| PRESIDENT’S
REPORT: 6TH MARCH 1999 PRESENTED
AT THE ANNUAL CONFERENCE/AGM:
STAKIS STRATHCLYDE, BELLSHILL
Colleagues
The Committee has been active in representing the
Association throughout the last year – a year which has seen a continuation of the
rate and scale of change which is now seen as the way things are in Scottish Education.
Advisers, most now working to multi-faceted remits,
are, of course, directly involved in the pro-active and re-active demands of these changes
within their own authorities; many are also involved at national level.
The role of the Association is to represent the
interests of education and I will summarise the extent to which the Committee has sought
to do this since we met last year.
I start at Keele University where our English
counterparts, the National Association of Education Inspectors, Advisers and Consultants
(NAEIAC) held their annual conference in July. As you may know, the
President of our Association is invited to be a guest at this event and, of course, the
invitation is reciprocated and I am pleased to welcome Eric Blaire, this year’s
NAEIAC President here this weekend.
Alistair Horne, our immediate Past President, and I
attended the Keele Conference. In Alistair’s year of office the NAEIAC
conference, due to be held in Belfast, was cancelled so he was invited along last year
too; which was just as well since this was the first conference (billed as a Summer
School) run jointly by NAEIAC and SEO (the Society of Education Officers – the
equivalent of the Association of Directors of Education Scotland) and, so, by combining
their resources, the two associations provided an impressive programme of keynote
presentations and workshops. We were able to split attendance at these
and I know that Alistair, like me, learned a lot from being there.
While, of course, we acknowledge the differences
between our systems we also recognise common ground and where there are similar objectives
– raising achievement being an obvious one. Of particular memory
for me was Professor Tim Brighouse’s informative and often hilarious account of the
inspection of Birmingham Education Authority of which he is director.
The City’s report was very good and copies of my notes from that presentation, along
with notes from some of the others, are available this morning for anyone wishing a little
more detail.
One very significant point made by Professor
Brighouse stood out for me and that was his emphasis on the need for adequately and
consistently staffed central services if schools are to be given the long-term support
they require.
I have also copied my own, hopefully light-hearted,
address to the 300 great and good at the conference dinner in which I conveyed this
Association’s greetings and best wishes to NAEIAC and SEO and, diplomatically,
suggested that they may find it of interest to look north of Hadrian’s wall to see
what is happening in Scotland – especially in respect of school
self-evaluation. I believe that, as a result, a few copies of
“How Good is Our School?” were ordered from Victoria Quay.
One of my main thoughts in drafting this report was
this. While I firmly believe that our Association and its membership has an
influential voice in, seeking to represent the interests of education, to do this more
effectively would, in considering the range of issues before us as we move toward the
Millennium – and not forgetting what may emanate from an upturned boat at Holyrood
– perhaps needs an Association more akin to NAEIAC in terms of organisational
structure and resources.
And, in mentioning this, ladies and gentlemen, I
take this opportunity to record my thanks, on your behalf, to the members of your
Committee for their work over the last year. All of us here (and those of our
colleagues who have been unable to attend) seem, as I said earlier, to be doing more and
more tasks, often putting in hours well beyond the call of contract.
Committee members are, of course, no different yet they have put in the effort, got
themselves to meetings in various parts of the country in all weathers and, in so doing,
have helped to fulfil the purpose of the Association. I thank them all
– in particular the office bearers – Jan Ward, (Vice President), Roddy McKenzie
(Secretary), Nora Conlin (Treasurer), and Alistair Horne (Past President); and, of course,
a very special thanks to Deirdre McVean (Conference Secretary). This is, I
think, the seventh conference Deirdre has organised and, I believe it is the last one in
which she will have such full involvement. Deirdre, you have our grateful
appreciation. Is there any truth in the rumour that you have been
headhunted to run the new Scottish Parliament?
Each of the Committee has supported me in many ways
with their suggestions and directions. Anne Marie Stewart helped me get here
when we had a planning meeting in December. The hotel had just opened
and there was hardly a signpost to be seen. I could see the place but between
the one way systems in Bellshill and the motorway regulations I just couldn’t figure
out how to actually get here until Anne Marie (who I may say was also lost) and I found
each other when we stopped (separately) at the same filling station to ask
directions. It was all a bit like Scottish Education – you know
where you want to be but getting there is more complicated than you thought – and you
often end up in blind alleys!
Speaking of Higher Still …….. no, I
jest. The Association has continued its links with HSDU (Alistair’s
article “Higher Still meets the Advisers” was published in Higher Still
Newsletter in March). The Association welcomes the introduction of Higher
Still through phased implementation whilst recognising the considerable amount of work yet
to be done and the wide variety of contributions of many AEAS members in support of the
Programme.
In the last year the Association was invited to
respond to Key Consultation documents notably “Curriculum Design for the Secondary
Stages: Guidelines for Schools” and “Proposals for Developing a Framework for
Continuing Professional Development for the Teaching Profession in
Scotland”. We welcomed both documents. Briefly, with regard
to the former we asked for curricular models, particularly for S1/S2 and, with regard to
the latter, supported the idea of much improved professional development but sought
flexibility within a supportive framework – while we are not in favour of salary
being related to qualifications and/or performance – we did state our encouragement
of all forms of career development which lead to enhancement of the quality of teaching
and the morale of teachers.
We also took part in the consultation on SQA
Advisory Groups although we were not officially invited and I expressed the
Association’s regret in my covering letter attached to our submission.
Copies of these responses are also available today.
The Association now needs to prepare responses to
the following:
- the Scottish CCC Development of Annual Plan 99
– 2000 – the deadline for which was February 26th but I have arranged an
extension.
- The Scottish CCC “The School Curriculum and
the Culture of Scotland” due by May 7th (an interesting deadline that – the day
after the elections for the new Scottish Parliament!) and
- the pending reviews of Modern Languages and 5
– 14 Environmental Studies.
The Association continues to have good links with
the Scottish Council for Research in Education being represented on the Board by myself
currently. Through SCRE the Association contributed to the list of suggested
areas of research which is submitted to SOEID annually.
I am also a member of the SCRE Forum Planning
Committee. The 1999 Forum will be held at Lauder College, Dunfermline on
Friday 7th May. I, personally, am pleased with the chosen theme “The
Curriculum: breadth and balance, continuity and progression” but, of course, the
choice had nothing to do with me!
The implications and expectations of “Achieving
Success in S1/S2” are exercising all our minds and, of course, we await the final
version of “Curriculum Design for the Secondary Stages: Guidelines for Schools”
and the promised models of implementation. I hope that our NAEIAC guest Eric
Blaire will not mind my mentioning his name at this point – its just that it makes me
think of George Orwell (whose real name was Eric Blair). – the author of “Animal
Farm” and I find myself thinking that perhaps the curriculum in Scottish schools is
in danger of becoming “Orwellian” – you know – where “all
subjects are equal but some are more equal than others”!
Last year we also developed closer ties with the BBC
and the Scottish Arts Council and it is a pleasure to welcome John Russell and Sylvia Dow
as contributors to our programme this weekend. It is indeed a
pleasure to welcome all our contributors.
In closing this report I draw your attention to the
fact that our Association now has its own Website, courtesy of Committee member Terry
Ashton, and you should have a copy of that information to hand.
The site has an interesting RAINBOW LOGO representing two features about advisers –
they are all such colourful characters and are usually doing seven things at
once! We look forward to future on-screen information and
electronic debate on all those hot issues.
Finally (and very sadly), I cannot end this report
without asking you to remember in your thoughts our colleague Derek Burgess, Adviser
Borders Council who was killed in a car crash on his way home from last year’s
conference in Edinburgh. Derek had left early in order to say goodbye to his
son who was being posted to Northern Ireland. Jan Ward and I represented the
Association at Derek’s funeral in Kelso. Our thoughts are with
Derek’s widow and family today.
One of the criteria for a successful conference is
the extent to which the informal and formal aspects complement each other – we are
here to share experience and good practice. On behalf of the Association I do
hope you find that happens during today and tomorrow, whether you are practising at the
bar or otherwise.
Thank you for your attention.
We can turn now to the business of our meeting.
HUGH ROCHE
President AEAS |
