Alan Cameron's Edublog Learning in the 3rd Millennium 

An early start and off to Castle Douglas to meet Headteachers and other senior staff to look at the new HMIE Inspection Process. The Douglas Arms Hotel had the heating on (which was good), and the group considered the new procedures for secondary schools. Staff from Castle Douglas, Dalry and St Joseph’s looked at the key features of the new inspections and heard from Frank Davis about Annan Academy’s recent inspection under the new arrangements.

We looked at an overview of the new inspection process considering

• the presentation to be given by the headteacher
• self-evaluation and its impact on learners
• the 5 core Quality Indicators 1.1, 2.1, 5.1, 5.3, 5.9
• opportunities for professional dialogue
• less documentation
• Community Learning & Development (CLD)

We also looked at the new HMIE documents ‘Improving our Curriculum Through Self-Evaluation’ and ‘Improving Outcomes for Learners Through Self-Evaluation’ (both published September 2008). The group undertook a short task in school groups considering questions such as ‘To what extent does our vision for the school give direction to self-evaluation?’ and then listing sources of evidence and how this evidence might be collected. Staff involved in today’s training session felt that the new documentation was very helpful as a tool to assist in the management of the self-evaluation process.