5 days, 6 regions, 268 teachers and too many miles travelled to count.

Education Scotland’s Teacher Leadership Programme launched in style on Monday 26 August with the School of Education at the University of Aberdeen kindly hosting our Northern Alliance induction day. Louise Sanders, Stephanie Peat and Lise McCaffery, Lead Specialists in the Professional Learning and Leadership team, welcomed the first of the 2019/20 cohort with participants getting to meet one another and shape their programme for the year ahead.

The Teacher Leadership Programme is open to all post-probation classroom teachers in Scotland. It is primarily aimed at teachers who are seeking professional learning opportunities to develop their leadership of learning and teaching in their context.

Furzana Ahmed, participant in last year’s programme and Maths teacher in Glasgow, said:

“I’ve found the Teacher Leadership Programme absolutely beneficial and I would say it is a journey with no full stop!”

A central feature of the Teacher Leadership Programme is enquiring into an aspect of the participants’ classroom practice. Teachers are supported to take an enquiring approach to developing an aspect of learning and teaching of their choosing as appropriate for the learners in their context.

The Professional Learning and Leadership team then moved onto the impressive Riverside Campus of the City of Glasgow College to deliver the induction day to teachers working within the West Partnership on Tuesday 27 August. Douglas Morrison, Associate Director of Innovation and STEM at the College welcomed 88 programme participants and supporters, highlighting the College’s expanding role and successes:

“The College is delighted to support teachers and practitioners on their leadership journey and hosting the induction day provides a great opportunity for them to learn more about what we offer them and their learners in the future.”

Next, teachers attended the National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh on Wednesday 28 August for the launch of the Teacher Leadership Programme in the South East. Not only did teachers kick-off their programme but they also had the chance to look around the stunning galleries within the Museum.

The programme is structured to support participants to confidently take an enquiring approach through first exploring teacher leadership, reflecting on current practice and considering the nature and purpose of enquiry. Participating teachers then plan and implement an enquiring approach to developing their classroom practice in their context. The programme also supports teachers to reflect on the learning arising in terms of their own leadership as well as for their learners.

On Thursday 29 August, Lead Specialists delivered two events, one at Dundee and Angus College and one at Dumfries and Galloway College. A total of 60 teachers attended the two days.

Janet Weir, Head of Curriculum at Dumfries and Galloway College, welcomed the participants from the South West Education Improvement Collaborative to the College.

“We, at Dumfries and Galloway College, were delighted to host the Teacher Leadership Programme Induction Day for the SWEI. It was a pleasure to welcome everyone to the College and to wish them a great day as they participated in the programme. Teacher leadership is crucial as we strive to deliver success for our young people and this programme will help the teachers to develop this. I wish those who attended their induction day every success in the future and we look forward to hosting other events such as this at the College.”

Dundee and Angus College hosted at their Gardyne Campus, welcoming over 30 guests from across Tayside.

Christine Calder, Academic Development Lead, said:

“D&A College works closely with our Secondary Schools in our Region and Aberdeenshire working in collaboration to support our Future Talent through programmes such as Widening Access, Foundation Apprenticeships and our Senior Phase College Partnerships. As well as the intensive learning programme, this is a great opportunity to share best practices and for networking.”

The regional induction days finished on Mon 2 September with Forth Valley and West Lothian participants meeting for the first time at the Stirling Court Hotel.

Participants will now continue to keep in touch via their TLP blogs as they start to develop their enquiring stance and their ideas around leadership of and for learning. They will come back together in January to shape their own classroom enquiry and the finale of the programme will be the Sharing the Learning national summit where all participants will celebrate their completion and share their learning.

Huge thanks to the colleges, universities and museums who hosted the induction events, proving an interesting context for teachers out of school for the day.

The Professional Learning and Leadership team will continue to blog about the programme so watch this news feed for updates!