Looking Back, Looking Forwards

Scottish Union Learning (SUL) funded courses are a familiar feature in the professional learning offer from the EIS and have been for a number of years.

So, as we come to the end of the latest funding cycle (1st April 2019 to 31st March 2021) we are taking a look back at what Scottish Union Learning and EIS have achieved together over this period

By the end of March 2021, around 750 members will have participated in one or more of the 65 courses delivered in the past two years. While this is a small percentage of the overall membership, the impacts on these individuals, their learners and their colleagues, and learning offered by the EIS, are innumerable.

Impacting Individual Learning

Here is how two members describe what EIS professional learning means to them:

“Where resources are at an all-time low in schools, and I seem to just be giving all of myself and getting not much in return…the EIS CPD courses are a huge support and they make me feel like I am still progressing as a professional and being kept up to date with what is important.”

“I’m a supply teacher, and as such have almost never been allocated places on school CPD programmes. The EIS courses thus give me a much-needed opportunity to develop professionally.”

From September 2019 until February 2020, we travelled the length and breadth of the country, from Thurso to Galashiels, to deliver courses that brought together people working and living in these areas. While people outside Central Scotland often comment they are used to travelling for training, the benefits of getting together in a familiar place, with local people who share similar issues and have local contacts, cannot be overlooked.

Developing New Ways of Working

Then came March 2020, and our model of delivering local learning was dramatically interrupted.

Supported by SUL funding, with the training partnerships built over the previous year, and members willing to give their time and expertise, we collectively and very quickly developed quality, interactive online professional learning.

While this has been in response to a crisis situation, the benefits of this learning will be long lived. For example, bringing together people from remote locations by virtual means is something that we will look to do long into the future.

As we face the fast-paced changes of the classroom and wider life in light of COVID-19, opportunities to learn and network with others have become even more important.

It is all too easy to turn the camera off, and have a webinar running in the background while we make the dinner, reply to emails, or juggle a host of other daily tasks. SUL courses are developed to be interactive, but recognising that being in one place for a set time is not possible for everyone, the EIS Professional Learning Blog records key learning and resources from courses, that are made freely available.

Substantial Funding for Well-being

The 2019 SNCT agreement on teachers’ pay included a focus on teacher health and well-being, prioritised in the interests of teachers, workforce retention, and young people’s educational experiences and outcomes. Professional learning has an important place in equipping participants with the skills and resilience to support their own and others’ health and well-being in relation to their work.

From October 2019 to January 2021, over 170 members have participated in wellbeing focused learning opportunities, the majority of which have been funded by Scottish Union Learning.

In response to participant feedback, member survey feedback, and taking cognisance of the current context we all live and work in, the EIS will host the Our Wellbeing Matters Programme, running from February to June 2021. The programme will focus on a different aspect of well-being each week.

Our Vision for the Next Two Years

The long-standing SUL-EIS friendship will enable us to continue to ensure we are at the heart of our own professional learning, that our classrooms are at the heart of the school environment, and the school is at the heart of the wider community.

Of equal importance is being able to respond to the topics that are of interest, in the ways that will best engage us. While we don’t know precisely what’s coming next in terms of professional challenges, we do know that with SUL funding, we can respond quickly and effectively.

For more information on upcoming Professional Learning opportunities, please visit the EIS website.