Empowering teachers, parents and communities to achieve Excellence and Equity in Education

A Governance Review

RESPONDENT INFORMATION FORM:

Before beginning the Questionnaire, please tick one of the following categories:

Please Note this form must be returned with your questionnaire response.

School:

Stage:	e.g. P7, S2

Community

Teachers and other practitioners

Parent/Carer

Your views are important as they will help to inform the Council’s response to the Consultation document. We would therefore like your permission to include your views within the education authority response. However, your comments will remain anonymous:

“I wish my response to be considered as confidential with access restricted to elected members and council officers of East Lothian Council. My comments will not be made available to the public”

If you do not wish to share your views, please tick this box

QUESTIONNAIRE

Please note comment boxes will expand as you type your response in.

Question 1

What are the strengths of the current governance arrangements of Scottish education?

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Question 2

What are the barriers within the current governance arrangements to achieving the vision of excellence and equity for all?

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Question 3

Should the key principles below underpin our approach to reform? Are there other principles which should be applied?

be focused on improving outcomes and support the delivery of excellence and equity for children and young people

meet the needs of all of our children and young people, no matter where they live or their family circumstances

support and empower children and young people, parents/carers, teachers, practitioners and communities

be supported by a simple and transparent funding system to ensure the maximum public benefit and best value for money

support children and young people to make smooth transitions into formal learning, through school and into further education, training or employment

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Question 4

What changes to governance arrangements are required to support decisions about children’s learning and school life being taken at school level?

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Question 5

What services and support should be delivered by schools? What responsibilities should be devolved to teachers and Head Teachers to enable this? You may wish to provide examples of decisions currently taken by teachers or Head Teachers and decisions which cannot currently be made at school level.

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Question 6

How can children, parents/carers, communities, employers, colleges, universities and others play a stronger role in school life? What actions should be taken to support this?

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Question 7

How can the governance arrangements support more community-led early learning and childcare provision particularly in remote and rural areas?

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Question 8

How can effective collaboration amongst teachers and practitioners be further encouraged and incentivised?

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Question 9

What services and support functions could be provided more effectively through clusters of schools working together with partners?

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Question 10

What services or functions are best delivered at a regional level? This may include functions or services currently delivered at a local or a national level.

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Question 11

What factors should be considered when establishing new educational regions?

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Question 12

What services or support functions should be delivered at a national level?

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Question 13

How should governance support teacher education and professional learning in order to build the professional capacity we need?

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Question 14

Should the funding formula for schools be guided by the principles that it should support excellence and equity, be fair, simple, transparent, predictable and deliver value for money? Should other principles be used to inform the design of the formula?

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Question 15

What further controls over funding should be devolved to school level?

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Question 16

How could the accountability arrangements for education be improved?

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Question 17

Is there anything else you would like to add regarding the governance of education in Scotland?

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Thank you for completing this questionnaire. Please note the closing date for submission of completed questionnaires is Wednesday 14th December 2016.

Completed questionnaires should be returned via email to: governancereview@eastlothian.gov.uk

Written responses can also be returned by post to:

Governance Review

East Lothian Council

Resources and People Services

John Muir House

Haddington

EH41 3HA