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Learning festivals
By Margaret Alcorn, National CPD Coordinator
A big thank you from the CPD team to all of you who made us welcome at the various learning festivals which have been taking place across Scotland.
Following the positive feedback we got from our CPD Lounge at the Scottish Learning Festival in September, we decided it was important that we were represented at as many of these events as possible. At the time of writing we have enjoyed meeting lots of educators in the Western Isles, Shetland, Orkney, Highland, Aberdeenshire, and Edinburgh. We have learned loads from the conversations - formal and informal, in seminars and over coffee - and the feedback and challenges you gave us for the year ahead.
As all of us in education face a future that appears financially wobbly, these events can be a reminder of how very important it is that we continue to offer teachers the opportunity to come together to talk, share, laugh, gossip and build their professional confidence and sense of belonging. Many teachers told us that these events lifted their spirits and reminded them that success comes from working with others and sharing experiences. One teacher told me that she could see a clear way forward with CfE for the first time, and I'm sure she was not alone. The attendance at these days of a complete school team can mean an opportunity to develop shared understanding and a common language to discuss improvement and innovative practice.
The HMIe publication Learning Together: improving teaching, improving learning describes the need to focus resources on those CPD activities which have most impact on the learning of children and young people, and there is a danger that learning festivals become no more than a good day out. But where there is good leadership, and an agreed commitment to using such experiences as a lever for system-wide change, then they are indeed value for money.