Author: Zoe Gordon, West Lothian
West Lothian and Falkirk 1+2 teams have been running a “Leadership of languages” course in conjunction with our partners Education Scotland and SCILT for the last three years. This year, with all training being online and travel and location not being a barrier, we decided to invite the full Forth Valley and West Lothian RIC to join us. Our colleagues from Stirling and Clackmannanshire were delighted to be a part of the 2020-21 project.
As well as the usual annual amendments to content, we had to make the course fit our new online Microsoft Teams platform. Two-hour long sessions were replaced with one-hour sessions and a “takeaway task”. Group discussions will still be possible thanks to breakout rooms, and collaboration and sharing will be enhanced through the use of digital tools such as padlet, wakelet and mentimeter.
We launched on the 4 November with 28 practitioners from primary and secondary across the four authorities. At our launch session, Louise Glen and Shona Hugh from Education Scotland gave us an update on the national picture, with a leadership slant. It was great for everyone to hear how far we have come in Scotland on our 1+2 journey, but with the all-important message for our audience of language leaders that we still have a way to go.
Participants left the session with a self-evaluation task to complete, looking at languages in their setting, which will be shared at the start of the next session. The course has a further six sessions between January and June and will include: whole school leadership, Developing the Young Workforce, progression, assessment and moderation, the digital landscape and parental engagement. Participants can choose to deliver a presentation at the end, sharing their journey.
The 1+2 language teams in each authority are collaborating to deliver different elements and sessions within the programme. We believe that this will allow the participants a truly unique opportunity to share, discuss and collaborate with colleagues in other regions and settings. We are all very excited about the journey we are undertaking. Watch this space!