Timeline revealed for school cluster headship talks
Education chiefs have revealed a timeline for community engagement on shaking up school leadership across Argyll.
Argyll and Bute’s Community Services Committee decided in June this year that there would be an extensive consultation process to help shape the future of education services.
The pledge was to listen to all stakeholders from parents to pupils and communities to education professionals, trade unions and policymakers so they can have input.
If the changes go ahead, it could see schools, covering from ages three to 18, working together in clusters. Instead of each school having its own headteacher, there would be an executive headship for each cluster. Resources would also be bought and shared out in each cluster and teachers would also work for a cluster rather than one particular school so they, too, could be shared to give cover, for example.
Potentially the numbers of headteachers across Argyll and Bute could be cut from 80 to around 14, warns Scotland’s largest teaching union EIS (The Educational Institute of Scotland) which says it has major concerns.
More than 800 people have already signed an online petition to stop plans for a cluster schools programme in Cowal.
In 2004 Argyll and Bute plans for joint school campuses in Campbeltown, Dunoon and Helensburgh were abandoned after protest marches and petitions persuaded councillors to reject the super-campus idea.
Information from the new cluster consultations will be used to inform any proposals before they go back to the Community Services Committee.
Consultation time with communities, parents and pupils comes towards the end of the schedule, with groups receiving ‘a toolkit’ to help them lead their talks themselves.
Argyll and Bute Council’s policy lead for education, Councillor Yvonne McNeilly, said: ‘The best outcomes for our young people are at the heart of all our work. This proactive engagement programme will be at the core of our decision-making.
‘We very much welcome the views and ideas of our communities and look forward to seeing what their vision is for the future of education services in Argyll and Bute.
‘To provide the very best for our children and young people we must take positive action to deliver a sustainable education service.’
An overview of how the engagement would work was due to be shared with the council’s policymakers last month when headteacher focus groups were due to start.
Union representatives and headteachers were to be consulted on proposals this month, with school staff being consulted next by their own headteachers. As part of the consultation process, between now and March all staff will be able to attend one-to-one engagement sessions. This will be followed by consultations with Higher Education and Further Education partners at Argyll College and SAMS before it is the turn of communities, parents and pupils. Over two weeks, sometime between next month or January – still to be confirmed – there will be an open consultation followed by a direct email campaign, reaching businesses, the diocese and Bord na Gaidhlig, the principal public body in Scotland responsible for promoting Gaelic development.
In April there will be a findings and analysis review of all the consultations, and in May there will be a presentation of findings and refined proposals to headteachers, unions and policymakers.