posted by Alita Spink, Schools and Learning Support Officer 

Choices For Life Competition 2018 – ‘Your Choice Your Voice’

Following the success of the Choices for Life ‘Your Choice, Your Voice’ competition which was launched in January 2017, Police Scotland would like to invite all Secondary Schools and Primary Schools in Scotland to participate in this year’s competition.

‘Choices for Life’ is an innovative diversionary and educational initiative delivered by Police Scotland and funded by the Scottish Government. The main objective is to raise awareness amongst young people aged 11-18 about the risks and dangers of substance use and misuse, including tobacco, alcohol, drugs and New Psychoactive Substances (NPS).

‘Your Choice, Your Voice’ is designed to support the transition of P7 pupils to High School by encouraging collaborative working between P7 and S1 pupils to develop a ‘creative’ piece around the ‘Choices for Life’ key messages.

Entries will ideally come from ‘Clusters’ of primary schools working together with their allocated High School to mirror the ongoing transition work already in place.

Entries should demonstrate a creative theme and reflect the ‘Choices for Life’ key messages and will be uploaded and embedded on individual school websites as a promotional tool for ‘Choices for Life’ within the school community. Issues surrounding cyber and internet related concerns may also be addressed but should not form the basis of an entry.

Each cluster / school will decide on the format their entry takes with suggestions including, but not limited to, a short video, musical piece, artwork or presentation.

Entrants are encouraged to research ‘Choices for Life’ to gain an understanding of the key messages and submissions are urged to be as innovative as possible and must be appropriate for 11 – 18 year olds. Details can be found on the Young Scot website (http://www.young.scot/choices-for-life).

posted by Alita Spink, Schools and Learning Support Officer

In partnership with Play Scotland, ASH Scotland have created a series of free resources with early years, family support services & primary schools in mind. These resources encourage smoke-free places for children to play, learn & socialise. Check out the series of fun signage featuring superhero and cartoon characters on a simple information sheet telling you more about how and why children benefit from smoke-free play and short case studies from settings who have already introduced smoke-free zones.

posted by Pauline Stephen, Heads of Schools and Learning

Please see attached link for information.

PL 2017-18 web

posted by Christine Jackson, Schools and Learning Support Officer

Aberdeen University DLITE PGDE in Primary Education

Have you ever thought about training as a primary teacher?  Do you live in Angus and work for the council?  Do you have a degree?  The Aberdeen University DLITE PGDE programme would allow you to complete your post graduate qualification whilst still retaining your job with the council.  Angus Council would support you with your fees and guarantee a job in an Angus primary school.

If you’re interested please act quickly.  Get in touch with Christine Jackson on jacksonc2@angus.gov.uk to start the application process.  Provided you obtain the relevant permissions from your current line manager we can put you in touch with Aberdeen University who will send out the application form.  Further Information

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.

posted by Louise Kirby, YMI Coordinator

Funding opportunity that schools may be interested in.

Key Points

Single priority: the development of group music making especially involving young people, with composition central to the project. Size of grants: grants may be between £500 – £4,000. The average grant is around £2,000. Timing: one meeting a year in the autumn, deadline September. How to apply: short covering letter, project description max 2 single-sided A4 pages, single page project budget. Applications are required in both electronic and paper format. Exclusions: instruments, equipment, recordings, individual study costs, retrospective applications.

What we might support

• Our single priority is the development of group music making, especially involving young people in projects incorporating composition and creative ideas.
• Because of our link with a major composer, the Trustees wish to see composition as central to projects put forward for support. These can include applications from organisations for group projects working with young composers, perhaps at postgraduate or early professional level, offering innovative ways for young composers to develop their talents and experience through engaging with group musical activity.
• Grants awarded will be made towards creative musical activity, not instruments or equipment. Projects might be first-time initiatives or the development of existing projects and must be based in the UK.

What Trustees want to see

For an application to be successful the Trustees will pay particular attention to:

• projects involving young people: Trustees hope to see applications which aim to open young people’s ears, to stimulate creativity in sound and provide a springboard for young composers to move forward with aspiration.
• the project’s musical aspirations: Trustees want to see that the project is aiming for music making of high quality within the project context. We recognise that creative projects may take many different styles and forms.
• projects taking place in or out of school, college or university, or in community settings will be considered. Projects involving young composers should indicate how the project will assist their professional development.
• the artistic leadership of the project: Trustees believe strongly in the importance of a project’s artistic leadership. The artistic leader/s involved in the project (i.e. composer, musician, conductor, director, workshop leader etc.) should be clearly identified and named in the application.
• how the project will be planned, managed and evaluated: Trustees want to know who is responsible for the management of the schedule, the participants, appointment of the leaders, evaluation and the budget. If your application is successful we will ask for a report on the project when it is completed, so plans for evaluation should be made from the start. 

  What we might give

  Grants are likely to be between £500 and £4,000, with the average grant in the region of £2,000. All grants are made on a one-off basis – award of a grant in one year does not carry any probability of repeat funding the following year.     Because demand is so much greater than the funds available, only a minority of applications can be supported – in 2015 the success rate was one in four applications.     The Trustees will be cautious about considering a small grant from the Foundation towards a project on a significantly larger budget scale.

  When to apply

  The Trustees normally hold one meeting a year, in the autumn. In 2017 the deadline for receipt of applications will be 30 September. Projects for consideration should be planned well ahead and not start earlier than December 2017

  Full info here – http://www.tippettfoundation.org.uk/html/guidelines.htm#support