Education proposals ‘grossly mismanaged’

Sir,

As a community councillor, I have been privileged to have been afforded an insight into the processes of Argyll and Bute Council’s education service.

The process of ‘consulting’ with the people of Argyll and Bute in relation to a proposed new management model for Argyll and Bute schools - initially proposed in June 2021 - has been grossly mismanaged and an unacceptably large proportion of the educational budget has therefore been completely wasted.

The proposals, entitled ‘Empowering Our Educators’, are that school head teachers should be re-described as ‘executive head teachers’ and that schools should be clustered into ‘virtual campuses’. The new ‘executive head teachers’ would be non-teaching.

The proposals introduce a new layer of management above the current head teachers who, through their regular, direct engagement in the classroom through hands-on teaching, know their pupils and their families individually.

Argyll and Bute parents, still exhausted and burnt-out from supporting their children through a two-year pandemic, have been trying to do the work of the education service in managing a consultation with parents, pupils and communities which should be for the service itself to organise.

Nevertheless, those parents have organised, and the outcome is becoming clear.

The majority view, as far as can be seen at this point - the consultation closes on March 31 - is that opposition to these proposals is unified amongst parent councils and community councils across Argyll and Bute.

In a statement to the Argyll and Bute Council executive director in August 2021 objecting to the proposed restructuring programme, the parent council of Ardrishaig Primary School points out its recently-appointed head teacher ‘[works] with a personal integrity to ensure the education benefits for children and young people are front and centre.

She works one-to-one with our children, our staff and our families to understand our needs. She has autonomy to make timely decisions that are in the best interests of those needs and our unique school community. We do not want this position threatened and we do not believe an executive head teacher will be able to manage our schools in a safe and effective way’.

Mary MacCallum Sullivan, Ardrishaig community councillor.