Aberdeen City Council’s Virtual School has rounded off an award-winning week with a keynote talk at a major education conference in London.
The key role the Education Service’s ground-breaking Virtual School – the first of its kind in Scotland - has played in helping pupils through the Covid-19 pandemic through imaginative use of digital interventions.
The contribution the Virtual School to the health and wellbeing of children and young people was recognised at Tuesday’s Aberdeen Sports Awards Ceremony in the Beach Ballroom where, having ben nominated by pupils, it was presented with the School Innovation Award.
To cap an eventual week for the Virtual School, Head Teacher Larisa Gordon was invited to represent Scotland at the National Association of Virtual School Head Teachers (NAVSH) annual conference in London attended by 250 senior leaders in UK education ad supported by Ofsted and central government.
Larissa has been part of team working with CELCIS, a leading innovation centre in Scotland helping organisations improve children’s futures through lasting change, to highlight the work of Virtual Schools in Scotland in the development of a practice paper to encourage agreed principles for ways of working when children move between local authorities in Scotland and England.
This culminated in her address to the conference on Wednesday and delivery of a workshop yesterday, highlighting Aberdeen leading the way in Scotland in Virtual Schools, to an audience including Oxford University Emeritus Professor Judy Sebba and Children’s Commissioner for England, Rachel De Souza.
Aberdeen City Council’s Education Operational Delivery Committee Convener, Councillor M Tauqeer Malik, said: “My warmest congratulations go out to Larissa and her team not only for their success at the prestigious Aberdeen Sport Awards ceremony but in being asked to highlight our innovative work here in Aberdeen to a wider and distinguished UK audience.
“We pride ourselves on our innovative approach to education and in particular, the way in which our schools and teaching staff have maintained standards and attainment even when faced with the enormous challenge of Covid-19.”
Larissa said: “I am delighted to have been invited to share the work of the Scottish Virtual School network in partnership with CELCIS and the journey of the Virtual School in Aberdeen city.
“We have care experienced children and young people who are living and educated across the country and so it is vital that we collaborate with our Virtual School colleagues in England.”