15 July 2010- Staff Conference 2010: Your Views, Your Scola , Our Future Day 2

The Staff Conference held on the 15th July was particularly for part time staff. I had four sessions to deliver as part of the staff development activities. It was great to have the highest number of colleagues at the A-Z of Social Networking session where I showcased examples of real life impact of social media in business. My thanks goes to Jo Barnett - Snr Lecturer, ICT Digi Media - from SCOLA and Brenda Knight from Best of Sutton who helped bring the session to life.

The other workshops included the 'Signs of a Miserable Job' which was aimed at Curriculum and Support Management, 'Qwizdom' for teaching staff and 'Evaluating Multimedia Learning Resources' which was aimed at teaching staff. Hopefully these sessions added value to the day and inspired colleagues to use some of the techniques and resources provided in their planning and work. This was yet another great day of activities which was well received and well attended.

Saboohi Famili - Principal

13 July 2010- Staff Conference 2010: Your Views, Your Scola , Our Future Day 1

Today was an exciting day for me. I was facilitating the 2010 Staff Conference, a full day of fun- packed activities that hopefully will lead to the changes we want to make at SCOLA. Anxious throughout the planning stages due to the fact that the activities were so different to what the staff are used to, I started very early to ensure that all was in working order and to my standards. It was reassuring to be greeted by our hardworking caretakers George Skillen, Tony Kelly and Bob Richards, who had transformed the arena into a nice cabaret style conference set up.

The day progressed very well and staff participated in activities with enthusiasm and energy. Excellent feedback was provided that was an encouragement to me that I had pitched the session right and that the hard work had paid off.

The first activity of the day of the day started at 9am entitled "Who am I" and was a good ice-breaker which got staff moving about and talking to one another. This activity was followed by finding solutions to problems and then an adventure in Sherwood Forest! At 12.30 a fantastic buffet lunch was served and staff had the opportunity of networking. After lunch feedback was given on the activities that had taken place in the morning. The fourth and last activity to take place was one involving lego called Monumental Direction and staff had the opportunity to work together in teams. It was great to see how staff interacted with one another!

The success of the conference was due to the hard work of those who participated. My special thanks go to Arnie Skelton, www.etduk.co.uk, Howard Shepherdson from TVU and Jan Keone who helped me with suggesting various activities for the conference.

Saboohi Famili - Principal

12 July 2010- Margaret White - Strategic Director, Community Learning & Foundation Skills - leaving do

Tonight we celebrated Margaret White's loyal and dedicated contribution to SCOLA over 24 years. Margaret has worked at SCOLA since 1985 initally as a part time tutor and ultimately having a successful career rising to the position of Strategic Director. It is evident that during the time she has spent at the college that she has always been the friendly face of SCOLA, supporting staff and being there for students, particularly by running the Student Focus Groups.

Margaret played a key role in developing and promoting a successful marketing strategy, also guiding and supporting events which are a key part of that strategy. Colleagues and students alike have told me that Margaret has also been one of the first people to step forward to support any new initiative.

It was a great event where many staff, past and present, came to bid farewell to Margaret and to wish her the very best for her future and to wish her a happy and long retirement. She will be missed at SCOLA and I am glad that she will be coming back to teach at SCOLA next year.

It was great to have such a marvellous do for Margaret and I enjoyed the line dancing routines which added more flavour to the occasion.

Saboohi Famili - Principal

12 July 2010- Dog Clicker Training

Bright and early this morning I had a visit from Sandra from DOGS (Dogs and Owners Guidance School) http://www.dogsandownersguidanceschool.co.uk/ who came to train the dogs how to respond to the sound of a 'clicker'. I think it was more for me to learn how to use the clicker with my little puppy Lilia. It was great to have Molly the 2 year old Jack Russel of Barbara Eayrs there too.

After an hour of clickering and feeding the dogs lots of treats they were both alert and we were somewhat proud of how they responded to the training. Highly recommended.

At the end of the session we discussed an exciting opportunity for an open day in September in the form of a fair. I am very excited about this and will keep you posted. Watch this space....

Saboohi Famili - Principal

09 July 2010- SWLSEP Conference

Yet another abbreviation to be added to the jargon buster pages on our website. SWLSEP or The Southwest London School Effectiveness Partnership is a co-operative and collaborative arrangement among the London boroughs of Kingston, Merton, Richmond, Sutton, Wandsworth and Croydon. This partnership allows individual southwest London local authorities to build their capacity for school improvement, through co-operation and joint project work.The 2nd annual conference held at Sandown Park with beautiful grounds and inspiring surroundings was well attended and promised a day of information giving and knowledge transfer. The following people addressed the conference throughout the day - Trevor Sandford: DCSF 14-19 Regional Adviser; Mary Vine Morris: Director, London 14-19 Regional Planning Group; David Andrews: Senior Fellow of the National Institute for Careers Education; and Patrick Leeson: Director, Education & Care, Ofsted.

I thoroughly enjoyed the event and made good contacts with colleagues from different neighbouring boroughs.
It was great to feel part of a bigger team that can potentially achieve effectiveness on a larger scale and give educational partners a louder voice.
Further information can be found on http://www.lsep.org.uk/swlsep/

Saboohi Famili - Principal

8 July 2010 - Get That Job Seminar

A well attended and very successful seminar delivered by Arnie Skelton from Effective Training & Development generated a raft of very positive comments and brought in people who have never been to SCOLA before. Those who attended were impressed with what they saw and very complimentary about the seminar itself.

A Job Coach who attended commented as follows: "I found the afternoon extremely beneficial! What an amazing person Arnie is - the content of the session was appropriate for our clients too!"

Those who attended also had the opportunity of speaking to SCOLA's Information & Guidance team.

Judging by the excellent comments we received I am sure that this was the first of many more great seminars to come!

Saboohi Famili - Principal

4 May Start of a new journey

I am delighted join Sutton College of Learning for Adult (SCOLA) on 4th of May 2010. I look forward to working with my dedicated colleagues to building on the successes achieved to date and with their help leading the college to achieving even greater success for the Sutton community and beyond.
I started my working life as an Electronic Engineer and an assistant Professor at Tehran Toosi University. As an entrepreneur I started my Training and Development Business back in Iran in 1994 and since moving to England in 1999 I have held various positions in FE Colleges and HE Institutions. These range from a Lecturer and Team Leader post in Engineering and IT at Merton College to more recently, a member of the senior management team at Thames Valley University leading on the Future Skills project and the Strategic Business Development Unit.
I have over 8 years experience of developing and delivering creative, flexible, business and educational solutions in the regional, national and global marketplace. I have more than 13 years experience of teaching on and managing a wide range of training and learning support provision at a variety of large and complex institutions in Further and Higher education.
I have an MA in Educational Leadership and Management; I am an Electronic Engineer with a BSc Degree in Electronic Engineering and Telecommunications and have extensive skills working in Engineering, IT, and Education. I am a qualified teacher with a Post Graduate Certificate in Education from the Institute of Education.

I have strong leadership and management skills including the ability to motivate and achieve maximum buy-in from all stakeholders, building successful new teams or improving the performance of existing ones. I am a good listener and take pride in creating fun, inclusive, non discriminatory and rewarding working environments.
My recent work at Thames Valley University enabled me to start from scratch the Strategic Business Development unit leading on the Future Skills project. The project was backed by an £8m Higher Education Funding Council (HEFCE) grant. To date it has achieved great success and met all its targets. During my time at TVU I have been very successful in bidding for additional funding to create new provision to address the recession, unemployment and organising targeted support for Business Start-ups. Colleagues often comments on my ability to inspire confidence in people and my infectious energy, drive and determination to achieve excellence and meet ambitious targets.
In my spare time I enjoy walking and hiking, photography, playing the piano and various sports from yoga to squash.
I would be updating this blog with my thoughts and hope you find the reads intersting and of value. I welcome your feedback and support. Thanks for reading my blog.