Around 40 educators have been taking part in the Peer Coaching Programme over the last few weeks. This programme will be developed over the course of next session, enabling more people to access training and coaching to support them, and their teams, to lead improvement and change. Additional coaching offers, delivered in partnership with Growth Coaching UK and the GTCS, will also be shared after the break.

Our positive psychology webinars provided a fascinating insight into how we can make use of our character strengths to lead and support others and steps we can take to build resilience through 5 ways to wellbeing. Many thanks to Angie Shearer, Alford Academy and Clive Leach, Organisational Coach for facilitating these. Angie’s session focused on exploring character strengths is available in the Leadership Team (middle leadership channel)  if you missed it.

Last week we held our first “Conversation in Leadership”, an informal event designed to provide a forum for dialogue around current leadership issues. Many thanks to all those who joined us and our first brave guests who shared some of the challenges and opportunities of the last few months:  Anne Paterson (Chief Education Officer, Argyll and Bute), Louise Moir (HT Mackie Academy, Aberdeenshire), Wendy Bowan (HT Papdale Primary, Orkney)  and Andy Travis (Lead Specialist EiH, Education Scotland).

With so much leadership information available to support us as we return to school and renew our communities we have pulled together some of the key messages being shared by educationalists in relation to the Covid-19 recovery and renewal process in a Sway.  A select bibliography and links to webinars and articles referenced are provided at the end of the sway and further resources are available on the Leadership SharePoint. We hope you find it useful and look forward to working with you to build on this thinking in August.

You may also wish to read a recent national digital learning blog from our leadership workstream Lead Olwen Fraser:  https://professionallearning.education.gov.scot/blog/professional-learning-a-regional-reflection-what-to-stop-start-and-sustain/ Here, Olwen shares her experiences and thoughts on the impact that the Coronavirus Pandemic has had on professional learning.