Short, medium and long term action plan agreed at Education Committee

At today’s (11 February) meeting of the Council’s Education Committee, Members agreed on The Highland Council’s Education and Learning three-year draft action plan covering short, medium and longer term priorities. This plan is currently the focus of consultation with all of our Highland schools, and ongoing collaboration with schools will underpin its future development.

Chair of the Education Committee, Cllr John Finlayson, said: “Looking towards the future, our focus is on collaboration, and enhancing the capacity of the system to continue to develop and improve outcomes, including engagement and collaboration with Education Scotland Action. 

“The pandemic, and our move to remote learning, can easily begin to focus discussion on the urgent short-term priorities. While these are important, this report and discussion today has shown that we also have an eye on education and learning beyond the pandemic. We continue to work towards improving the quality of the education and learning experience for our current and future generations of Highland learners.”

Short-term priorities

These priorities have been identified for immediate action while schools are open for vulnerable children and the children of certain key workers only:

• Managing remote learning expectations, including curricular progression and assessment strategies
• Supporting complex needs during remote learning period, including safeguarding
• Collecting data/tracking and monitoring progress with learning during remote learning period
• Communication with families and wider school communities
• Supporting transitions
• Supporting health and wellbeing
• Operational support for schools with staffing
• General operational support for Senior Management in schools

Medium and long-term priorities

Some of these priorities have been scaled back due to the pandemic, however some are relevant even while remote learning is taking place and work on these will be ongoing (much work has already been done).

Areas of work include: Leadership and Empowerment, Performance Analysis and Improving Outcomes, Assessment and Moderation, Early Learning and Childcare (ELC), Curriculum, Safeguarding, e-learning and Highland Virtual Academy (HVA), Inclusion and Health and Wellbeing.

Once schools return to face to face learning, the pace of implementation of these priorities will accelerate, though at all times the wellbeing and workload of staff in schools will determine the phasing of improvement activity.

Executive Chief Officer for Education and Learning, Nicky Grant said: “We have circulated our latest position statement which sets out clear parameters and expectations following Scottish Government guidelines, putting the health and safety and wellbeing of our children, young people and staff at the forefront of the return.

“Officers and head teachers have been focusing on a timeline of support for staff, children, young people and parents. This includes a framework of principles that meets the Highland context for curriculum delivery. We will also focus on Health and Wellbeing, Educational experiences and mitigating against the gap – clear communication for all will be important.”