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item
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issues
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action
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present
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Doug Cameron (Bridge of Don Academy), Judy Palmer (Bankhead Academy), Gillian Brown (Harlaw Academy), Liz Goodall (Torry Academy), Louise Franklin (Hazlehead Academy), Mary Thom (Kincorth Academy), Noelle Straiton (Aberdeen Grammar School), Liz Mieklejohn (Dyce Academy), Sally Gordon (Cults Academy), Jerry Williams (Carden School), Terry Ashton, Adviser (Guidance and Careers)
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apologies
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Roger Benton, Northfield Academy
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minutes of previous meeting
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Matters arising were
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procedures for persistent absenteeism:
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Kincorth still had no home school liaison officer after a long gap due to the secondment of the permanent postholder
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Despite two Guidance Teachers (Chris Ryburn and Neil Montgomery) having volunteered to be members of the Aberdeen City group set up to review the Home school Liaison services, they had received no communication about meetings
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the Guidance team in one school did not seem to have received the circular about confidentiality of careers information sent to schools at the beginning of term.
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Terry would investigate
Terry would enquire about this
If this could not be located, they would contact Terry to provide another copy
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Scottish Guidance Association (SGA)
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Liz Mieklejohn had volunteered to be a member of the SGA committee. She spoke positively about the benefits of membership of the SGA, and encouraged schools to joining. A school membership costs £25 per year, but individuals can also join.
Liz outlined the types of events which have characterized the annual workshop day (the next one is on 24 February 2001) and the huge benefits obtained from the various workshops and from meeting Guidance Teachers from different authorities. The conference day in June (the next one is on 9 June 2001) is equally beneficial and has one or more high profile speakers.
The more members the SGA has, the more likely it will be to be able to represent the views of Guidance Teachers across Scotland.
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Everyone would go beck to Guidance teams and suggest the possibility of membership particularly a school membership. The membership secretary of the SGA is Alex Edwardson at Dumbarton Academy G82 2AJ tel .
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Sex education
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Terry outlined the content of draft guidance that has been circulated to schools by Learning and Teaching Scotland for consultation. They result from the condition attached to the repeal of Section 2A that the Scottish Executive would provide guidance to local authorities and schools. There are four documents:
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a Guide for Parents and Carers
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Guidance for Schools and Local Authorities on consultation with parents and carers
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Summery of National Advice
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Questionnaire
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draft circular from the Scottish Executive
Consultation runs until 22 December, and responses from individuals and schools are welcomed. Aberdeen City will be submitting a response.
Those who had managed to read the guidance felt that we could actively support and benefit from it.
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Each person would alert their Guidance team to the consultation and the content of the documents. Any ideas which schools/ Guidance teams think should be included in the Aberdeen City response should be sent to Terry as soon as possible.
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Craigielea and the Acorn Project
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Douglas Marshall and Jenny Bowman of Craigielea described the Acorn Project and referral procedure, and the success the project seems to be having with young people who are chronic non-attenders. Links between the project and Guidance/ careers guidance and work experience were discussed. A leaflet was distributed
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Each person would inform Guidance teams of the projects work
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The Young Peoples Counsellor
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Sandra Mojsiewicz had recently been appointed as the Young Peoples Counsellor in Northfield ASG. The post is funded under the Excellence Fund (Alternatives to Exclusion) and Sandra is seconded from her post as Principal Teacher (Guidance) at Bankhead Academy.
Sandra described the encouraging start to the project and the successful low-key publicity, which had been based on speaking to pupils in PSE in the Academy and discussing her role with teachers. Word of mouth from those pupils who had met Sandra seemed to be the most effective advertisement. The counselling is via self-referral (sometimes assisted self-referral) and is confidential unless the pupils wishes the involvement of others or if there is danger to the pupil or others. Confidentiality is an important issue for pupils who believe that "teachers tell".
The service is seen as part of pupil support, but also separate from other things that are offered; pupils seem to be able to work this out quite satisfactorily.
Demand is high, even though the service has only operated for six school weeks.
Sandra is also working in two Northfield ASG primary schools (Quarryhill and Middlefield), where she started by speaking with parents, some of whom had spoken individually to Sandra to "check her out". In primary too, if a young person does not want counselling, then it does not continue. After six weeks the caseload is 6 pupils in each primary school.
Sandra has also spent time talking to various support agencies, including Child and Family Psychiatry, the Lowit Unit and the IT team.
Sandra made the point that in schools most problems are rooted in personal issues, and yet schools and Guidance Teachers often deal with the secondary problems which are more evident and do not often have time to deal with the primary problem.
The project is being evaluated through the Education department Psychology Service.
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Each person would inform Guidance teams of Sandras work.
The group invited Sandra to the next Aberdeen Guidance Network meeting to discuss the project again.
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Guidance policy/ handbook development in Aberdeen
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Terry outlined the progress made by the Working Group on Guidance/PSE. The group aims to produce a revised policy/handbook on Guidance during 2001, and has embarked on an extensive consultation exercise.
This began with consultation with young people through the Student Forum and from the Forum to pupil councils and others in individual schools. Several primary and secondary schools were also involved in consultations with class groups of young people carried out and analysed by Rochelle Maxwell of Cults Academy (unfortunately for the group, Rochelle has now left to live elsewhere). These consultations were extremely valuable and expertly carried out by Rochelle.
Consultation with parents has begun with the Parents Forum and a request for its members to consult with parent bodies in individual schools.
Over the next week or two, a document (circulated at the meeting) will be distributed to schools and other agencies and organisations with an interest, to ask for views about Guidance/pastoral care/PSE.
The groups strategy has been to produce a very open-ended questionnaire, with a supporting document about the background, rather than to produce even a draft policy/handbook first.
The Aberdeen Guidance Network members approved this course of action and noted positively its difference from most other consultation exercises.
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Each person would inform Guidance teams of the progress with this development and encourage Guidance Teachers and others to respond to the consultation.
They noted that respondents did not need to answer the whole questionnaire, but simply the questions they felt they wished to comment upon.
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Drugs education and drugs incidents
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Details of the national drugs strategy and that of Aberdeen Drugs Action team were briefly outlined and related to the training plan for the Education Department in this area.
The group was also alerted to the Scottish Executives pack on Drugs Incidents in Schools, which is just about to be distributed to schools. The tone of the pack complements very well Aberdeen Citys own policy on Dealing with Drugs Incidents in Schools, and the two should be read/discussed together.
[Terry forgot to mention also that there is a small group working on a small booklet for schools about organising drugs awareness evening for parents more about this later]
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The group would encourage Guidance teams to study the pack when it arrived.
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Action plan for Aberdeen Guidance Network
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The group discussed how the 12 development days (6 for Higher Still and 6 for 5-14) allocated to the group should be used. It was decided that what was really needed in Guidance at the moment in relation to both Higher Still and 5-14 was a collection of good practice in monitoring pupil progress through Guidance.
It was decided that the groups development plan should focus on finding out and publishing as much good practice as could be gleaned from the authority and around Scotland in a 12 day secondment, and that a case should be made for combining the Higher Still and 5-14 allocation of days as the issue was relevant throughout secondary school (and indeed in primary too).
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The group members would consider whether they wished to be involved in this project, or whether others in their school might be interested. Terry would write to school Guidance teams with details of the task required and those interested would contact him as soon as possible. Terry would also compile and submit an appropriate development plan.
more details
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Progress File
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There was a brief discussion about Progress File, which all schools should now be doing instead of the old-style National Record of Achievement. The main points made in the discussion were
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the new format of the final product is not as professional-looking as the old NRA
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Some people found the pupil booklets of limited use and had modified materials and developed their own an entirely satisfactory approach.
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The focus on the process rather than solely on the product was welcomed.
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AOCB
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The issue of confidentiality was raised, and in particular the issue of transfer of information not just within the authority but also when pupils moved form/to schools in other authorities. It was noted that the Confidentiality Working Group was still part way through its work. The Aberdeen Guidance Network eagerly awaits the results of their work.
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There was a suggestion that an inservice should be arranged about electronic UCAS
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There would be no Guidance inservice on the 17 November, but on 21 February there will be an important inservice about Education for Work a national priority area.
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Terry would investigate the possibility of this, maybe on one of the February inservice days
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