Today is the day!
After a lot of planning and anticipation Hamilton Grammar's News Club and Writer's Group are in the process of investigating and reporting on news events in and around the school.
Mr Bowen and Mrs Kelly have done a fab job in helping the pupils learn about journalism and presenting, but now is the time for the pupils to come into their own!
I am hoping that these new found skills will encourage the pupils to join in HGS Digital and Weh TV! I know a few of the BBC kids have already been instrumental in our pilot programme, but the more the merrier.
I have helped some of the BBC School Reporters with podcasting and again I hope they use their skills to great effect!
Here is a link to the practice day http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/school_report/7842302.stm
and here is the news as it happens!!! http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/school_report/default.stm
Thursday 26 March 2009
The Apprentice Back on BBC 1
Sir Alan Sugar, the man behind Amstrad, is looking for a new Apprentice. Last year Lee McQueen won despite lying on his CV (heavily criticised by other business leaders) and performing his incredible reverse pterodactyl.
This year we have 8 bossy females and 7 cocky males. One of the men already quit. He 'bottled' it according to Sugar.
Last night the teams were divided into boys and girls. The boys took the rather dodgy name of Empire which signified their Britishness, whereas the girls came up with Ignite.
The task was to run a car valleting service. There wasn't much in the actual takings or the eventual profit which caused one of Businesses worst cliches to rear its ugly head...again:
"Turnover is vanity; profit is sanity". It is very true but every Tom, Dick and Harry now use it. Duncan Bannantyne is particularly prone to it in Dragons Den!
Things came to a head in the girls team and in the Boardroom when losing Project Manager Mona took Debra and Anita back into the firing line. A series of digs at each other and lack of accountability riled Sir Alan. Eventually it was 35 year old Business Strategist and hot shot lawyer Anita who was fired.
She claimed Sir Alan doesn't like lawyers (a couple of years ago feisty Scots attorney Karen Bremmner was a brilliant candidate and yet was harshly fired early on) but Sugar insisted that she had not displayed any business acumen.
Anita had really set herself up for a fall though by claiming she was exceptional and outstanding and other hyperbolic terms.
If you talk the talk you have to walk the walk!
I do hope you watch it as it is educational and highly entertaining. Though it does not come close to the superior and original USA version starring my hero... Donald Trump!
Brian Clough - Managerial Genius
Some of you will be too young to remember Brian Clough. He was a remarkable and controversial figure when I was a lad.
He is now coming again to prominence thanks to the book The Damned Utd by David Peace and the new film of the book starring Michael Sheen.
Cloughie was a prolific goalscorer for Middlesbrough (his hometown team) and Sunderland in the late 1950s and early 1960s. His goals were all in the lower leagues and he only gained 2 full England caps. A bad collision with the Bury goalkeeper in winter 1962 ended his playing career early.
Clough then went in to management at Hartelpools (as they were called then) generating publicity for the club - and even drove the team bus!
He then took over at Second Division Derby County and won them the Second Division Championship and then the League Championship in 1972. He took Derby to the semi-finals of the European Cup only to lose to Juventus. His after match remarks caused great controversy when he accused the Italians of being in cahoots with the West German referee. This diplomatic gaffe was one of the reasons he was never appointed to his dream job: England manager.
He had a flourishing TV career and was TV's most controversial football pundit. This led to clashes with his Derby chairman and he resigned!
He then accepted the job at Leeds United - the best team in England and the current champions. He had previously slated Leeds for being cynical and dirty - and he disliked their successful manager, Don Revie. Clough lasted only 44 days.
He then went to sleepy Nottingham Forest who were near the bottom of the Second Division and not only got promotion but then won the League Championship in 1978. Cloughie then won two successive European Cups with Forest in 1979 and 1980. This was an achievement even the great Leeds Utd team of Don Revie could not achieve.
Why was Brian Clough so special?
He believed in discipline, having control of everything football related, but most of all he was a motivator. He created belief in his players.
This charismatic style of leadership is not very common as most managers in business will control, lead or manage through fear and bullying. Clough was accused of bullying but perhaps we can view it as Autocratic leadership style.
The difference is that Clough was loved by his players. They respected him and respected his achievements.
Clough was also an excellent communicator, an important role for any manager. And even though it didn't look like it to the cameras, he has excellent interpersonal skills in knowing how to deal with people. Some he would challenge and motivate to produce their best; others he would take under his wing and build their confidence.
Cloughie was also a team player as he worked for large parts of his career with Peter Taylor, his valued assistant. They were never as good apart. Taylor could spot potential in players which other scouts missed.
Perhaps Jose Mourinho is the nearest thing we have to a modern day Clough, but I would say Jose is Clough-lite.There may be many great football managers and leaders, but there is only one Brian Clough.
To leave you this is best perhaps the ultimate Brian Clough quote:
"I don't think I am the best manager in the business. But I am in the top one."
Wednesday 25 March 2009
HMIe Inspection Report
Our school, Hamilton Grammar was recently inspected by HMIe.
The report has been published and is available to review here.
The report has been published and is available to review here.
Tuesday 24 March 2009
International Education and Building Links with Global Schools!
We now have three schools in three different continents which we have set up blogs and email communication for future curricular development!
We have Pierre Elliot Trudeau in Ontario, Canada...
Southern River College in Gosnells, Western Australia
Donkorkrom Agricultural School in Ghana.
I will be visiting Donkorkrom in the summer, but fingers crossed in the future I may get to go to Canada and Australia!
I have set up the blogs with the schools and hope to help the educators from across the world to get blogging.
Once they are up to speed with events then we can get our students sharing experiences and perhaps even working on projects together.
My S3 Admin class are in the process of starting correspondence with a Year 11 English class in Western Australia, and hopefully from this small start we can then tailor off to relevant subject areas. But I guess we have to walk before we can run as the time difference is crazy!
I'm going to create a welcome podcast with my pupils and post it to the blogs to see if we can create more discussion and dialogue with our International Partners.
Citizenship is such a worthwhile cause... I was always very interested in global affairs and other nations, peoples etc ever since I was in Primary school. To get to speak and communicate with educators and students across the world is mind blowing!
Anyway, I'll keep posting updates on here as we go.
We have Pierre Elliot Trudeau in Ontario, Canada...
Southern River College in Gosnells, Western Australia
Donkorkrom Agricultural School in Ghana.
I will be visiting Donkorkrom in the summer, but fingers crossed in the future I may get to go to Canada and Australia!
I have set up the blogs with the schools and hope to help the educators from across the world to get blogging.
Once they are up to speed with events then we can get our students sharing experiences and perhaps even working on projects together.
My S3 Admin class are in the process of starting correspondence with a Year 11 English class in Western Australia, and hopefully from this small start we can then tailor off to relevant subject areas. But I guess we have to walk before we can run as the time difference is crazy!
I'm going to create a welcome podcast with my pupils and post it to the blogs to see if we can create more discussion and dialogue with our International Partners.
Citizenship is such a worthwhile cause... I was always very interested in global affairs and other nations, peoples etc ever since I was in Primary school. To get to speak and communicate with educators and students across the world is mind blowing!
Anyway, I'll keep posting updates on here as we go.
Monday 23 March 2009
Enterprising Education in St Andrew's and St Bride's Secondary
Earlier today I visited St Andrew's and St Bride's Secondary in East Kilbride to discuss their enterprising methods of teaching.
It was very interesting and centred mainly on some excellent work undertaken by the Science department in the school. I was shown round by Mrs Agnew, a DHT.
Without giving too much away, as I don't want to steal their thunder, the basis for the work was to have pupil centred lessons whereby the S2 Science students were working towards a realistic design brief which was part of the course. A fictitious company called Besto Boilers was created to put all the learning into context.
Pupils worked in small teams and researched the design problems and over a period of time collated the information and presented it back to teachers and their peers in a presentation.
This obviously improved communication, team working and presentation skills, not to mention their research and analytical skills.
Pupils were encouraged to become independent learners and the principles of the tasks were planned with Curriculum for Excellence in mind.
A comparison of pupils learning in this enterprising way with the more traditional method is to be undertaken. The results will be interesting!
The hard work of the teaching staff has paid dividends by the feedback they have received so far. It certainly is much more interesting and enjoyable for pupils to learn in this way.
It has given me a few ideas and I will share what I saw with Mr Colin Stewart, our Headteacher and Mr Dyer, the Faculty Head of Science. Perhaps Mr Dyer and I can chat about this in Ghana!
It was very interesting and centred mainly on some excellent work undertaken by the Science department in the school. I was shown round by Mrs Agnew, a DHT.
Without giving too much away, as I don't want to steal their thunder, the basis for the work was to have pupil centred lessons whereby the S2 Science students were working towards a realistic design brief which was part of the course. A fictitious company called Besto Boilers was created to put all the learning into context.
Pupils worked in small teams and researched the design problems and over a period of time collated the information and presented it back to teachers and their peers in a presentation.
This obviously improved communication, team working and presentation skills, not to mention their research and analytical skills.
Pupils were encouraged to become independent learners and the principles of the tasks were planned with Curriculum for Excellence in mind.
A comparison of pupils learning in this enterprising way with the more traditional method is to be undertaken. The results will be interesting!
The hard work of the teaching staff has paid dividends by the feedback they have received so far. It certainly is much more interesting and enjoyable for pupils to learn in this way.
It has given me a few ideas and I will share what I saw with Mr Colin Stewart, our Headteacher and Mr Dyer, the Faculty Head of Science. Perhaps Mr Dyer and I can chat about this in Ghana!
Friday 13 March 2009
Harvard Business School
Some of you will have heard of Michael Porter, one of the world's leading business consultants and an expert on Competitive Advantage.
Michael Porter is one of the professors at Harvard Business School - the world's premier Business School.
Harvard invented the Case Study Method for learning and teaching, which is used in many disciplines but obviously is very important and effective in examining what has happened to failing businesses at certain points of time.
Harvard Business School also publishes the best business quarterly, the Harvard Business Review, which contains research on all aspects of business: Marketing, Finance, Operations, Human Resources, Consumer Psychology and Strategic Management.
Harvard's MBA is one of the most prestigious qualifications in the world. It opens many doors for the budding entrepreneur and aids their networking!
From wikipedia:
The school's faculty are divided into ten academic units: Accounting and Management; Business, Government and the International Economy; Entrepreneurial Management; Finance; General Management; Marketing; Negotiation, Organizations & Markets; Organizational Behavior; Strategy; and Technology and Operations Management.
Harvard look for students who are leaders, have the capacity for intellectual growth, and are driven to make a difference in their community.
Alumni include:
Robert S. McNamara - former president of Ford Motor Company, president of the World Bank but most famously as US Secretary of Defense in both the Kennedy and Johnson Administrations
Orin C. Smith - former CEO of Starbucks
Robert Kraft - CEO of the Kraft Group
George W. Bush - the 43rd President of the United States
In the USA Business is serious stuff!
Michael Porter is one of the professors at Harvard Business School - the world's premier Business School.
Harvard invented the Case Study Method for learning and teaching, which is used in many disciplines but obviously is very important and effective in examining what has happened to failing businesses at certain points of time.
Harvard Business School also publishes the best business quarterly, the Harvard Business Review, which contains research on all aspects of business: Marketing, Finance, Operations, Human Resources, Consumer Psychology and Strategic Management.
Harvard's MBA is one of the most prestigious qualifications in the world. It opens many doors for the budding entrepreneur and aids their networking!
From wikipedia:
The school's faculty are divided into ten academic units: Accounting and Management; Business, Government and the International Economy; Entrepreneurial Management; Finance; General Management; Marketing; Negotiation, Organizations & Markets; Organizational Behavior; Strategy; and Technology and Operations Management.
Harvard look for students who are leaders, have the capacity for intellectual growth, and are driven to make a difference in their community.
Alumni include:
Robert S. McNamara - former president of Ford Motor Company, president of the World Bank but most famously as US Secretary of Defense in both the Kennedy and Johnson Administrations
Orin C. Smith - former CEO of Starbucks
Robert Kraft - CEO of the Kraft Group
George W. Bush - the 43rd President of the United States
In the USA Business is serious stuff!
Thursday 12 March 2009
Billionaires Go Bust
Even Billionaires have been hit by the credit crunch. Everyone is losing money and Warren Buffet - the man who ended Bill Gates's 13 year reign as the World's Richest Man lost $25bn!Bill Gates lost $18bn himself but now is back at the top of the pile with $40bn.
As for the distribution of billionaires worldwide, the USA still has almost double that of Europe.
New York is now the number one city for Billionaires, with Moscow - the previous top dog - slipping to third. London is number two.
Who knows what lies ahead, but the numbers floating around boggle the mind.
Sunday 8 March 2009
Mr Arthur has created a blog page for SG Admin past papers which I will post on the other pages also.
http://adminpapers.blogspot.com/
http://adminpapers.blogspot.com/
In the News...
Bank nationalisation 'not needed'
Business Secretary, Lord Mandelson, has reiterated that the government has no plans to nationalise the banking sector.
His comments come two days after the government increased its stake in Lloyd Banking Group to 65% from 43%.
Principles' 2,300 staff face axe
A significant number of the 2,300 staff at the Principles high street fashion chain are to go, administrators said.
Lee Manning from Deloitte blamed "current market conditions" for the failure to sell the brand.
Sixty-six shops will close and department store Debenhams will acquire most of the stock.
Mr Manning said staff will be put on a "fast track" for redundancy payouts. More than 100 head office staff were made redundant on Friday.
Principles was owned by parent company Mosaic, which collapsed earlier this week with debts of about £400m.
Sir Jackie waives fee to help RBS
Sir Jackie Stewart has agreed to waive any fees he would have earned this year from the Royal Bank of Scotland.
The former world motor racing champion works for RBS representing the company at events across the world.
The bank, which lost £24bn last year, said that Sir Jackie offered to fulfil his obligations in 2009 without pay.
Last month, tennis star Andy Murray offered to renegotiate his deal with the troubled bank which has supported him since he was 13.
RBS said that Sir Jackie wanted to help the bank with its new strategic objective of rebuilding standalone strength by serving its customers well, in the UK and globally, in the next three years.
Credit Crunch Success Stories....
And read here http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7920836.stm about Nespresso, the George Clooney endorsed coffee that is reversing the trend of the credit crunch. The whole thing really is based on once you have bought the equipment to make the espresso you have to use the capsules made by Nestle or else it doesn't work. This obviously means repeat purchases. Genuis!
Source: BBC Business News
Business Secretary, Lord Mandelson, has reiterated that the government has no plans to nationalise the banking sector.
His comments come two days after the government increased its stake in Lloyd Banking Group to 65% from 43%.
Principles' 2,300 staff face axe
A significant number of the 2,300 staff at the Principles high street fashion chain are to go, administrators said.
Lee Manning from Deloitte blamed "current market conditions" for the failure to sell the brand.
Sixty-six shops will close and department store Debenhams will acquire most of the stock.
Mr Manning said staff will be put on a "fast track" for redundancy payouts. More than 100 head office staff were made redundant on Friday.
Principles was owned by parent company Mosaic, which collapsed earlier this week with debts of about £400m.
Sir Jackie waives fee to help RBS
Sir Jackie Stewart has agreed to waive any fees he would have earned this year from the Royal Bank of Scotland.
The former world motor racing champion works for RBS representing the company at events across the world.
The bank, which lost £24bn last year, said that Sir Jackie offered to fulfil his obligations in 2009 without pay.
Last month, tennis star Andy Murray offered to renegotiate his deal with the troubled bank which has supported him since he was 13.
RBS said that Sir Jackie wanted to help the bank with its new strategic objective of rebuilding standalone strength by serving its customers well, in the UK and globally, in the next three years.
Credit Crunch Success Stories....
And read here http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7920836.stm about Nespresso, the George Clooney endorsed coffee that is reversing the trend of the credit crunch. The whole thing really is based on once you have bought the equipment to make the espresso you have to use the capsules made by Nestle or else it doesn't work. This obviously means repeat purchases. Genuis!
Source: BBC Business News
Thursday 5 March 2009
Yellow Fever Strikes Again, International Links and a Budding Primary Teacher!
After another short spell off ill (a reaction to Yellow Fever) I am back at work. It really took a lot out of me and I am still not yet 100%! It is a bit worrying, but it is a lot better than getting Yellow Fever when over in Ghana.
Anyway some news.
Hamilton Grammar is developing another international link with Southern River College in Western Australia. A former pupil of HGS, Paul Currie is a DHT in the afore-mentioned school. Hopefully we can get the blog up and running and have our students seperated by thousands of miles to communicate and share ideas and opinions.
Also congratulations to one of my S6 pupils, Jemma Burns, who has just received a conditional offer for a place at Primary School Teacher training at Jordanhill College, University of Strathclyde. Jemma would be a brilliant teacher as she has a great personality and has excellent ICT skills. Jemma also helps out with one of my S1 classes and she even has taken them for a few mini-lessons to give her more experience. Fingers crossed Jemma will get the grades she needs and will get in.
Anyway some news.
Hamilton Grammar is developing another international link with Southern River College in Western Australia. A former pupil of HGS, Paul Currie is a DHT in the afore-mentioned school. Hopefully we can get the blog up and running and have our students seperated by thousands of miles to communicate and share ideas and opinions.
Also congratulations to one of my S6 pupils, Jemma Burns, who has just received a conditional offer for a place at Primary School Teacher training at Jordanhill College, University of Strathclyde. Jemma would be a brilliant teacher as she has a great personality and has excellent ICT skills. Jemma also helps out with one of my S1 classes and she even has taken them for a few mini-lessons to give her more experience. Fingers crossed Jemma will get the grades she needs and will get in.
World Book Day
Today is World Book Day, as I have been reliably informed by our National Treasure, Mrs McComb the school librarian.
So I am going to ask a few of my S1s to use a bit of ICT and share their favourite books and characters with us.
My own personal favourite book as a child has to be Roald Dahl's brilliant Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. I remember my Primary school teacher reading it to us and we were so excited as we wanted to find out what was inside the factory making all the amazing bars of chocolate.
They don't make'em like they used to, that's for sure.
I am pretty interested to see what will come up in the S1 classes. I'll wager Harry Potter will do well!
So I am going to ask a few of my S1s to use a bit of ICT and share their favourite books and characters with us.
My own personal favourite book as a child has to be Roald Dahl's brilliant Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. I remember my Primary school teacher reading it to us and we were so excited as we wanted to find out what was inside the factory making all the amazing bars of chocolate.
They don't make'em like they used to, that's for sure.
I am pretty interested to see what will come up in the S1 classes. I'll wager Harry Potter will do well!
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