CPD Team

I joined 1799 others last week to take part in the biggest leadership conference in the world. It felt a wee bit like the Scottish Learning Festival with presentations, workshops, exhibitors’ village, etc.

 I particularly enjoyed Sandra Stein of the New York City Leadership Academy which has a very successful “principal” development programme that includes problem-based real-life simulations, Richard Olivier, son of Laurence, who deconstructed the lack of ethical leadership displayed by Macbeth, Mick Watters formerly of the Qualifications and Curriculum authority in England, who I remember seeing at the Dundee/Angus leadership conference a couple of years ago and Steve Munby who is the CE of NCSL (and who will be coming up to the Summer school).

Lots more information, video links (check out the overview of Day 3 for some great speakers) and resources on the website.

Plans are well advanced for our ‘let’s make a fuss of CPD coordinators and other CPD leaders’ campaign at the Scottish Learning Festival. The aim is to give CPD Leaders an opportunity to address their own professional development needs in leading CfE developments.

CPD coordinators, members of the CPD Network, EIS Learning Reps and other CPD leaders from all over Scotland will be getting an email from Margaret Alcorn sometime in June.

The email will explain how to make sure you get that CPD Leader identifier on your Festival registration badge. This identifier will get you access to the CPD Lounge, Magnificent Sevens, CPDAnswers Live, the launch of CPDLead and all the other extras arranged for CPD leaders. We have asked our CPD network to help us contact every CPD coordinator and EIS Learning Rep in Scotland but you can always make sure your name is on the list by:

• registering for the Scottish Learning Festival
• emailing Ruth slfcpd@cosla.gov.uk and ask to be put on the CPD Leader mailing list

We look forward to seeing you there!

cpd@slf09 related posts CPD Breakfast, CPDAnswers live, Magnificent Sevens, CPD Lounge . Image courtesy of kevindooley

The CPD Lounge will be the hub of the additional activities for CPD coordinators at SLF09. Here you will be able to:

• get a chance to talk to other CPD leaders about the professional learning challenges of Curriculum for Excellence
• take part in the ‘Magnificent Sevens’ (7 minute seminars featuring CPD leaders from all airts and pairts). Come and show us how CfE development is happening in your pairt!
• ask a question of (and maybe even get an answer from ) leading CPD experts in CPDAnswers live
• meet other leaders at our CPD Breakfast (where CPDLead will be launched)
• or just get away from the milling masses and put your feet up and have a refreshment on us!

To get access to the lounge, you will need to have a badge that identifies you as a CPD leader. See the CPD Leaders post for more details.

cpd@slf09 related posts CPD Breakfast, CPDAnswers live, Magnificent Sevens, CPD Leaders. Image courtesy of anyalogic

Part of the CPD Team offering for the Scottish Learning Festival will be a calendar of 7-minute, lightning presentations to showcase innovative CPD.

Margaret Orr from the CPD Team has assembled  a wide variety of educators. Here’s a sneak preview:

• Graham Thomson (SCSSA) – Leadership of learning in the school
• Marion Morrison (EIS learning rep) – Reflections on Tuscany visit
• Gillian Brydson (Dumfries & Galloway) – CPD impact
• Adam Sneddon (Scottish Screen) – Visual literacy
• Susan Bain (DHT, Lockerbie High School) – Flexible routes to headship
• Ollie Bray (LTScotland) – Personal learning networks
• Julie McCaig (Irvine Royal Academy) – Learning rounds
• Soenaidh Black (Bannerman High School) and Eileen Cummings (Clydebank High School) - DHT experiences
• David Robinson (Open University) – CPD from the OU
• Aileen Spence (LTScotland) – International education
• Janie McManus  (HMIE) – A perspective on CPD for CfE

We will also be ‘Glowmeeting’ as many of the Sevens as possible, so you can access these live on the Glow Intranet. More details on CPDFind soon!

cpd@slf09 related posts CPD Breakfast, CPDAnswers live,  CPD Lounge, CPD Leaders. Image courtesy of chris runoff

The CPD team have a ‘help’ blog that helps to answer questions that have been posted about CPD matters, CPDAnswers. Part of the CPD Team offering for the Scottish Learning Festival will include an opportunity to drop into the CPD Lounge and ask a question of a member of the National CPD Team and volunteer members of the CPD Network.

Do you want to know about CfE rollout in other parts of Scotland? Do you want to know about innovative CPD for CfE; coaching, online, action research? Come in and ask!

We may not have all the answers but we are keen to have the conversation and we can make the right connections for you. There is also an option to update the CPDAnswers blog so your question will be recorded for others to benefit!

cpd@slf09 related posts CPD Breakfast, Magnificent Sevens, CPD Lounge, CPD Leaders.Image courtesy of emagic

One of the partners in the CPD network, HMIE has just published their third corporate plan , covering the years 2008 to 2011. It has been drawn up following a series of internal discussions, consultation with a range of stakeholders, and discussed with and approved by Scottish Ministers. It sets out in broad terms the work which HMIE plan to undertake over the next three years to achieve our aims.

It’s good to see a continuing emphasis on building capacity through CPD and self-evaluation and an explicit commitment to online technology as one means to do both!

It was great to see friends from North Ayrshire again today. Pam Dunsmore, Gillian Hamilton and Lorraine Facchini. That’s Gillian and Pam in the picture (as Lorraine had left before I remembered to get the camera out!) Some of their remits have been changed since my last visit but all of them are still passionate about CPD. Among the topics we discussed were; CPD on Glow, a local version of CPDFind, allowing for CPDReflect in PRD policies, how best to share practice in CFE and the EAC Critical Skills programme.

Oh and Christmas cake (not pictured)!

I spent much of Monday working with May Boyd, Margaret Tracy and Jim Reid of the South Lanarkshire advisory service. Together we ‘built’ a Glow group to help foster the professional community of CPD coordinators and QIOs in South Lanarkshire. May came up with the title, ‘CPD SLC’. I like it, it does what it says on the tin!

The CPD SLC group will use a lot of the Glow functionality to

• provide news and key links
• allow dissemination and sharing of resources
• promote discussion
• and it even takes a feed of information from the CPD Team blog and CPDFind!

I wish May and the team well and I am sure we will all benefit from this pioneering work!