FROM the tone of his interesting and a little defensive article, former headteacher Doug Marr seems to me to still have difficulty in withdrawing a total empathy with those still in his old role (“Caution the watchword on Swinney’s bold school plans”, The Herald, June 27).
He suggests the need for a more regular presence of HM School Inspectors in the classroom – presumably with the aim that headteachers can be the blameless “good cop” in our newly reformed schools while Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Education does the dirty work.
He goes on to suggest that headteachers “will require significant additional resources and backup to take on more responsibility”. If that is not enough partisan indulgence he goes on to argue that Scottish headteachers will also require “a significant hike in salary”, in spite of his own confession that the quality of our headteachers is not necessarily and uniformly of the highest level.
I am left drawing the conclusion from his article that there is an elephant in the staff room. Perhaps being a qualified teacher may not make you the most effective person to be the new type of manager John Swinney imagines running a high-performing school. It may be that a new post and title is required to reflect this bold new set of circumstances in schools. A re-invented overall head administrator – as we have in hospitals – may be approaching the answer if our current stock of headteachers will find the reforms too challenging and the enhanced responsibilities too onerous.
I suggest an open advert for a “school director” to be recruited from high office posts in business, commerce and industry and who have proven transferable skills in empowering people, innovation planning and management. Specifically curricular and timetabling aspects would be subsumed by the senior management team. This would indeed be a brave decision, but the stakes are high.
Bill Brown,
46 Breadie Drive, Milngavie.
AT a conference last week, reported in The Herald (“Swinney hits back on ‘rhetorical bidding war’ over school reforms”, The Herald, June 24), I described the Scottish Government’s proposals for regional improvement collaboratives as “dysfunctional” and “compulsory, top-down, authoritarian, unwanted, bureaucratic and hierarchical”.
I used these words to describe the proposed regional improvement collaboratives that are a significant, but subordinate, part of the proposals. I strongly support the principle of empowering schools that is the central plank of John Swinney's proposed reforms.
The proposals could improve decision making, give teachers a sense of ownership, encourage initiative, reduce bureaucracy, improve the organisational culture and give Scottish education a shared sense of purpose.
There are some challenges to achieving this, and I will continue to outline them. However, I am not condemnatory of all of the Scottish Government's proposals – quite the opposite, in fact.
Keir Bloomer,
Commission on School Reform,
7-9 North St David Street, Edinburgh.
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