. During the past 16 years, as a senior manager in four different schools and as headteacher in two, I have never been asked to not exclude pupils or had a target set for me. I have excluded pupils in the past and will continue to do so when that response is merited. I am very clear that decisive intervention is necessary when, for example, a pupil persists in disrupting the learning of others.

When I started teaching in 1982, the same year that the 'belt' or 'tawse' was discontinued following a European court ruling, many teachers who had been over reliant on using the belt, took time to adapt and develop new strategies. In 2012, 30 years later, I believe that schools, with a new generation of teachers, are in a much healthier and better place. Teachers no longer rely exclusively on fear as a means of controlling pupils. Nowadays, the onus is on developing relationships with pupils based on shared values, trust and mutual respect, in much the same way as parents would wish to raise their children. Continuing to base the relationships we have with the children in our care on these qualities will, in my view, go some way to ensuring that standards of discipline in schools continue to improve in the years ahead.

Practice makes perfect

One of the discussions I'm currently having with colleagues across the school concerns pupils in s4 who are underperforming. Having sat prelims in December we are now in a position to analyse results and decide which pupils would benefit from additional help. For some pupils the prelim results provide a timely wake up call whilst for others the results confirm that they are on track to achieve in line with expectations. As parents and teachers we all want the best for our children but what is the best way to do that in the lead up to the final exams?

I would suggest that there are a number of important steps in increasing chances of success. They include: planning a revision programme; learning from the prelim experience; attending extra classes offered by teachers and maintaining a balance between 'work' and 'play'.

On Wednesday 8 February there will be an opportunity for parents of s4 pupils to meet with teachers to discuss their child's progress and to discuss next steps. I hope to see all of our S4 parents on that evening.

South Africa 2012

As many who have had involvement with Gillespies over the years will know, the annual S6 trip to South Africa is a major event in the school calendar. This year, in two weeks time, 120 pupils and staff will travel to South Africa during the February Holiday.

Quoting from our school website: 'James Gillespie’s South Africa Project aims to provide a substantial link with Zwelibanzi High School in Umlazi township, Durban. Zwelibanzi is an urban school in KwaZulu-Natal with around 1300 pupils. JGHS students have been involved in fundraising for a number of projects in Zwelibanzi in recent years and there is now an annual visit by Gillespie’s students and staff to our partner school in Durban so students can see at first hand the projects they support. Some teachers and students from Zwelibanzi have also been able to travel to Edinburgh to visit us.'

Mr Alex Wallace (Former Headteacher), along with former pupils and parents, will be there to meet and greet those who are travelling, as they have been in South Africa for the past few weeks, progressing projects that were started in previous years.

Our students have been visiting local primary school in the past few weeks sharing details of the project with younger pupils. Primary pupils have also donated stocked pencil cases which will be presented as gifts to pupils at Zwelibanzi High School. As the new headteacher of Gillespie's I am keen to build on this wonderful link so that future cohorts of pupils in both our schools can benefit from this life changing experience. Many thanks to Alex Wallace for providing the drive and vision to develop this wonderful initiative.

Friday again

This past week has been exceptionally busy and enjoyable.

This morning, after a short meeting with our Principal Teachers, I enjoyed a very fruitful meeting with Sheena Purdom and Audrey Gilmour from our Parent Council. In the coming weeks I will be working closely with the Parent Council to ensure that parents have the opportunity to be involved in curricular planning and are fully briefed on progress with the new buildings.

At morning break I was pleased that there was less litter in evidence around the campus than last week. I'm hoping that the pleas made at assemblies are making an impact.

Highlights of this week included gaining Council approval for building our new school and meeting with Headteachers from our Primary schools. Obtaining planning approval was very important as I feel we need to get started so that as many of our current pupils can enjoy what will undoubtedly be an amazing school campus. I was invited to attend the hearing at the City Chambers on Wednesday and be part of the presenting team from the council. I really enjoyed being part of such a well organised and well prepared team. Overall, It was really interesting to see how rigorous the process was and how seriously everyone took the discussion that ensued. I was hugely impressed with how knowledgeable and prepared the elected officials were and how passionate they were in their views. There was some opposition to the layout of the new school but I noted with interest that all those who spoke in opposition were supportive of the school and proud to be associated with it. This, I felt was significant, as in the coming years I will want to work closely with all sectors of our local community.

Meeting with the Primary Heads gave me a chance to hear their views on what they believe we do well as a grouping of schools and what we need to improve.

Looking back at the week I feel that I need to spend more time visiting classrooms and less time in meetings. Achieving this and keeping on top of all the correspondence and meetings I am invited to is going to be a huge challenge in the coming weeks.