We’re holding our first Depute Head Teacher’s Conference on Tuesday at the Marine Hotel, North Berwick.

The theme of the conference is Entrepreneurial Leadership. 27 Deputes will be in attendance.

I’m opening the conference, followed by Paul Raffaelli giving his perspective on Leadership in East Lothian.

Ewan MacIntosh will then present an on-line video presentation on an alternative curricular/school model he came across from Norway.  Alison Wishart then concludes the introduction by summarising some of the curricular approaches which are being developed in Australia.

The Deputes will then spend the next four hours in groups of four/five (a mix of secondary and primary) trying to take an entrepreneurial approach to solve the following hypothetical problem.

East Lothian is about to embark on a radical building programme where we will be building new school for 10-15 year olds.

Each school will have 700 pupils, 45 teaching staff and 20 support staff (there are no other limits on the school design or facilities_⁾

Your solution should address the following – but not necessarily as separate points. This list is not exhaustive.

1. Describe the aims of your school
2. Design your school building.
3. Design the staffing profile – subject specialists etc.
4. Design the leadership structure
5. Design the curriculum structure
6. Design the timetable structure/units of study
7. Design the organisation of classes/learners
8. Design the assessment structure
9. Describe how best you will make best use of the community
10. Describe how all pupils will be included and supported
11. Describe how you will make best use of technology
12. Describe the place of  home learning
13. Describe how teachers will develop their practice
14. Describe how the school will link with other schools, employers, further and higher education
15. Describe the self-evaluation process you would set up in our school.
16. Describe some of the unique featuire sof your school and children’s experience
17. ??  – any other suggestions for this scenario?

Groups will have access to a laptop, flipcharts and pens.

Each group will be invited to make 10 minute presentation at the end of the preparation period.

A prize might be on offer for the best proposal.

Discussion will take place about how limited we might be in relation to our current practice by “what we know” and our fear to take chances.

We will try to identify ways in which we can remove some of the barriers which might prevent tus fulfilling some of the more desirable elements of our proposed solutions.

Maureen Jobson will wind up the event by placing it in the context of what we are attempting to create in East Lothian.

We’ll be using these suggestions as a platform for our Curriculum Architecture Conference we are holding in the autumn.

I’m really looking forward to seeing how people work together and the ideas which this task generates.