HEAD TEACHERS ADDRESS 2009

Good morning ladies and gentlemen.   It gives me great pleasure to deliver my annual address to the school.

The reading from Corinthians which opens our Prize giving Ceremony is there to make a clear statement of commitment by and from the staff to the pupils.   Schools can have as many carefully thought through policies as they could wish to formulate and have the most comprehensive and sophisticated improvement plan in the world but they will mean little if anything at all if the teachers are unable to form real and meaningful relationships with the pupils.   Understanding, trust, respect,  empathy and above all love are the qualities which make teachers good at their job and schools places in which young people will learn because they want to.

It is easy to forget this in the frenetic results driven, examination based culture in which we live.   It is very beguiling to measure success by the bean counting exercise which the evaluation of examination results can become.   The deaths of our colleagues Sheelagh Pakes and Jim McDonald were tragedies of a very personal nature which were deeply felt by every one of us.   We are grateful for their friendship and for their professional contribution to this school.  

More significantly however the success which  both of these colleagues had as teachers derived from the fact that they did have a love for children and indeed epitomised the American author Maya Agelou’s quote in that they truly “Loved children to success”

Let that be an epitaph to their impact on Harris Academy.

As is my want in my annual address I wish to look towards the direction of travel into the future for Harris Academy.

Like every school in the country we are exercising our individual and corporate minds towards the implementation of A Curriculum for Excellence in August 2010.   Like most schools we have had initial discussions and have a broad framework for moving forward but as yet no clear plan – that will come immediately after we return from the holiday.

A Curriculum for Excellence is a neatly packaged educational initiative.   No one can argue with the validity of the four key capacities which it aims to promote and develop in our young people.

Successful Learners

Confident Individuals

Responsible Citizens

Effective Contributors.

Looking at it in detail the outcomes and experiences adequately delineate an appropriate combination of essential skills knowledge and understanding.

I do however have concerns that on its own and particularly if it is implemented in an overly mechanistic and restrictive way A Curricular for Excellence will not prepare young people for what is becoming an increasingly uncertain and challenging future.   Furthermore, it begs enormous expectations of schools local authorities and the Scottish Government in their provision of resources and professional support for teachers to empower them to create and deliver a curriculum which will future proof young people enabling them to face the future with a confidence in their own ability and skill set.

Predicting the future is in many ways an impossible task

-Who in the scientific field foresaw bird flu, AIDS, Mad Cow Disease or Swine Flu.

-Few if any of the leading economists were two years ago predicting the global financial problems of the last nine months.

-Which of the football pundits predicted Newcastle United being relegated.

While those of us in education are in many ways little better prepared to predict future events,  it is,  I would suggest prudent to ensure that any curricular structure which we put in place take account of what Donald Rumsfeld called the “known unknowns”, for it is these which we must prepare young people to meet head on as and when the situation arises and demands.

I would wish to share with you this morning some of the major issues which in my opinion,  loom large in the future, and against the background of which, we must devise a curriculum which will prepare young people as human beings, as citizens and  as parents.

The United Kingdom population is ageing and will continue to do so as the 1950’s/60.’s baby boomer generation march towards retirement. The number of people over 65 is expected to increase by one third by 2020 to 13million with the number of over 85 to over 2 million.  Add to that the fact that by that time the number of people suffering from dementia will have doubled to over 1.5 million.  We must teach a decreasing number of school pupils how to support and care for an increasing number of longer living, longer retired and non productive elderly – I see no specific mention of this in the guidelines on how to be effective contributors.

Recent population movements mean that schools are teaching an increasing number of children who do not have English as a first language but who at the same time are highly motivated to learn, to advance themselves and to contribute to the Scottish economy.  In this increasingly polyglot culture schools must take the lead in educating young people in tolerance understanding and inclusion.  The recent success of the National Front in the European elections and the forcing of Romanian Immigrants from their homes in Belfast is a salutary warning and a challenge to us all – where do the guidelines on responsible citizenship mention this?

Any school curriculum must address the core skills which young people must master before they can hope to contribute to and prosper in the world at large.  A curriculum for Excellence in this context quite correctly focuses on literacy and numeracy.  Education however,  has always lagged behind developments in ICT with both learning about ICT and learning through ICT in schools constantly failing to be able to give young people  access to the most contemporary hardware.  The gap between what is available on the shelves of Comet and PC World and what is provided in the school grows exponentially.  This is a major issue for those who develop the curriculum and I would suggest for those who provide funding for its delivery.  If schools are to retain a credibility in the delivery of what is increasingly becoming a core skill for economic development then government must address the bizarre situation where equipment which we cannot afford to provide in schools can be given away free of charge as promotional items by mobile phone companies.

To think further ahead: are schools as we currently know them the most appropriate place for the development of ICT skills in young people: is the current system of examinations and qualifications the most effective way of assessing competence and mastery.  Furthermore,  is it not about time that the companies who constantly develop the next new step forward in hardware adopted a more socially responsible position in funding the teaching of what is a fundamental skill for economic development.

In Scotland we inhabit a small country with limited natural resources, distant from potential markets and on the fringe of the continental land mass.  If we are to be economically successful then it must be on account of intellectual property and value added through applied skill.  It is crucial therefore that schools through the curriculum prepare young people with an ICT literacy which will not only serve them well at the moment but will also enable them to adapt and develop in response to future patterns and developments – I see no real mention of this in relation to Successful Learners.

A Curriculum for Excellence places heavy emphasis on the responsibility of all teachers to promote healthy living and lifestyles through the curriculum.  Society faces a range of health challenges.  After years of regular decline smoking, particularly amongst young people is on the rise again.  Illness which has its genesis in the misuse of alcohol continues to rise as does the level of drug abuse and sexually transmitted disease.

The greatest threat to health and wellbeing in the developed world however, is obesity.  Most adults are already overweight and through a combination of poor diet and lack of exercise it is estimated that on current trends by 2020 up to 40% of the population will be obese with the consequent impact on obesity related diseases.

All of the diseases associated with lifestyle are preventable through personal choice.  Poor choices in regard of personal health will have significant impact on the level of public health spending and hence divert resources away from more socially beneficial projects.

Schools therefore have an obligation to produce confident individuals who are socially aware enough to make decisions in relation to the impact their personal choice will have on resource consumption.

These are then just a few of the many issues which while not specifically mentioned within any of the support materials and guidelines related to A Curriculum for Excellence obviously have a direct and interconnected relevance to any meaningful curriculum in the early part of the twenty first century.  By provoking us into a thorough examination and review of the entire school curriculum,   A Curriculum for Excellence has a huge potential to support young people in meeting future challenges with confidence.

 Please be assured that the staff of this school views the guidelines as issued as an indication of the bare minimum in terms of the curriculum.  This is the manner in which we have always viewed the education experience offered in the school.  You need only read the termly newsletter or today’s programme to gain some idea of the breadth, depth and variety of what is on offer to young people in Harris Academy. We view the guidelines as an opportunity to enhance and expand the experiences to our young people not as a straight jacket to restrict and confine teaching and learning.

Our curriculum will remain to be consistent within the demands challenges and opportunities that young people face.  I can confirm that the Parent Council on your behalf continues to push the case for a school building which can also meet the demands of the twenty first century.  I have no wish to raise any false expectations but I will confirm that over the past year Dundee City Council have supported a comprehensive feasibility study into the complete refurbishment of the current school campus with a new school built within the shell of the existing buildings and that architects have been charged with transforming the ambitions of the study into plans for a new Harris Academy.

This school is vibrant, ambitious, forward thinking and imaginative in all that it does.

Can I take opportunity to wish those pupils who leave us today the very best of good fortune in whatever the future holds for you.  You leave us as well prepared as any group of young people in the country.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank Mrs Condie who retires today after 24 years of service in Harris Academy.

School starts at 9.00am on August 17 for staff and on August 19 for pupils.

I wish you all a refreshing holiday.

I am proud to be Head teacher in Harris Academy.