Next week’s Scottish Learning Festival in Glasgow could not come at a better time. With the McCormac report on teachers’ terms and conditions just published, Education Secretary Michael Russell will address up to 6,000 teachers at this year’s event.
The Donaldson report on teacher education is gradually being put into action, with a national working group looking at how best to implement it. Graham Donaldson will have his own roundtable session where up to 180 people can discuss in tables of 10 his recommendations on how to create better teachers.
David Cameron, author of the report on devolved school management, will present a seminar where visitors can question him about his proposals for giving greater budgetary control to heads (now endorsed in part by McCormac) and how DSM could work in clusters of schools.
Inspirational international figures will be keynote speakers. This year, Ben Levin, professor in education leadership and policy at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, will give a lecture on Improving an Entire School. He will report on Canadian research and his own experiences of raising student outcomes across a school.
Sir John Jones was knighted in 2003 for his services to education in England. He worked in challenging schools in the north-east, and has a reputation for “straight talking, leadership and creativity”. In “The Future is Not What it Was”, he will look at breaking the cycle of deprivation and argue that “unless we are prepared to embrace change and champion innovation and creativity, we may miss a huge opportunity to create a world in which every child really does matter and none is left behind”.
The Scottish Learning Festival is organised by Education Scotland and sponsored by TESS. SECC, Glasgow, 21-22 September.
It has over 140 seminars and almost 200 exhibitors at the emap exhibition.
Scottish Learning Festival
Michael Russell, 21 September, 10.45am;
Graham Donaldson, 22 September, 12 noon;
David Cameron, 21 September, 2.30pm;
Ben Levin, 21 September, 1.15pm; Sir John Jones, 21 September, 2.30pm.
www.scottishlearningfestival.com.
