Empowering Schools: A Consultation on the Provisions of the Education (Scotland) Bill

Overview

Empowering Schools: A Consultation on the Provisions of the Education (Scotland) Bill 2018

A Public Meeting is being held on Tuesday 9th January at 7pm in Musselburgh Grammar School.

The Scottish Government is seeking views on its proposal to “create a school and teacher-led education system and therefore to empower our schools and school leaders”.

The consultation seeks stakeholder’s views on 5 key aspects:

• Headteachers’ Charter
• Parental and Community Engagement
• Pupil Participation
• Regional Improvement Collaboratives
• Education Workforce Council for Scotland

Head Teacher Charter

The Education Bill will establish a Headteachers’ Charter. The purpose of the Charter is to set out the rights and responsibilities of headteachers that will empower them to be the leaders of learning and teaching in their schools. The Charter will also set out the responsibilities that local authorities will fulfil in order to enable headteachers to lead.

The Headteachers’ Charter will enable headteachers to make decisions in four key areas:

• Curriculum for Excellence
• Improvement
• Staffing
• Funding

Parental and Community Engagement and Pupil Participation

The Education Bill will also improve parental and community engagement in school life and in learning outside of school, and strengthen the voice of children and young people, by actively promoting and supporting pupil participation.

Regional Improvement Collaboratives

The Education Bill will provide the legislative underpinning for the establishment of Regional Improvement Collaboratives to fulfil their agreed functions which will include: regional priorities and regional improvement plans; professional learning and leadership; curriculum support; sector specific support; improvement methodology; sharing good practice and the impact of research; peer to peer and school to school collaboration and a regional approach to supporting staffing challenges.

Education Workforce Council for Scotland

An Education Workforce Council will be established to take on the responsibilities of the General Teaching Council for Scotland (GTCS) AND the Community Learning and Development Standards Council (CLDSC) and to establish appropriate professional standards for other groups within the education workforce.

More Information

You can view the Scottish Government's consultation document below as well as a presentation put together by East Lothian Council's Education Department.

The responses submitted will be collated and used to inform the East Lothian Council Education Department’s formal response to the national Consultation exercise.

In addition to submitting your views to East Lothian Council, please remember if you wish to reply directly to the Scottish Government you will need to do so separately through their consultation hub.