Tag: Shelley McLaren

Education Convener: Digital access is ‘vital’ to aiding children’s learning

EDUCATION convener Councillor JOAN GRIFFITHS was joined by council leader Cammy Day on a visit to Craigroyston Community High School this week.

The policians met Head Teacher Shelley McLaren and S3 pupils who were receiving new tablet devices to aid their studies as part of the council’s Empowered Learning programme.

Every school pupil from P6 to S6 in the capital will receive their own digital device as part of an ambitious and inclusive education strategy, Edinburgh Learns for Life.

The 1:1 roll out, being carried out in partnership with the city council’s ICT services provider CGI, started last September thanks to a £17.6m boost to learning and teaching. In addition to the personal distribution additional iPads will be also be issued to P1 to P5 year groups on an agreed ratio.

Councillor Griffiths said: “I am hugely proud that our ambitious Empowered Learning programme will provide every school pupil from P6 to S6 in Scotland’s Capital with their own digital device.

“The 1:1 roll-out, being carried out in partnership with our ICT services provider CGI, started in schools across the city at the start of the year and is due to be completed in December.

“It will result in 41,000 iPads being given to pupils and teaching staff as we look to provide equality of access to digital devices and raise attainment. And it’s not just our P6 to S6 pupils who will benefit.

“In addition to their personal devices we’re providing iPads to P1 to P5 year groups on an agreed ratio and over a 1,000 across our early years settings. There will be devices for all teaching staff and we have 1,150 to cover rising rolls for the school year. So far 17,000 iPads have been delivered and the roll out completed in 76 schools.

“The next major phase of the roll out has now started with devices being distributed to our high schools. Yesterday during my visit to Craigroyston High School I saw first-hand the real impact of the scheme on pupils as they were given their own devices that will accompany them on their learning journey through school.

“The vital need for digital access to learning was never more starkly illustrated than during the pandemic when remote learning and teaching became the norm. Some pupils struggled as they didn’t have their own devices and this highlighted the importance of making sure all our pupils have the digital means to learn on a level playing field.

“The Empowered Learning programme, funded by a £17.6m investment by the Council, demonstrates this commitment and Edinburgh is pioneering the use of technology in education for teachers and pupils alike.

“But it’s not just about handing out new iPads. We have to make sure the infrastructure and training is there to support everyone. As part of the programme there will also be enhanced wi-fi coverage for all our schools and early years settings, improved collaboration and classroom management tools such as Apple Classroom. So far cabling and wireless access point installations have been completed at 106 settings.

“Also the benefits of the programme go far wider than just pupils and teaching staff having their own device. It leads to personalising learning, improving teacher feedback, preparing students for future working, collaborative on and off-line working and, crucially supporting all our efforts to raise attainment.

“I am also delighted that funding for 4 years of this programme has been agreed as part of the Council’s 2021-26 Revenue Budget Settlement.

“I firmly believe this project shows our commitment to providing our children and young people with every opportunity to succeed in their education and provide them with the skills required for their future career paths.”

Key elements of the Empowered Learning programme, which will see a phased roll out of all the devices completed by the end of 2022, include: 27,000 new iPads being issued to pupils/staff, refreshed iPads for up to 12,000 pupils/staff and expanding the wireless connectivity in schools by providing wireless access points and a comprehensive programme of professional learning for teachers.

                                                                                

Benefits for young people include:

  • Fair and equal access from P6 to S6, ensuring all pupils have personal access to digital learning with their teacher in school or at home
  • Effective digital workflow to increase engagement, improve teacher feedback and raise attainment
  • A range of innovative accessibility features to improve access to the curriculum for pupils with additional support needs
  • Pupils can work online simultaneously in a class or collaboratively outside the classroom
  • High quality digital applications for productivity and creativity, providing more ways to personalise and choose how they learn
  • Development of learning, thinking and digital literacy skills vital for success in today’s rapidly evolving, technological society

League tables don’t reflect our schools’ amazing work

A school feels ‘under attack’ when put at the bottom of a narrow-focused league table, says Craigroyston headteacher Shelley McLaren

Each year the release of newspaper school league tables for Scotland is a day I dread, and the publication of the 2021 results yesterday was no different. The language of the headlines – “Which school is the best in Scotland?” and “Scotland’s schools ranked best to worst” – is both incredibly damaging and demoralising for staff, pupils, parents and school communities across the country, not to mention the reputational harm it can cause for years to come (writes SHELLEY McLAREN).

The stories will continue today in the local news, where it feels like we need to put on our armour and prepare for attack. No matter how much we’ve done in all other parts of school life throughout the year, the focus to determine our worth and whether we are a “good” school seems to rest singlehandedly on the one measure of how many young people achieve five Highers in one sitting.

As a school, we pick up the pieces from this for months to come – only for it to come around again next year. It is not, of course, that we do not focus on trying to improve by the measure of five Highers, but, because of context and, indeed, probably our own vision and values, we will always be near the “bottom”.

Our main aims are educating our young people out of poverty and instilling in them the belief that no matter where you come from or the challenges you have faced in your life, you can still achieve your dreams and be the best you can be. University, a modern apprenticeship or a job are all given equal weighting; the most important thing is that the young person has achieved the best they can – and, believe me, every day we support, challenge, motivate, nurture and push high expectations to ensure this happens.

League tables aren’t fair on schools

I congratulate those top-performing schools where up to 86 per cent of young people have achieved the “gold standard” of five Highers. It is an incredible achievement and should be celebrated – but everything is about context, and schools should and need to be measured on so much more.

I am not shirking accountability or responsibility as a headteacher – the measure of five Highers is important – but if closing the attainment gap simply meant improving this one measure, and that determined whether we were a “good” or “bad” school, we would have used our Pupil Equity Fund (PEF) and Scottish Attainment Challenge funding very differently – and probably not made that many gains.

I could concentrate on the fact that 70 per cent of our young people live in SIMD (Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation) 1 and 2 or that 20 per cent of each cohort arrive at us with a reading age of 8 or below, or that nearly 40 per cent of our students are on free school meals. This would make it easy to excuse why we are one of the “worst” schools in the league table – but I won’t, because that is not what we base our views of children on.

What I will focus on is that, in 2020, nearly 95 per cent of our young people left school to go into a positive destination – above the national average of 93.3 per cent – and that last session 100 per cent of our young people in S4 achieved five or more national qualifications (nobody was “left behind”, regardless of any barrier) and that this year 23 of our young people (almost a third of the cohort) are heading off to universities across the country – the same group of young people who didn’t achieve five Highers in one sitting.

I implore you, please don’t judge our incredible young people or our amazing school, filled with dedicated, passionate staff, on this one measure of five Highers – know that we are doing everything possible to ensure that our students are given a gold-star service to prepare them to have the best life possible after school, with or without the achievement of the “gold standard”.

Are we one of the “worst” schools in the country? Of course we’re not – and I would vehemently challenge anyone who considers this to be the case.

Shelley McLaren is headteacher at Craigroyston Community High School

This article first appeared in TES