Multi-year improvement plan for Sustainable Education gets the thumbs up
The work of Highland Council’s Care and Learning Service to provide sustainable, quality education in Highland communities was further endorsed yesterday, Thursday 6 December 2018, by members of the Council’s Care, Learning and Housing Committee.
Members overwhelmingly agreed to the development of a multi-year improvement plan for the Sustainable Education in Highland Communities Programme which is being led by recently appointed interim Head of Education Dr James Vance.
After the meeting Dr Vance explained: “Revising our approaches to delivering education in the coming years is an essential part of our core business of improving the provision of education in Highland. We have taken stock of progress to date and have built a much stronger infrastructure to support this programme moving forwards. Furthermore, our sustainable education improvement programme will take cognisance of the recommendations made by the most recent report from the International Council of Education Advisers who were appointed by the Scottish Government to advise on improvements in the Scottish education system.”
Many Local Authorities are considering or have considered how best to deliver education to their communities in light of factors such as changing demographics, opportunities offered by ICT to broaden the curriculum, a national shortage of teachers/Head Teachers which is felt most acutely in rural and remote areas, heightened expectations of educational leadership and the need for efficiencies in the local government system across Scotland.
The Council’s multi-year sustainable education improvement plan will consider all of these factors and more in ensuring the right decisions are made to ensure children have access to the same high standard of education and care and that staff are able to focus on providing a broad quality learning and teaching experience. The improvement approach will also consider how best to offer high quality leadership and develop future leaders.
Councillor John Finlayson, Vice Chair of Highland Council’s Care, Learning and Housing committee, said: “There was a pleasing response from our members who are fully supportive of the development of a multi-year timetable to complete this vital piece of work for the council. The sustainable education improvement schedule will reflect our ability to innovate and evolve our service offering to suit the particular and ever-changing needs of our Highland schools. We look forward to an appropriately timed process to supporting local schools and communities across all 29 Highland Associated School Groups (ASGs) which reflects the individual circumstances in each area and our core ambition to improve outcomes for all youngsters in a sustainable way.”