A new team

Starting as part of the SLC new quality team this week has been really interesting. There’s a mixture of experience within the four of us who will make up the area part of the team – primary, secondary – different areas of interest and expertise. We’ve also been getting to know the others within the areas which we are allocated to. So I’ve been seeing the Rutherglen/Cambuslang head of area etc. Next week I’m hoping to get to meet the Heads of establishments at the Learning Community meetings and to get time to see the others who make up the team such as the pupil support manager, ICS co-ordinator etc.

We’ve had a good induction this week and are getting our heads round how we will carry out our remits with its emphasis on continuous improvement. It’s really exciting to be part of something new which we hope can make a difference to the experience of the young people involved in the establishments.

I think my biggest learning need at the moment is to really focus carefully on a few priorities. Often as HT I felt I could lose that focus as I tried to balance many things at once and at times spent too much energy on things which had little impact on teaching and learning. I needed to stop and refocus regularly and I think I’ll need to work even harder on that! I’m also feeling a need to learn sharply at the moment on many levels. In school I had a good idea of where I was, what might come up etc as I’d lived in schools for a long time. This new post is new at all levels for me. Thankfully there are many experienced people around me who I will need to learn from who are already willingly giving time to help me. The other thing I’m intent on doing is trying to work smarter – I have to find time to think and consider things. This blog helps that – its not so much the writing of it as the time I sit and just contemplate things when looking at the screen!