Gillian Hamilton - who became interim chief executive of Education Scotland at the end of March - has the task of, as she puts it, “leading Education Scotland to its end”.
It is a challenge for which, she says in a new Education Scotland podcast, she is uniquely qualified after leading the Scottish College for Educational Leadership (SCEL) from its inception in 2014 to 2018, when that organisation was subsumed into Education Scotland following a surprise announcement the year before by then education secretary John Swinney.
She identifies the end of SCEL as a standalone body - it had initially emerged from a recommendation in Professor Graham Donaldson’s landmark 2011 report Teaching Scotland’s Future for “a virtual college of school leadership” - as one of the most challenging moments in a career in Scottish education that began when she qualified as a primary teacher, and now spans over 30 years.
Hamilton says that the decision was “a shock” she hadn’t seen coming and “a difficult period” for her and her team.
Ultimately, however, she came to realise the important thing was that the work continued, even if SCEL did not.
“Where I got to before we moved into Education Scotland was a recognition that what was important was the work - it wasn’t where the work sat in the system. It was about a need for the work to be done,” she says.
“I’m really proud actually that we moved into Education Scotland, that the team very much became a part of Education Scotland, were able to influence the work a bit more widely and that the programmes continued to grow and develop and get really excellent feedback.”
Now, Hamilton believes that experience will help her in her new role, which will see her steer Education Scotland through the government’s ongoing education reforms and, ultimately, see its inspection and support and improvement functions split, with two new national bodies formed.
Hamilton adds: “One of the challenges I will have in this interim chief executive role is actually leading Education Scotland to its end. That’s not the first time I’ve done that with an organisation and I think what I learned through that process is, again, what is important is the work and making sure that staff are supported, that they are informed - but actually they see all the opportunities that a transition can bring.”
She sees the process as “not the end of the road or the end of the work” but a new “chapter”, in which her experience of change at SCEL will be invaluable.
Hamilton - who makes her comments in the first episode of a new Education Scotland podcast designed to provide insight into its work and open up conversations about education - says she wants to ensure “a smooth transition for all our staff to two organisations”.
But she underlines that it “has to be more than that”, adding: “It can’t just be a smooth move with little change.”
She says: “I’m hoping our legacy for Scottish education will be two outstanding organisations who will be supporting Scotland’s learners and Scotland’s educators.”
To listen to the new Education Scotland Learning conversations podcast in full, click here.
