posted by Alita Spink, Support Officer, Schools and Learning

Get Outdoors!
Raising attainment through outdoor learning and pay

January 2017

Introduction / Numeracy Resources / Ideas for Topics / Diary Dates / Funding

Dear All
Happy New Year everyone – I hope you managed to get a good break. It seems as though the pre-Christmas quieter period didn’t actually happen for anyone this year and we all seem to be plunged straight back into a hectic new term with very little let up. 

We will be launching our new small grants scheme for schools very soon; more details are in the funding section of this newsletter but please also keep an eye on our website and social media.

I will be moving on from LTL to pastures new in May this year, it has been a fantastic five years and I will miss the team and our incredible partners enormously.   We will be recruiting for my replacement over the next few weeks so, again, watch out for the advert on our website and in the press.

Best wishes

Juno Hollyhock
executive director

Lesson Ideas – Numeracy:

In this newsletter we are focusing on numeracy learning resources – both free on line and some more in more specialized books:

Taking learning outdoors creates context and engages bodies as well as brains. It motivates many pupils who may find learning maths constantly inside, at a desk, a challenge. There are many simple ideas for maths outdoors. The key is choosing the ones where the school grounds or local community can offer a deeper learning experience.

Early years numeracy ideas

• size games to play
• advice on child led maths
• ideas sheets for maths outdoors – first and second ideas sheets.

Primary numeracy ideas

• shape and symmetry scavenger hunts,
• estimating distance,
• applying techniques for calculating heights or distance.

Comparing the historical “Scottish Statistical Accounts” for your area with a survey the children undertake is a wonderful learning opportunity, with numeracy, history and geography interwoven. Read how one school used them here

Secondary numeracy school

• How fast is that car?
• Orienteering where PE meets maths and technology
• Geocaching for Schools – links to an up to date Scottish project
• Navigation is a great multidisciplinary math, geography and HWB topic – and well resourced through many DofE groups.
• Measuring the size of the sun

Useful Books

Juliet over at Creative Star Learning is about to publish her new Messy Maths – a Playful Outdoor Approach. You can pre-order here.

Malke Rosenfeld and Heineman have just published ‘Math in your feet’. You can tell by the title this is an American book, however the approach and activities could see your class moving their way to better maths. You can order here

50 Maths Ideas Outdoors – an early years and lower primary focused book, useful as a complement to your own ideas. You can order here

Ideas for Topics:

FREE outdoor learning resource library. Don’t forget that you can now access our huge range of outdoor lesson ideas and resources for free using our simple search facility here.

Archeological Outdoor Learning

New from Forestry Commission Scotland – ideal if you are planning a visit to an ancient or archaeological site – Outdoor Archaeological Learning This resource also fits in with the 2017 Year of Archaeology – more at Dig It 2017

Scottish Place Names

Education Scotland has a great resource for learning about Place Names in Scotland – you can visit their pages here

Scottish Rainforest

Plantlife Scotland’s Celtic Rainforest Project has excellent resources pre-planned, as well as multiple sites for a field trip. You can find out more and visit your own rainforest here

Follow an Everest Expedition

Some field trips are a step too far – however this year you can follow an Everest Expedition live on Skype from your classroom – click here to learn more

Scottish Finest Woodlands Awards:
This year the awards return, and they are looking for learning projects based around woodlands and their benefits to us as a society. There is a £500 prize, and you can find out more here

Diary Dates:
February

you only have a couple of weeks to get involved in the Big School Birdwatch. Also in February is John Muir Award Introduction Training in Pitlochry on the 17th February – book here

March 

A one day event ‘Taking Citizen Science Outdoors to support your Teaching and Learning’, 16th March at Battleby, Perth – book here

John Muir Award Leader Training – A two-day residential course that gives a thorough introduction to the John Muir Award. 11-12 March, Wiston Lodge, South Lanarkshire – book here

May

This is a busy month, with International School Grounds Month and Empty Classroom Day on the 18th May and the annual Walk to School Week.

September –The International School Grounds Alliance Conference in Berlin is of particular interest to Landscape Architects, artists, other designers or anyone interested in developing school grounds for natural play.

Funding:

Local School Nature Grants Scheme This is our new grant scheme to provide an assortment of nature equipment and training’ up to the value of £1000. The application process is quick and straight forward.  The programme launches in late January 2017 and will be go live on our website here. The project is funded by Postcode Local Trust, which receives funding from players of People’s Postcode Lottery. All schools in England, Scotland and Wales are welcome to apply.

Tesco Bags of Help continues to fund many school and nursery projects across Scotland. You can apply here, however it is worth looking at the map of projects and seeing what has been successful in Scotland.

Greggs Community Foundation – Environmental Grant Offers grants to improve the physical environment to improve peoples lives – and schools are encouraged to apply.

Outdoor and Woodland Learning Scotland – Have supported schools in many ways over the years. As an organisation, they can help like-minded educators network and train together, as well provide some small grant assistance to those taking part. You can read more about OWL here and apply here

Finally, Juliet at Creative Star Learning has updated her funding list, and that is worth a good look through here

 

 

posted by Alita Spink, Schools and Learning Support Officer 

Information and teaching resources are available to support parents, practitioners and community workers during Children’s Mental Health Week, 6-12 February. Hosted by children’s mental health charity Place2Be, the theme this year is ‘spread a little kindness’ and the initiative is supported by Scottish Government. Children go through tough times just like the rest of us, and while we cannot always change their circumstances, a small gesture, whether it’s lending a listening ear, offering a helping hand, or just telling someone how much you appreciate them can make a big difference.

posted by Alita Spink, Schools and Learning Support Officer

This free event, Learning for Democracy – making politics educational,  takes place on Wednesday 22 March at the University of Dundee with a range of speakers and practical workshops.  There is no cost to attend and places can be booked online.

 

posted by Alita Spink, Schools and Learning Support Officer 

What children want and need from education has been summed up in a new Children’s Parliament (CP) report. “School should be a joyful place” draws on children’s participation in CP programmes, projects and consultations from 2008 to 2016, and is further enhanced by a recent workshop with children in which they reviewed findings and authenticated the publication’s key messages. What children have said was also the basis of a submission to the Scottish Government’s Education Governance Review.

 

 

posted by Alita Spink, Schools and Learning Support Officer 

1 – Education Scotland Food & Health support on the NIH – Our Food & Health resources and support have moved to the National Improvement Hub.

• Who can help food education in Scotland?
• Better Eating Better Learning
•  Learning for Sustainability using food as a context
• STEM Central 

2 – Scottish Education Awards 2017  – Celebrate the hard work and success which takes place in Scottish education. Nominate your school or staff member here by Wednesday 15^th February 2017

3 – ASSIST FM Better Eating, Better Learning Award 2017 – Following on from the success of Busby Primary School and Stirling High School receiving the inaugural Better Eating, Better Learning Awards, applications are now open for schools to demonstrate creative and innovative practice in implementing Better Eating, Better Learning. Schools can apply using this link. (enter link here) Entries are open until the end of February.

4 – International School Meals Day Thursday 9^th March 2017 – Emphasise the connection between healthy eating, education and better learning. This year’s theme is ‘Food Culture and Heritage’.  http://www.internationalschoolmealsday.com/ 

5 – Food & Drink Federation Scotland (FDFS) – FDFS Scotland have created a new resource to help Scottish teachers and pupils understand food labels.  The resource is available here

6 – FDFS / College Development Network – Improving Food & Drink Career Pathways SRUC Aberdeen Wednesday 22^nd March 2017 1pm – 6pm For more information and to sign up, click here

7 – BNF Healthy Eating Week 12^th – 16^th June 2017 – To register for BNF Healthy Eating Week and receive lots of free resources and support for your school, click here

8 – BBC Food Awards closing date for entries Sunday 29^th January 2017 – Celebrate the unsung heroes of food in your school. Details of how to nominate can be found here

9 – RHS

• Receive your free welcome pack Join the Campaign and receive support to develop a sustainable garden for young people’s learning, health and wellbeing.
• School Gardening Awards Progress with your students through 5 levels of gardening challenges designed to develop skills & encourage a healthy relationship with gardening.
• Training courses & events Find and book school gardening training courses or events in your area.

10 – Young Pea Chef of the Year (primary & BGE) – Win £500 of cookery equipment for your school. Enter your best pea recipe by 3^rd April 2017. Details on how to enter can be found here

11 – REHIS – Where to find Elementary Food Hygiene Courses in Scotland, http://www.rehis.com/community-training/courses/course/elementary-food-hygiene

Questions or queries about food education? Please contact lorna.aitken@educationscotland.gsi.gov.uk

Got food news to share? Share you pics and stories on Twitter @EducationScot

#FoodEdFriday

posted by Alita Spink, Schools and Learning Support Officer

LGBT Education Network Newsletter January 2017

Apologies, the previous newsletter contained a broken link to the LGBT History Month resources. This has been rectified. 

Welcome to the January newsletter for teachers, educationalists and everyone interested in LGBT inclusion in education in Scotland. 

Happy New Year! 🙂

I hope you all had a lovely festive break and are enjoying the new term. 

As next month is LGBT History Month, we’re linking you in with resources and assemblies to use in your schools. There are differentiated lesson activities, a history month quiz, a timeline activity linked to the new LGBT History month poster, and two assemblies – one for primaries one for secondaries.  

In this Newsletter there is also a link to the new Life in Scotland for LGBT Young People survey. This is a chance for LGBT young people to let us know about their lives, their health and their education amongst other topics. Please share this far and wide. 

There will be a follow up email at the start of February with additional Purple Friday activities – remember, this is Friday 24th February this year. 

As ever, if there’s anything you’d like to see more of, please get in contact at info@lgbtyouth.org.uk

LGBT History Month Resources

LGBT Youth Scotland have created resources for schools and teachers to use in order to celebrate LGBT History Month. 

The resources reflect the theme of this year’s history month: Heritage. There are activities looking at important events in LGBT history and also exclusive new poems by Rachel Plummer. These re-imagine Scottish myths and legends to include LGBT identities and themes. 

Additionally there are assemblies, a quiz and an activity matching the events on the poster with the years they occurred. 

Enjoy these free resources and let us know how you got on using them! 

You can download resources here.

Purple Friday

On the last Friday of LGBT History Month we celebrate Purple Friday – a day to stand up against homophobia, biphobia and transphobia and show our support for LGBT young people.

This year we’re asking schools across Scotland to get involved on the 24th February 2017. There are lots of different ways you can take part, from wearing purple to flying the rainbow flag, so we’ve developed a handy information pack to get you started.

The pack contains information about why your school should get involved, as well as some great tips and ideas on what you could do on the day. You can also order your Purple Friday resources by emailing fund@lgbtyouth.org.uk, we’d ask you to do this as soon as possible so we can make sure your order is with you in plenty of time to get involved.

The pack with all these link can be found here. 

Life in Scotland for LGBT Young People

Having listened to what young people said in our last Life in Scotland survey, we are now launching our Life in Scotland survey 2017. We will be using it to see what changes have occurred since the last survey and what effect these emerging issues have had on LGBT young people.

We want to hear from as many LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender) young people, between the ages of 13-25 as possible. This will help us gain a full and accurate picture of LGBT young people’s experiences and understand the ways in which LBGT young people’s lives have changed in the last few years.

We want to know more about young people’s experiences of community, safety and health, education, and ‘coming out’ to help us continue to influence decision makers and to continue to keep LGBT young people’s issues on the political agenda.

Our 2012 Life in Scotland Survey has helped us produce reports which were used to influence politicians and policy makers to make decisions which improved the lives of LGBT young people in Scotland, including in these areas:

• Education – young people shared their experiences of the way that LGBT issues are treated in education, showing that homophobia, biphobia and transphobia are still issues for many young people within education.

• Safety – the report focussed on young people’s awareness of rights under hate crime legislation, confidence in the police and criminal justice system, and their feelings of safety in the community.

• Community – young people told us that being accepted in the community improved their confidence.

• Health – the reports showed to what extent LGBT young people are affected by both physical and mental health problems.

Young people can find out more about our Life in Scotland survey 2017 and take part [HERE]. When young people enter, they will be in with the chance of winning a £50 voucher.

Please help us spread the word to your networks and the young people you work with:

Download our promotional image (and this one too) and sample social media posts.

Book of the Month: Primary

Every month we highlight a book for use in schools and suggest activities which can be used to include LGBT voices and identities across the curriculum.

This month: Sissy Duckling by Harvey Fierstein

Content:
This is a heart-warming tale about learning to embrace the special qualities we possess. Instead of building forts and playing sports like other boy ducklings, Elmer wants to bake cakes and put on the halftime show. He is great a big sissy. But when his father is wounded by a hunter, Elmer proves that the biggest sissy can also be the greatest hero.

Suggested Activities:
Another book which looks at both gender stereotyping and what it is to be special.
Scientifically you could use this within a sequence about migratory birds and discuss what really would happen to ducks left behind.
You could also use it to unpack the bullying incidents in the story and the resolution to the relationship between Elmer and Drake – is it realistic?
You could also use it to look at father/son relationships.

For a full list of books for primary schools with LGBT voices or identities, contact info@lgbtyouth.org.uk

We’d love to hear from you!

Let us know what you think of this newsletter – what content would you like more of? Do you have any questions about LGBT inclusion? Do you have events, or resources, you’d like to share?

Get in touch: info@lgbtyouth.org.uk