foolfillment: the blog

Since arriving at Hawick I feel like I’ve been rushed off my feet, with settling into the department and also whole school business. One project that I have been fortunate to be asked to get involved in is Global Ambition. This is a really exciting project that senior students can become involved in where they will be working with pupils from school around the world. It is being co-ordinated by Javier Vasquez, a Spaniard living in Lerwick in the Shetland Isles.

To get us started I was invited up to Shetland to spend a weekend with Javi and Stewart Hay – a legend in international education – and so I went last month with one of Hawick’s S6 pupils, only now have I found the time to write a few thoughts about this down on the blog.

Despite a stormy sailing on the Friday night we made it to Lerwick and settled down for some breakfast and the discussions began – with the rain still battering down outside. We were being hosted by Stewart, who is also hosting two students for the year. One from the Czech Republic, and one South African, both are studying at Anderson High School. It was striking just how massive an opportunity – and a challenge – this was for the two of them, but equally how confidently and happily they put themselves across during discussions on a variety of topics.

Over the weekend we considered a lot of the issues that the groups in the Global Ambition project will be tackling, and I think it was a great way for our S6 pupil to get started, it certainly gave him a lot to think about. We also had the chance to meet briefly with the group from Anderson High, a group of pupils who have a radially different lifestyle to those from Hawick, yet in so many ways very similar.

Admittedly we have been a little slow to get going with the work in Hawick but things are really under way now with pupils piecing together their personal profiles and along the way hopefully thinking about how they fit into their community – and what that word even means.

Over the coming weeks and months I expect to be writing a bit more here about how the Hawick group progress. Finally though I’d like to say thank you to Stewart and Javi for hosting us, we’re looking forward to working with you over this year.

With only two weeks to go until the new term, I’m feeling a lot more relaxed than I did this time last year. That may turn out to be me being foolhardy, as in so many ways I’m in a very similar situation. I’m about to start at a new school that I barely know, with colleagues and pupils I’ve not really met properly, except this year I have a full timetable and I don’t have weekly meetings with a supporter and the safety net of calling myself an NQT (except I think that term applies more now more than last year). Of course the big difference is this year I have a huge amount more experience and confidence to draw on.

Doug Belshaw wrote a great post last night, 4 quotations that will guide me next academic year, and it focussed my thinking a little. I’ve had loads of ideas running through my head ever since I got the job at Hawick about what I want to try and achieve. It’s easy to go into a department for just a few minutes and think that you can make changes, when of course you never get the full picture in such a short visit. There’s loads of good practice going on in Hawick and while I want to make changes and do a lot of my own things my first aim is to really make the most of the experience that is there already. Here’s another quote for you, one that has been all pervasive in my year at East Lothian : “We learn from our experience…..if we reflect upon our experience” John Dewey.

As I said Doug’s post focussed my thinking a little. Mainly about what I want to do with my first few months at Hawick, and I’ve now got a more organised set of targets. Doug also got me a little more focussed on another idea which I’m working on. I’ll tell you about that in a future blog post, I hope you’ll all be interested in it.

I was flicking through some bookmarks today and found this, absolutely brilliant!