Yvonne McBlain joined primary and secondary teachers from the Denny cluster at their transition project meeting on January 26th between 4-5.15pm. They have been working together for over a year to develop quality, skill-based transition within their cluster. Their task is “To build a shared pathway of progressive learning across the broad, general education in the Denny cluster”. Click on the slide to view the presentation used by the group.
The transition group have identified a core group of skills which they know their pupils need to develop across the curriculum to help them raise their attainment. These are:
◦Working with others
◦Note-taking
◦Presentation skills
The teachers are currently planning interdisciplinary and cross-curricular learning experiences which will help pupils progress these skills. Click here to see one of the emerging plans which staff are working on. They are being creative and flexible in their approach to what, when, and how the learning can support transition. Once the learning experiences have been planned (involving the pupils where possible), the teachers will work out which ones can happen during a transition showcase event or time period, and which ones should be delivered in another way. Some of the groups are planning to use a Scottish/Jamaica context to engage pupils in this work, and to extend their understanding of global citizenship and international education. This helps all of the schools build Learning for Sustainability into their curriculum framework as once of the cross-cutting themes too.
Eilidh King, primary 7 teacher at Denny PS, and Kerry Smith, English teacher at Denny HS have already benefitted from this collaboration. Their collaborative planning during the transition project inspired them to design an engaging Christmas learning experience which involved Kerry and Eilidh team teaching together at Denny PS. Eilidh’s class thoroughly enjoyed finding their Christmas clues and solving the Santa mystery!
This slide shows some of the elements of national policy and daily practice which the group have pulled together during their planning:
The transition group consists of a small number of secondary teachers from Denny High school, and primary teachers from most of the Denny cluster schools. The group is led by Judith Donaldson, teacher of home economics, and Iain Farrington, primary 7 teacher at Antonine PS. Aileen McKeown, DHT, Denny HS, and Yvonne McBlain, curriculum support officer, form the remainder of a small, strategic working group with Iain and Judith. The project is fully supported by the cluster head teachers, and Aileen provides updates for them at cluster meetings. Everyone involved is looking forward to putting their plans into action with pupils between spring and summer 2017.
