I spent Saturday afternoon packing boxes and tidying my office
at MGS as Friday was my last day at
the school. Those of you that know me well will know that I put a lot of time
and energy into my work and become very attached to the schools and the
children that I have had the pleasure to work with over the years. I was pleased
it was only the janitor and me in the school yesterday afternoon – I got very emotional
as I had a final walk of the deserted corridors and reflected on all the great and challenging times I have had in the last three years.
If the truth be known – I don’t think many people thought I
would last long at Musselburgh. It’s a very different school to both Knox and Dunbar and nearly twice the
size (with a roll of 1400 pupils). I
remember getting a lot of funny looks during the first few days and weeks – I will
never forget that first whole school meeting, I was so nervous.
During the first few months I worked long hours to stay on
top of things I fielded some really difficult phone calls from both staff and
parents. I
even started to question if I was having an impact – everything was so new
to me.
It’s interesting, because when I look back and reflect on where the
support came from during those difficult first six months it wasn’t from my SMT
colleagues (although they were incredibly supportive and full of advice), it wasn’t from my family
or friends (no one really new what I was going through), it wasn’t from the
staff at the school (I was expected to deliver – no questions asked!) it was
actually from the children in my care (they made me laugh so much!) and the enthusiasm
provided by my personal
learning network.
You have to remember this was pre-twitter days. No one was into micro
blogging three years ago. My personal learning network was the edublogosphere, the
LTS on-line communities
and the monthly edubuzz
open meetings. I’ve missed those meetings and I expect other people miss
them as well?
On reflection, I think I’ve made a pretty good depute head
teacher – I’m not the finished product and I don’t want to be, I prefer to
always operate just outside my comfort zone, that way I am always learning. It’s
interesting to reflect on what other people thought of me, my role and my
impact on our Musselburgh learning community. Recent
SQH feedback shows some summative
evidence but one of the things I am most proud of how I started to break
down some of the traditional hierarchy within school management structures. I
think (hope?) that people found me approachable, supportive and regarded me as
an equal.
Anyway, so why am I
leaving?
It’s a long story that people will interpret in different
ways. But fundamentally the way that I see it is that I am leaving to prepare
myself for a headship – it’s that simple.
I’ve only ever worked in East Lothian and I’ve had rapid career progression - this has worried me for a while. I was instrumental
in creating the first steps to leadership programme in East
Lothian. It’s a programme based around my idea of gaining ‘accelerated
experience’ and now its time for me to gain some accelerated experience
of my own – in other schools, other authorities and other countries.
I’m being seconded to Learning and Teaching Scotland as National Advisor for Learning and
Technology Futures. The post will involve some extensive travel all over Scotland and there is no doubt that I will be looking for enthusiastic teachers, committed
to making a difference, to form new working partnerships with.
I intend to apply for
headship in the next 23 months.
When do I start?
I start with Learning
and Teaching Scotland on the 30th March and I expect it will
take a few weeks (months?) to get my head around things. Next week I am very
much working for East Lothian.
First, I will be representing Scotland and particularly East
Lothian at the Microsoft European
Teachers Network in Vienna and then on Friday I get off the plane in
Edinburgh drive straight to Livingstone for an Inter Authority Curriculum for
Excellence sharing good practice seminar where I’m presenting on some of the work
that we have been doing in East Lothian surrounding Games Based Learning.
It’s shaping up to be an interesting final week! and a very exciting
run into the summer!
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