New Year in Area

As always lots of interesting things already happening in the Rutherglen/Cambuslang Area. At the moment I’m involved in the preparation for two imminent HMIe inspections in the area. In the build up to an inspection the role of a QIO is to assist the establishment in their preparations. Mostly this includes help with things like the safeguarding proforma, assisting with anything related to writing up QI performance profiles self evaluation materials for the dialogue session, preparing evidence folders, making sure any support needed from other professionals is available etc. I’m finding that increasingly establishments are finding this is becoming more just part of their on going work here as they are all well advanced in developing their performance profile linked to the HGIOS Cat C QIs and showing the cycle between this top level self evaluation write up and their improvement plan. Hopefully as time goes on the 3 weeks prior to the visit will be less and less about pulling this stuff together with evidence as it will already be in place. One of the key things which I find is helping establishments is the great work done by the senior managers pupil support in the area and the specialist support teams in assisting with audits/paperwork related to aspects such as child protection and meeting learners needs. The systems and procedures in place are showing dividends in meeting needs effectively. The model in the area of having these managers working in co-location with quality personnel, support services, the Head of Area etc makes a huge difference to the speed of communication and support available as required.

The Holocaust memorial final preparation meeting took place today with the programme now fully in place. This willtake place in Trinity High with establishments from all the area learning communities involved. Its being overseen by the cultural co-ordinator in the area.

Final drafts of stage 1a early years early intervention materials are now in place and this is assisting in meeting needs appropriately for our youngest learners.

Good to see Brain McL from the consolarium getting in and about a couple of the schools soon (Loch and Calderwood) and further raising  the profile of games based learning.

Met with David Scott from University of West of Scotland yesterday to begin planning some community practice projects with Cathkin High and a local primary with some of his students. Its always great to work with David, he’s doing fantastic work down in Ayr with the students on the commercial music course. Previously he’d worked alongside a lot of pupils in my previous school doing recording work etc out of East Kilbride Arts Centre (soundscapes to e.g. WW2 poems, music for a drug awareness DVD, soundscapes to Italo Calvino fairytales, Scottish Indie song recording – our very own Langley CD!). To my delight I discovered yesterday that one of the classroom assistants (Alison Cassells) at this school, who was very talented, has gone on to take this degree and will be one of the students coming out on practice. Building capacity in action, thanks to David! She had been involved in lots of these projects in the school and is now further developing her expertise.

Pleasantly Plump

No longer pleasantly plump but officially porky! I’ve been reading about the consolarium team’s #wiifitweightlosschallenge on twitter. Decided to get myself organised for a fitter me in new year. Unfortunately it took me two evenings to find enough batteries in the flat for my wii to get going, however this gave me the chance to stock up on additional bouts of crisp and cheese binging prior to the weigh in, also stuffed in a few special puddings and chocolates. Now I’m not publishing my weight like some…However suffice to say I was still hanging in there on the overweight bit (just…) not yet into obese, so was mighty relieved! My plot is to to continue with the no smoking – I’m now several weeks in and the world smells a much brighter place. I’ve rejoined the gym at Hamilton Water Palace and will need to shift the blubber with bouts of that in addition to the wii fit. Not yet brave enought to get the no1 son to get me out running (that’ll come later when I’m less lardy, don’t want to scare people in the street). I plan to invest in a new bike at the end of the month as my previous one got stolen last year. The one bright light on the wii was I’m four years younger in wii fitness than my real age (which is of course still 21) and apparently a bit of a muscle builder! I will keep the blog updated with progress, pitfalls and weight loss (hopefully)