JDMcDsblog

On behalf of the Scottish Council for Independent Schools (SCIS) I attended LT Scotland seminar, for Local Authority International Coordinators on Monday. I.E is part of my remit as newly appointed Depute Rector and I was delighted to have the opportunity of hearing at first hand what has been happening, and to meet a number of representatives from the Government, British Council and LT Scotland. Among the speakers were Professor Kay Livingstone, who has just taken up a chair at Glasgow , Tim Simons (for the Government) and Edna Paterson (Glasgow City)
People were very welcoming and almost immediately I was “persuaded” to join a planning group to organise the next such seminar. I was interested to learn about the Masterclasses, to be held in Stirling next month, with two teachers from each authority, plus SCIS having the chance to attend, with a view to disseminating information across their establishments.

We had some workshop time, where we examined some of the issues in more detail-among the points identified were the issue of “time” and convincing colleagues to take ownership of International Education; to ensure it was embedded in the curriculum and not just an optional extra, to satisfy some “tick box” culture. We asked what was the status of International Education with the HMIe as expressed in reports and in HGIOS 3. In other words, to what extent are the inspectors looking at International Ed? If is is not explicity mentioned in HGIOS, how will schools regard it? We also looked at how existing and future NQs might best reflect and support the culture of international education-question setters already have guidelines, but is more necessary?
I was very impressed by the work going on at Park School in Kilmarnock-you can find out more by clicking here.

We at Hutchie are developing links with a school in southern India and are looking forward to hosting three of their staff later in the month; two of our colleagues will make the return journey next year. We have also just said farewell to music students and staff from our exchange school in Nurnberg, who performed a concert for us earlier in the week. What I am keen to do is to evolve these links to maintain all year-round contacts, with eg e-pals and inyter school colloborative projects, say in joint creation of wikis and photoshare sites. I think it is also important to encourage colleagues to visit schools abroad and to engage with fresh or even challenging teaching styles and methodologies.