Update from Gavin Calder, Chief Executive Officer.
Within hours of cycling along the drive for the first time as the incoming CEO, I could tell that my pre-appointment impressions of the Harmeny Education Trust were going to be confirmed. The care and attention given to a group of exceptional young people is demonstrated round every corner.
One to one lessons in woodworking in our new Learning Hub.
Through the media, I had heard about Scotland’s 2020 promise to care experienced children and young people that, “You will grow up loved, safe and respected”. Harmeny’s commitment to this, and the attention given to keeping everyone safe from harm by the most appropriate means, is palpable.
I was really lucky to be able to spend my first month alongside my predecessor Neil Squires and the quality of the handover he prepared spoke volumes about the exceptional legacy that he leaves.
Having worked in independent educational leadership for the last 25 years there are several similarities that I have observed over the last couple of months:
Tight budgeting is crucial. I work closely with the Head of Finance along with the Board of Trustees to ensure that all efforts are made to ensure the best for the young people. It is equally apparent that public funding is as tight in the residential care sector for some of Scotland’s most vulnerable children as it is in sport, something I have experience of as the Chair of a National Governing Body.
Sport’s Day is a highlight of the summer.
It is the interactions between people that matter. This is undoubtedly the case at Harmeny. It is great to see how invested the volunteers, including the trustees, are as well as those of us employed here. I really appreciate the care shown by all of the adults working at Harmeny and I am certainly delighted that no child calls me ‘Mr Calder’ or, worse still, ‘Sir’. The fact that the young people call their communal living spaces cottages and talk about adults rather than units and staff makes a big difference in creating a familial atmosphere.
Getting it right for every child is paramount. While acknowledging that we are working with children with a range of very complex needs, I have been really impressed by the purposeful atmosphere in both the established primary school and our bespoke secondary school classes housed in the award-winning Learning Hub. I am looking forward to welcoming His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Education when they next come to visit and hope that they will recognise that excellence in a special school setting is not easy to achieve and that what fits easily into the model of a mainstream setting cannot, and more importantly should not, be seen as the only exemplar for best practice in a setting like Harmeny.
One key difference is the level of complex needs and trauma that our children and young people carry, and the incredible reserves of resilience needed for the team to provide the consistent care and education to help them fulfil their potential.
I have been staggered by the culture and quality of continuous learning and development at Harmeny. Part of Neil’s legacy is the Therapeutic Practice Model called The Harmeny Way. This is an amalgamation of all of our excellent trauma informed and responsive practice. The embedding of it as a holistic model increasingly underpins our training for all staff.
Whilst being very important, we don’t just provide wonderful experiences in a fantastic setting for the children. (Who could fail to appreciate the adventures that can be had on a 35-acre estate on the edge of the Pentlands?) Our highly skilled team also undertake vital Life Story work with each child – helping them to start to deal psychologically with events in their past.
Our community garden is just one of our therapeutic spaces.
Coping with emotions and painful memories can lead to times of very dysregulated behaviour and this can be very stressful for the adults who are emotionally invested in each child. We all aspire to the minimisation of the need to safely hold children if they are a danger to themselves or others and I have been amazed at the skilled methods that members of our team use to de-escalate situations, though in some cases safe holds are still necessary.
I have never seen the principles of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) demonstrated so explicitly as they are at Harmeny. In these first months I have found that the children’s reflections and opinions are authentically valued and acted upon. There is none of the tokenism, buzz words and stock phrases about character education that I have seen in some mainstream educational establishments and the fact that we are looking out for care experienced young people up to the age of 26 has been a pleasant surprise to me.
100 days in and I continue to learn from, and be inspired by, those around me. I have the same smile on my face as I pedal up Mansfield Road every morning. Not just because I know that it will be downhill all the way home to Musselburgh, but because of the privilege I feel in being the Chief Executive of such a positive and life changing institution.
Gavin joined Harmeny as CEO in April 2024. He has been in educational leadership since 1999 and is a board member of the Scottish Council for Independent Schools (SCIS). Gavin is passionate about sport, music and outdoor education and is also Chair of Triathlon Scotland. You can read more about Gavin and our Senior Leadership Team here.
