Laurie O’Donnell

Going to work in the dark and traveling home in the dark is just one of the many challenges of living in northern Europe in the Winter. It is in this context that I want to post about a meeting I had on Tuesday 19 December with Norman Drummond founder of Columba 1400

My meeting was at 0900 in Edinburgh and I left home just before 7, having scraped a thick layer of ice from my windscreen before I could drive to Dundee station to get the 0713 train. That Tuesday morning also coincided with a very rare Monday night night out for me and my was body telling me that it needed the Xmas break to start soon.

After 10 minutes sitting in Norman’s front room in Edinburgh’s New Town I felt completely relaxed and I have to say revitalised. I walked back to Waverley station a couple of hours later with a spring in my step and a wide smile on my face. How did he do it? I am not quite sure but he is certainly a great listener with fabulous people skills and a depth of professional experience to draw on … but it was more than that. Maybe it was the way he smiles with his eyes? Anyway I felt quite inspired by him in a way that I have very rarely experienced before.

An amazing character, Norman was appointed as headteacher of Loretto in Musselburgh at the age of 32. By this time he already had his red beret from the paratroop regiment and served as a chaplain with the Black Watch.
I have just finished his book ‘The Spirit of Success’ and hope to post on this over the next week.

Like every other an educational professional I am interested in the contribution that schools make to our society, culture and economy. The Scottish educational tradition has long recognised that preparation for life as a worker is part of the wider learning for life. It is only very rarely that you hear anyone in Scotland argue that training for work is all that schools should be concerned with. We are all poorer if schools do not also emphasise the rights and responsibilities of citizenship, as well as give young people the wider knowledge and skills not only to understand but also to contribute to the development of our society and culture

The professionals of the building trade often get a bad name; characterised as being unreliable, late, overpriced and producing poor quality work. Whilst this might be the case sometimes, my experience has been quite different. Maybe it’s because my father was a joiner that I really appreciate the care, attention, commitment to quality and the professional pride that is the embodiment of the best of the building trade. We are surrounded by examples of excellence in our built environment but too often focus on the disasters.

We recently had some work done on our house and I am delighted with the result. Watching the various tradesmen come and go made me think about schooling, quality and professionalism. It also reminded me of conversation I had a few months ago with Eric Summers headteacher of Webster’s High in Kirriemuir. Eric and I discussed the risk taking, negotiation skills, communications, planning and co-ordination, problem solving, resilience and creativity that we had both witnessed in those who had worked on our houses. We also wondered how these qualities had been developed and the role of the school curriculum in fostering them.

I have had a pretty mad few weeks will wall-to-wall meetings and not taken the time to blog. I can’t believe my last post was on the 29 November. I plan to commit some time over the next couple of weeks so look out.