Under cloudless Edinburgh skies almost 300 chartered teachers made their way to the second annual national Chartered Teacher conference. Edinburgh’s finest fire brigade even turned up – summoned by a false fire alarm! At least they could be confident it wasn’t one of the fourth years this time.

The conference was opened in typically witty and thought-provoking style by Walter Humes, Research Professor in Education at the University of Paisley, clearly enjoying his day out in the “east”.The keynote address this year was provided by Peter Gronn, a leading international figure in the fields of educational and school leadership, who was recently appointed chair in Educational Leadership and Management at Glasgow University. Peter Gronn’s work has had a particular focus on distributed leadership and consequently his views were of keen significance to his chartered teacher audience. He described the chartered teacher initiative as a positive one in terms of its potential impact on improving learning and teaching but still “a work in progress” with its full potential yet to be realised.Central to their work, and to impacting positively, is the collaborative and collegiate aspects of the chartered teacher role. He argued that in addition to demonstrating excellence in their own professional skills, chartered teachers achieve and maintain the standard largely through influencing the practice of their peers. Whilst schools and chartered teachers are still developing the most effective ways of channelling the talents and abilities of chartered teachers it is important that their potential, and in many cases, actual impact is given appropriate opportunities to be realised. The standard is explicit in its avowal that chartered teachers will make a difference yet this potential is yet to be fully realised. In conclusion Gronn argued passionately that, while recognising that it was still in its early stages, the chartered teacher initiative must “be given a chance to grow” as its contribution to dispersed leadership is immensely important.This address was very well received by the audience with whom both the challenges and the rewards of being a chartered teacher, highlighted in the speech, resonated very clearly.The rest of the day provided opportunities to participate in a range of workshops which captured some of the most innovative and dynamic practice currently demonstrated by chartered teachers. A sample of these included “”Grow your own leaders” presented by Margaret Weir from Annanhill Primary, Kilmarnock. Margaret gave an inspiring account of her professional development journey which encompassed a wide range of professional learning, leading to achieving the Standard for Chartered Teacher. Her role as Chartered Teacher had rekindled her enthusiasm for her work by providing “a clearer understanding of what you are doing and why you are doing it.” The fact that there is no clearly defined role for Chartered Teachers provides schools with the opportunity to “grow” their own CT leaders who can take forward initiatives to suit the particular school circumstances and directly contribute to improving learning. In summary she felt that, “Chartered Teachers have much to offer in a leadership role.”

Categories: Chartered Teacher