Welcome back one and all! Is it my imagination or was that the fastest summer ever?

It was a busy old year last year and I don’t expect this year to be any different. Matthew has already outlined some of our priorities this year and as he says it’s exciting and challenging at the same time.

We met with our new probationer teachers last week. It’s always good to see their energy, enthusiasm and fear in equal measure! There was an opportunity for them to share what they were looking forward to and identify their concerns, needless to say there were similarities in both. We know from experience that our probationers get a wonderful, supportive experience in our schools for which we are really grateful.

We are also grateful to our Chief Executive Joyce White, who welcomed our probationers at St. Peter the Apostle High School. Joyce explained our ‘Be the Best’ initiative and shared the progress West Dunbartonshire Council has made over the past few years.

At the end of the summer term I was approached by Strathclyde University looking to introduce their partnership model for Initial Teacher Education. I was happy to agree with this given the success of the University of Glasgow model.  We are now in a very fortunate position where we have two models running from two Universities, and given the size of our authority this is quite an achievement.

I’m looking forward to working with Linda McGregor this year. Linda has an exciting role in supporting our probationer and supply teachers. We have plans afoot to develop professional learning opportunities aligning both groups of teachers with an emphasis on making professional learning relevant and self-organising.