Highland educators to address attainment gap with ‘Equity Week’
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Education specialists from across the north of Scotland are to deliver a week-long series of digital events for teachers from the end of September as part of a drive to increase awareness about child poverty in Scotland and the impact this has on learning.
Led by the Northern Alliance, a regional improvement organisation, in collaboration with Education Scotland, Promoting Equity Week will run from Monday September 28 and will help schools across the region consider the barriers faced by young people living in poverty and investigate the pressures the pandemic has had on vulnerable and disadvantaged children.
Teachers will have an opportunity to look at taking steps in school to explore how they can best use Attainment Scotland funding and share ideas on how to address the poverty-related attainment gap.
Lead officer Scott Calder said: “At this time of pandemic, achieving equity for all our young people has never been more important or more challenging. Promoting Equity Week will provide an important opportunity to collaborate on what is working, share research and provide professional learning opportunities which will support the work of educators across the Northern Alliance.
"We hope it will help colleagues’ in understanding equity, raising attainment and closing the poverty-related attainment gap for our young people.”
"Each day of Promoting Equity Week will cover a different theme, with expert inputs and opportunities to attend sessions on everything from using local data to inform practice to family learning and partnerships.
"There will also be resources for practitioners available to use from the middle of September which will actively engage pupils around the theme of equity in school."
David Gregory who is senior regional advisor for Education Scotland’s northern team said: “It’s important we support all teachers and practitioners to develop their understanding about the issues being faced by children and young people in order to put in place the best solutions at a local level. Promoting Equity Week will provide a great opportunity to gain new insight as well as share examples of what has really worked.”
A website has been set up to share the highlights about Promoting Equity Week and encourage practitioners to sign up for events: https://sites.google.com/as.glow.scot/promotingequityweek/home .
