Stronger together
Welsh education is different and I'm not sure we always appreciate how it is. Collaboration is key to our education system in Wales; never once as a school leader did I feel alone or isolated. I always felt part of a bigger reality than just my own. And I also felt the support, the challenge and the kindness of my peers.
The challenges we face at the moment are enormous. We work in a system full of formulae and policy that often completely misses reality. Where historical practice and funding does not meet the needs of our children and change happens constantly for change’s sake.
But we also work in a system where we change the lives of children and young people, where we teach them to dream, to try, and to be the people they want to be. We work in a system full of energy and laughter where, at the end of the day, you know you have made a difference. And we work in a system where together we are worth so much more than alone.
Together we can provide the support, the platforms and the ideas to address what seem impossible problems. Together we can fight for the funding our children deserve and create a school improvement system that focuses on who we are and what we really want to achieve – to enable our children and young people to thrive.
In Wales, our superpower is our collaboration and together we can create a brighter future for all our children and young people.
Claire Armitstead
Director of ASCL Cymru
A lasting legacy?
It’s now been a year since the return of the Stormont Executive, so, has anything changed?
I think it would be fair to say that the now well-established Education Minister Paul Givan has brought forward some significant reforms. First, he awarded a three-year pay settlement equating to 10%, alongside a new starting salary of £30,000 and a commitment to look at teacher workload. He has backed the findings of the Independent Review of Education, which we fully endorse, has introduced proposals in relation to school uniform, and has mandated that learners remain in education to the age of 19. He’s going to introduce big SEND reforms and has commissioned reviews of both the Northern Ireland Curriculum and statutory key stage assessment. We’ve significantly fed into both projects and will continue to do so. This is not the end of the changes, and he intends to continue to move at pace to bring forward what he sees as necessary policies going forward.
However, it's fair to say that he is working on a restricted time frame in that the current mandate is up in 2027 and two years were lost through
the Democratic Unionist Party’s (DUP’s) boycott of Stormont. A cynic might suggest he has one eye on what his legacy as Education Minister might be.
No doubt, he will not want to be remembered for encouraging periods of industrial action, nor has he addressed some of the more challenging recommendations contained within the independent review. So, it looks like he’s hanging his hat on a legacy of curriculum and assessment reform.
That is not an easy task – we have a curriculum that hasn’t been reviewed since 2007 and qualifications that are content-heavy, recall-focused and out of date. Statutory key stage assessment is nowhere to be seen. A considerable task lies ahead, and he needs to move fast.
John Trueman
Director of ASCL Northern Ireland
We’re listening to you
At School Leaders Scotland (SLS) we are always very keen to know what our members are thinking; after all it is they whom we serve. Our recent membership survey highlighted key strengths of SLS’s support, including effective communication through regular updates, high-quality professional learning opportunities, accessible advice, and national representation. Members appreciate SLS's role in fostering a sense of community.
Positive suggestions for improvement from members included making our communication more succinct, increasing inclusivity, providing more affordable or free professional development, and advocating for better working conditions, especially for middle leadership roles.
Members feel that our communication with them is clear, regular, and well-organised and helpful in disseminating information, so that they feel connected and up to date on key issues.
Our second survey of members revolved around diversity, as we try to make our association even more inclusive. The results of the survey are still being analysed but our President, Pauline Walker, will lead a new working group to include as many members as possible to provide a programme and strategy for us to widen the active participation of members with protected characteristics (age, sex, sexual orientation, gender reassignment, race, religion of belief, marriage and civil partnership, disability and pregnancy and maternity), so everyone has the opportunity to play a more influential role in SLS.
And, finally, we will shortly be conducting a third survey of members, this time about workload. We are hoping for a high participation level for this survey, as we will be using the data to help us to pursue our case with local authorities and the Scottish government regarding salaries and working conditions.
Graham Hutton
General Secretary of School Leaders Scotland (SLS)