Learning

Just a wee thought here, in my sad QIO way I get quite excited by standards and quality reports, improvement plans and the like because I think they are great tools for focusing attention on improvement in terms of the impact on children’s learning and meeting their needs. So again in a sad wee QIO way I stuck our recently completed area Standards and Quality report into wordle.net and nearly cheered when a big huge word came out in the middle after adding about 50 pages of text.

The word was LEARNING….

QIO duties

So I’m now three months into this post and have spent much time reflecting on  what I think people would find useful from the role I undertake. This is very much a new and evolving role and I’d be really keen to hear the views on anyone  on what they think a QIO should/could be doing to support schools. Bearing in mind my role is one where the vast majority of my remit is to support 20+ establishments from early years, through primary to secondary with a quality assurance slant. What does that mean for you?

Changes

I’m feeling a bit wonky today. I was interviewed for a QIO post with SLC and was successful. I should be celebrating this great opportunity to visit other schools and learn from them. Don’t get me wrong I’m pleased as punch but my heart is feeling wobbly… It’s the thought of leaving a school that I just love to bits….So that’s why I’m feeling a bit sad. It’s rare to work with a team that gels so well. It’s hard to leave that when your heart is still with the team and the children.

Tonight I visited one of the teachers from our school who had a baby just the other day, and that helped put things back into perspective for me. Little Zoe was just beautiful and reminded me of why we do what we do in education. Here was a tiny bundle just ready to live and meet every opportunity on the way. Where’s my dilemma in the scale of that? Things come along in life and we should grasp them, learn and just hope we make a small difference somewhere along the way. Somber worry over – babies are marvellous things! However I’m pretty glad my two are now all grown up!

The best thing though is this change will give other staff the chance to develop and do some acting work as PT2 etc. That’s exciting and something they thoroughly deserve after the work they’ve put in.

The children meantime are covered in glue and glitter in school. Most of them are so excited just now they don’t know whether to laugh or cry. I know that feeling!