SCOTTISH LEARNING FESTIVAL

No visit to the Scottish Learning Festival will be complete without a tour of the exhibition floor. We look at some of this year’s main attractions and zones

authorities, senior management teams and teachers have the opportunity to discover and get to grips with a host of education sessions and vast array of innovative products and services in the exhibition area. Here is an overview of some of the main features.

W The Scottish Education Village

The Scottish Education Village is home to Learning and Teaching Scotland, the Scottish government, the Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA) and HMIE. This year, the area will have new interactive features

including “Meet the Team” sessions giving the opportunity to talk with staff from across the organisations. Delegates can speak to the Learning and Teaching

Scotland educational team about a range of activity in areas including curriculum, assessment, Glow and technology, and community learning and development in addition to learning more about specific activity, for example the National Assessment Resource (NAR), literacy, numeracy, early years or health and wellbeing. The team will be available to demonstrate resources,

answer queries or simply have a chat about any of our work. The stand will also feature a pupil-led Glow TV studio and game-based learning area where visitors can get active with the Just Dance demonstration or venture into Wild Earth African Safari. The SQA exhibition stand will have the latest

developments in qualifications, assessment, support, and CPD. The HMIE stand will provide visitors with the

opportunity to attend informal workshop sessions focusing on support work for Curriculum for Excellence and developments in school inspections.

Times are tight in schools across the UK. Ray Barker

reports on BESA research into the situation in Scotland, where schools are trying to tackle the new Curriculum for Excellence while balancing their books

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RECENT STUDY by the British Educational Suppliers Association of 512 Scottish maintained schools (400 primary and 112 secondary), identified a reduction in the secondary schools’ budget of around

£100,000. This represents a 2.8 per cent drop, despite the fact that they are going through curriculum change with the Curriculum for Excellence. What became clear from the headteachers’

responses was the reduction in resource budget allocations in secondary schools for 2011/12 of 2.4 per cent was double that expected in primary schools. The survey went on to analyse this cut and

understand which areas of classroom resource budgeting will be the hardest hit. On average, resource spending in secondary

schools accounted for 2.7 per cent of school budgets in Scotland. What became clear from the survey was that the reduction in resource budget allocations of 2.4 per cent for 2011/12 was lower than the overall budget. A component of resource spending in schools is of

course classroom learning resources. For the purpose of this research, “classroom learning resources” were defined as including books, games, consumables,

Balancing the books

software, digital content and other materials used to support learning. In 2009/10, the level of spending on learning

resources in secondary schools averaged £42,680 which was 2.2 per cent more than the previous year and showed positive growth (when resource budgets recorded negative growth). However, for 2010/11, secondary schools in Scotland

are anticipating a spending reduction of 1.1 per cent, which equates to the estimated spending reduction on other products including furniture and ICT. While it is difficult for headteachers to anticipate

future spending on learning resources, the surveyed schools were asked to indicate expected spending in 2011/12. While some schools indicated similar spending (within one per cent of the previous year), around a quarter indicated more significant contractions in spending. Overall, spending on learning resources was anticipated to decline by 1.7 per cent. These budget reductions will not come as a surprise.

However, what came to light from the research was the headteachers’ feelings about the adequacy of the anticipated funding in each category of classroom learning resource. The research showed that headteachers of primary

schools are more polarised than secondary schools about the adequacy of resources across most areas, showing an relatively even split of those who feel they will have adequate resource and those who are concerned that they will not. The two areas of resourcing that attracted the

strongest opinion by headteachers was the funding for learning assistants and books.

Learning assistants

It was clear from the research results that headteachers in both primary and secondary schools felt that learning assistants are most likely to be under threat from inadequate funding. However, there was a notable lack of confidence in

the adequacy of the funding available to both primary and secondary schools. Sixty per cent of both primary and secondary schools felt that the anticipated funding would be unlikely or very unlikely to be adequate while just 33 per cent of primary schools and 38 per cent of secondary schools felt it was likely or very likely to be adequate.

Funding for books (text and reference)

In comparison to the opinions given for learning assistants, few schools suggested that inadequacy of

ITH THIS year’s Scottish Learning Festival (SLF) rooted in leading and developing the application of Curriculum for Excellence as it reaches full adoption across Scotland, local

Best in show These areas will include planning and evaluating

the curriculum, assessment, interdisciplinary learning, transitions, learning communities, international education, and the School Inspection Framework Review. There will be opportunities to see demonstrations of the Journey to Excellence resource and have discussions with HMIE staff. Finally, at the Smarter Scotland stand delegates

can have a say on key education issues. There will be live online discussions (www.engageforeducation. org), while visitors will be able to talk face- to-face with Scottish government staff. In the presentation area, delegates can hear more about current policy developments, participate in small group discussions, and put their questions to the presenters.

Education Showcase

The Education Showcase is an opportunity to see what’s happening in Scottish education. Demonstrating exciting new and innovative teaching practice, these sessions will be hosted by educationalists and young

people from throughout Scotland featuring a range of activities. Delegates can find details of the various showcases on the online timetable, or just come along and see what’s on offer on the day.

Discussion Zone

Providing visitors with the opportunity to take part in small-scale, in-depth discussions with colleagues and experts, the Discussion Zone is a place to discuss key issues in an informal, relaxed environment. Taking place in the main exhibition hall, the sessions

are led by presenters from the conference programme and cover a wide range of education topics and projects, with a focus on the information needs of the participants. There is no need to book, delegates can go along and join a group.

Learning and Practice

Designed to complement the conference programme, the Learning in Practice area is home to the Local Authority, Developing Global Citizens, and Cultural Villages, and is a good place to find out more about

what’s happening across the country and about the resources available to you.

Products and resources

Learning and Teaching Scotland is welcoming more than 200 companies to the event, all showcasing and demonstrating thousands of products and services designed to support learning and teaching in Scotland. Exhibitors range from charities to large ICT

manufacturers offering everything from classroom resources and education services to ICT software and hardware. Among the highlights will be the launch of

Promethean’s “Giving Every Child a Voice” mobile phone recycling campaign, which has been created in partnership with ChildLine and is asking schools to exchange old mobile phones for a set of Promethean’s handheld voting devices while raising funds for ChildLine. A full list of exhibitors, listed by product

type, is available on the festival website at www.scottishlearningfestival.org.uk

SecEd

funding will impact on book provision. Secondary schools showed confidence in the adequacy of funding for books. Sxity-six per cent of respondents felt the funding was likely or very likely to be adequate while just 34 per cent felt that funding was unlikely or very unlikely to be adequate. These findings could be attributed to the fact

that schools can leverage their ICT budget for ebooks and online content. However, looking at this another way we could ask whether these findings mean that headteachers place a lower value on traditional books. Whatever the interpretation, it still means that Scottish schools are allocating large budgets for paper-based resources for teaching and learning.

ICT and hardware

The strongest but most polarised statement made by secondary schools related to the adequacy of provision for ICT. Fifty-three per cent felt the funding was unlikely or very unlikely to be adequate while 47 per cent felt it was likely or very likely to be adequate. Possibly the most surprising difference in view

between primary and secondary education related to play and sports equipment. While 62 per cent of secondary schools felt the funding was unlikely or very unlikely to be adequate, only 51 per cent of primary schools held the same view. Focusing specifically on ICT resources, schools

were asked to indicate the adequacy of provision for desktops, laptops, peripherals, broadband connectivity and digital content. Although secondary schools are more likely to

be well resourced than primary schools, a third of secondary schools felt they are under-resourced in all areas. The most significant finding was that only 17 per cent of secondary schools stated that they were well resourced for curriculum software and digital content. The importance of a variety of innovative and

quality resources will be evident now as the new school year gets underway and the Curriculum for Excellence, which has been four years in development, takes effect in schools. This aims to give teachers more freedom and make lessons less prescriptive, and this approach will need resources and equipment to support young people and teachers alike.

SecEd

• Ray Barker is director of the British Educational Suppliers Association. Visit www.besa.org.uk

SecEd • August 26 2010

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