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Mark Lauder Group Chair BSA 2020 Headmaster, Strathallan School
From the Chair Half term offers a chance to pause
we were due to follow in Edinburgh,
article in this edition of the Magazine.
the first time for most of us since
and you were spared any possibility of
supported the Heads Conference –
and take a breath – perhaps for
July – is welcome. 2020 has been a year like no other, and not what I anticipated when taking over as
Chair in January! To quote one of my favourite poets, Burns: “The
minus dinners, tartan and piping –
the Chair’s speech being influenced to any degree in its delivery by that
famous orator in Edinburgh of the Scottish Reformation John Knox!
best laid schemes o’ mice an’ men
The conference, attended in the end
plans to a degree did go ‘agley’
hear much on a range of topics that
gang aft agley.” This year all our and Coronavirus has been
anything but “a tim’rous beastie.” That said, we have as a sector once
again shown ourselves to be resilient, adaptable, innovative and creative and we have stepped up to the
challenge. BSA was the first of the
major associations to run a virtual
conference in September, after the
by 140-plus delegates, was able to
have, due to the global pandemic and events through and since lockdown, become even more pertinent. BLM,
LBTQ+, decolonising the curriculum, Chaplaincy and religious diversity,
grateful and impressed by the BSA team’s support in moving the
conference and its important theme of ‘Diversity’ online, maintaining a
programme almost identical to that
in our schools, has already taken
place. Congratulations too to all our
BSA award winners, announced at the conference close. A huge thank you
too must go to iSams, our Conference sponsor, for helping to make the
Conference possible and for the hardworking BSA team who did all the hard work to deliver it.
impressed and most grateful as Chair
topics to hear about.
last May. While I was especially sad its warm hospitality, I was both
Inclusion Conference, open to all staff
much more, were valid and helpful
question “what’s currently in your in-
in person to the Scottish capital and
conference the first BSA Diversity and
And speaking of hard work by BSA
Safeguarding in a Diverse World and
This was perhaps illustrated by the
not to able to welcome fellow Heads
thank you – and that since the
Managing COVID-19 in boarding,
inevitable cancelation of the in-person conference scheduled in Edinburgh
I am pleased too that so many of you
Head’s Panel session which asked the tray?” The contributions from Mark Ronan, Joanna Wright, Kate Martin
and Gavin Horgan touched on a wide range of issues that all reflected
diversity in schools and education generally, and I am delighted that
their contributions to the conference have become the basis of the lead
staff, I continue to be hugely
for the work the BSA has done since January in weekly briefings and
support over the pandemic – the
team has served our sector and our schools fantastically well. Not only
that, the response to the difficulties of the pandemic for the BSA itself has
been deftly managed by the team and their ability to adapt to the fast-
changing requirements of lockdown, virtual working and virtual training
and conferences has been a lesson in how to do this well.
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