We were all delighted today when we were informed that the work of one of our pupils, Wesley Morgan, has been recognised by Aberdeenshire Council's Chief Executive, Mr Colin Mackenzie, on his blog site for Aberdeenshire staff! Mr Mackenzie has his own blog site that he uses to communicate with Aberdeenshire Council staff on their authority intranet 'Arcadia.'
At the end of term I sent Mr Mackenzie two photos from Mrs Noble's Pr 3/4 class. The children had been set the task of designing a heraldic shield to represent themselves and they had to add a motto to the bottom of the shield that summed up how they should approach their work at school. Wesley's motto was simple but effective - 'Just Do It!'
This is a phrase which the Chief Executive regularly uses when addressing staff with regard to ensuring that the authority carries out its duties for the people of Aberdeenshire effectively and to a high standard. I thought he might appreciate the fact that even our youngsters are adopting the same attitude towards striving for excellence at school!
Mr Mackenzie used the photo on his blog, along with a photo of the heading that is displayed with the work 'Today's Learner's, Tomorrow's Leaders' to reiterate this important message.
It is great to see one of our pupil's work being used in such apositive way to reinforce the goals and ideals of Aberdeenshire Council.
You can see the photos below along with the blog entry from the Chief Executive.
'Just Do It' drawing.
It turns out I’m not the only one championing the idea of ‘Just Do It’. Now the October holidays are a distant memory I thought it would be nice to share some fantastic photos sent in by Andrew Jenkins, the Head Teacher at Strichen School, just before the break.
One of Andrew’s Primary 3 classes was set the challenge of designing a heraldic shield complete with a suitable motto that would be relevant to them while at school. The pupils’ ideas couldn’t be more apt, and I am thoroughly impressed that today’s learners, who are of course tomorrow’s leaders, are already studying at such an advanced level.
We focus on succession planning within council but this drives home the need to ensure we look beyond that to the children in our schools who will be our politicians, business leaders and head teachers of the future. The whole business of the Curriculum for Excellence is about helping young people to achieve the very best they can, and that includes the leaders of tomorrow in whatever area of work they choose to go into.
‘Just Do It’ is a message that continues to be important for us as a council because we need to be as agile an organisation as we can be. We have high public satisfaction ratings but I’d like to see these even higher. Why shouldn’t we be aiming for 100%?
