posted by Alita Spink, Schools and Learning Support Officer
Inclusion e-bulletin
News
Guidance on Exclusion from School
A Positive Approach to Preventing and Managing School Exclusions is a refreshed version of the previous guidance on managing school exclusions, which was published in March 2011.
The guidance gives a stronger focus on approaches that can be used to prevent the need for exclusion. The guidance also contains new sections on de-escalation and physical intervention on managing incidents involving weapons.
Behaviour in Scottish Schools Research
The findings of the Behaviour in Scottish Schools Research 2016 which gathers quantitative and qualitative data from a large national sample of staff in Scottish secondary and primary schools is due to be published in Autumn 2017. Watch this space.
Free Resource for Secondary Schools – No Knives Better Lives
This downloadable lesson plan can be used in an assembly or classroom setting. The purpose of the session is to highlight the personal and legal risks and consequences of carrying a knife.
Free Communication Resources
CALL Scotland produce a fantastic selection of free resources to help pupils with Additional Support Needs to access the short listed titles from the Scottish Book Trust Bookbug Picture Book awards and also symbol sheet resources to help pupils with communication difficulties to take part in voting for their favourite book. If you have any queries or comments about this resource or the work of CALL Scotland, please contact Joanne Courtney.
New Independent Living Fund (ILF) Scheme launched
On 29 June 2017, the Minister for Public Health and Sport, Aileen Campbell, launched the new Independent Living Fund (ILF) scheme, which will be implemented by the Independent Living Fund (ILF) Scotland. The new ILF scheme will be a broad, discretionary fund that will provide short term awards to support disabled people to live independently.
In its first phase, the new ILF scheme will specifically focus on supporting young disabled, between the ages of 16 and 21, who are at an important transitional stage in their lives, to take up opportunities to contribute to and participate in their communities, which will have a lasting impact on their lives.
Young Ambassadors for Inclusion take their views to Parliament
Don’t miss the ES blog following our Young Ambassadors for Inclusion as they presented their views on Inclusion to the Deputy First Minister at the Scottish Parliament.
Free Local Authority Professional Learning Opportunities : Tackling Sectarianism
Trainers from the Sense Over Sectarianism Programme within Glasgow City Council Education Services are available for nationwide locally based CPD sessions to support the delivery of the new National Improvement Hub Tackling Sectarianism suite of resources. These sessions cover primary and secondary school delivery and are available at no cost to the Local Authority. Practitioners will receive a full overview of the resources relevant to their need and background history.
Contact Mark Adams for more information.
Professional Learning Opportunities with the Inclusion and Equalities team at Education Scotland
A 4 day professional learning course in secondary nurturing approaches, as well as a number of half day sessions, will be delivered before Christmas to introduce our new ‘Applying Nurture as a whole school approach: A framework to support self-evaluation’ resource. Read the learning blog for further information.
The Impact of Early Stress and Trauma
There has been a lot of interest recently around Adverse Childhood Experiences and the impact of early trauma and stress on later outcomes for children and young people. Enhancing staff understanding of this complex area has always been a key part of our nurturing approaches training. However we are excited to have the opportunity this session to recruit a seconded member of staff funded by the Scottish Government Community Safety Team who will work within Education Scotland to support the development of additional resources to offer more targeted support for staff in this area as well as developing resources to directly support children and young people.
Children’s Rights and Learner Participation
There will be a day to refresh our ‘Realising and Recognising Children’s Rights’ professional learning resource which will also introduce some of the key messages in our new ‘Learner Participation in Educational Settings’ resource. We are currently recruiting schools to take part in a pilot to explore this resource. We will also be running a workshop on the resource at the Scottish Learning Festival on the 21 of September 2017. Further information can be found on Education Scotland’s learning blog.
Coming Soon – Free full day Master class for Module 1 ‘Introduction to dyslexia and inclusive practice’
The Scottish Government, Education Scotland and Dyslexia Scotland are supporting practitioners complete the 1st of 3 free online modules which have been developed in partnership with the Open University. Module 1 aims to raise awareness of dyslexia and inclusive practice. Practitioners attend 1 of the 5 days between September 2017 and February 2018. .The first confirmed date is 28 September, at the Glasgow Gaelic School. Application forms and further dates will be available on Dyslexia Scotland’s website.
Call for Expressions of interest: Dyslexia and inclusive practice GTCS Professional Recognition Pilot
The Scottish Government, Education Scotland and Dyslexia Scotland are seeking expressions of interest from Support for Learning teachers, ASN teachers and Local Authority Inclusion Officers who wish to take part in an exciting Professional Recognition pilot. The pilot will run from September 2017 till October 2018 and will cover modules 2 and 3. The aim of the pilot is to support 20 practitioners to develop the skills and knowledge to identify and support learners with dyslexia, offer support and share their professional learning with colleagues to help other teachers to do the same. The closing date is 29 August 2017. Further information and application forms can be accessed here.
