Category: Curricular Areas

December 13, 2021

Social Studies Updates and Support from Education Scotland

The following information, resource links and opportunities were shared at the latest National Social studies network meeting by Senior Education Officer Lynne Robertson, Education Scotland.

There are new national Social Studies Microsoft Teams where practitioners and senior leaders can keep up to date with all developments & opportunities, including professional learning. The primary Team code is 8wgkwpp and the secondary Team code is1zy7b8q
A wide range of teaching support resources for social studies are available from Glow Social Studies Network (#socialstudies ) – Resources (sharepoint.com). (Glow login req’d)
A Social Studies Skills Progression Framework has been created here. It is a support document which complements the social studies Experiences and Outcomes and the Benchmarks, and is in line with the Principles and Practice document. The following extract explains its purpose and the image below shows how it is structured. “Practitioners should plan learning, teaching and assessment using the Experiences and Outcomes.
Social studies is a content heavy subject area, and the ability to learn content is important. However it would not be best practice for a similar content area to be taught repeatedly during the broad general education to gauge the progress of learners. Therefore teachers cannot signpost the next steps for a learner by referring simply to content.
Social studies also has various gaps in the experiences and outcomes, across early to fourth level. As a result it can be difficult for teachers to assess the progress of children and young people.
The purpose of this support document is to guide practitioners in evaluating the progress of children and young people in how skills can be developed from early to fourth level. The skills in the tables below have been identified from the Es and Os and benchmarks. Where that skill is not mentioned in one or more of the five levels across the broad general education, the gap has been filled to enable progression to occur from each level to the next for each skill.”
A full list of social studies resource links is available here . A summary of BGE @ GU Social studies resources produced by teachers in partnership with Glasgow University can be found here and includes:
- People of Medieval Scotland (30 resources)
- The Vikings in Scotland
- History of Weather
- Homes in High Places
- Alfred Nobel and the Peace Prize

5. Statistics showing the number of pupils participating in NQ 5 and Higher grades were shared – see below.

April 26, 2016

Curriculum Development at Hallglen PS

On 19th April, Yvonne McBlain popped back to gather staff feedback on their curriculum development so far at Hallglen Primary School. 10 staff members were kind enough to give their time and views during this informal evaluation activity. You can read more about Hallglen’s curriculum development process here.

Staff described the following impact:

Increased knowledge of the curriculum – specifically their ability to interpret the skills, knowledge and understanding built into the experiences and outcomes. This has helped them to build their curriculum more effectively, and enabled better planning.
Although they didn’t realise it at the time, they were moderating their teaching and learning in various ways – through collegiate discussion, learning walks, and then joint planning with stage and level partners. This has helped integrate moderation and collegiality naturally, and contributed to a positive ethos and culture of sharing good practice and ongoing self-evaluation.
Have a powerful understanding of progression – know which E & Os needed to be consistently progressed, and which ones could be done less often.
Topics in school have changed radically and are much more relevant and responsive to pupil needs. Everyone in school has an overview of which contexts are being used – not just for their own stage or level. This has enabled more powerful and effective transition between stages, and teachers feel confident and clear about what they have to teach and why.There is greater consistency across the school – they have a shared language, u nderstanding and vision for their curriculum
Learning walks, peer moderation and observation visits are all more purposeful and help staff evaluate their progress together.
Next steps in curriculum development are therefore clearer to all, but staff are looking forward to their formal, whole school collegiate evaluation of the changes made this session.
There is the facility to offer pupils flexible and responsive progression pathways across the curriculum

One of the new developments staff have worked on this session, is pupil understanding of the curriculum. This was felt to be a valuable way to increase attainment and pupil participation, and teachers developed specific learning experiences for their classes. Staff can see ways in which these lessons can be made more meaningful and appropriate to age and stage, and further development of these lessons will be done, but already the following impact has been observed:

Children can have a genuine input into planning their learning.
They now quite naturally reflect upon and evaluate their learning in action during a project as well as at the end.
Pupils have the vocabulary and language to comment effectively on their learning.
The curriculum lessons have “made the penny drop” for a number of pupils – they can better understand the purpose and structure of the learning they need.
Pupils have a better appreciation of what learning is and what they need to do to help themselves learn.
They are now getting to know their curriculum and can see and comment on links across the curriculum. (Staff are therefore tackling the very challenging job of developing pupil understanding of interdisciplinary learning.)
Pupils have the confidence to make respectful suggestions about how the teaching they receive could better meet their needs.
They are better motivated and engaged by their learning.
They think more deeply about their learning and can talk about it fluently.

The need for a pupil curriculum understanding lesson was discussed at the last inset day and staff agreed to teach their lessons at the same time in the session. A general lesson was provided which each staff member adapted for their class if they wanted to. Stacey Walker, Kara-Anne Kelly and Louise McGlynn all talked enthusiastically about what they did, why they did it, and what the outcomes were. Stacey, Kara-Ann and Laura Hurren then gathered the photos of work and displays shared in this post. Click here to listen to their description of this work. Yvonne would like to thank everyone involved for their time, especially Stacey, Kara-Anne and Laura for taking the time to record these files.

March 11, 2016

Braes Cluster Day of Dance 2016

Morag Simpson and Morag Young, PE Lead Officers within Falkirk Council Curriculum Support Team organised and delivered a Day of Sottish Dance for the Braes Cluster. Avonbridge Primary kindly agreed to host the event with Sheildhill Primary and California also attending.

The day was a great success with lots of fun had by all and some fantastic dancing on display. The pupils from all schools worked well together, helping each other through the dances. We were treated to a creative Scottish Dance experience from California Primary at the interval. A huge thank you to Avonbridge for hosting and to all participants for performing so well on the day. We would also like to take this opportuity to thank Tesco in Camelon for providing the water and snack for the day.

December 9, 2015

Mariner Support Service Open Afternoon

Yvonne McBlain enjoyed popping into the Mariner Support Service Christmas Open Afternoon. Staff, pupils and parents have been working hard over the last weeks to prepare for this event and there was lots to see.

The event opened with a celebration of learning by pupils, with prizes for good work done this term. The young people demonstrated their enterprise and social skills during the event – selling home baking, raffle tickets, and meeting and greeting. Brandon was particularly welcoming, polite, and charming.

The parents’ group have been creating all sorts of crafts in school on Wednesday afternoons. These were all for sale to help raise money for school funds, and included Christmas tree decorations, wreaths, jewellery, and home baking. This is one of the ways in which Mariner Support Service builds connections with parents and carers.

This event was a valuable way to build the life and ethos of the school, while progressing young people’s skills and experiences.

December 9, 2015

Whitecross Primary invite parents and community to celebrate their anniversary

On 2nd of December, Claire Quigley, head teacher of Whitecross PS and her staff hosted an unusual celebratory event on the 60th anniversary of the opening of their school.

This involved visitors in making a terracotta clay tile which was personal to them. These will be dried, fired, and added to a tiled display in the foyer of the school. Every pupil in the school has already made their tile, and many were primed and ready to help their parents and guests make one too. Pupils from Graeme HS supported their primary colleagues in making their tiles, and Henry Meldrum, art teacher has fired them all.

Visitors were taken into the school hall, and shown examples of the pupils’ tiles. Claire and colleagues demonstrated how to make the basic tile slab, then guests could decide how it should be decorated. Tony Bragg, team manager – performance management, and Eddie MacLennan, team manager – workforce development, joined in, and Yvonne McBlain, curriculum support officer, was delighted to make the “1955” date tiles which will be part of the commemorative display.

Jessie Dick came along and worked with her granddaughter Diane Balloch to make a tile. Both are former pupils of the school – Diane’s maiden name is Bryson, and her gran was known as Janet Reid, winner of the school dux medal in 1941-42. Jessie lives locally and enjoys return visits to the school, Diane said “It hasn’t really changed that much – the cloakrooms are gone – they’ve been made into classrooms now.”

Claire, staff colleagues, and pupils, will host a formal launch event to unveil the tile display when installation is complete.

Postscript from Claire 15th December 2015:

We are sad to say that in the short time since this event Jessie Dick sadly passed away. Our thoughts are with her family.

November 6, 2015

Pupils as Digital Leaders at Hallglen Primary School

Malcolm Wilson, ICT Curriculum Development Officer within the Curriculum Support team of Service and School Improvement, Falkirk Council Children’s Services, supported a session with the Digital Leaders group of pupils in Hallglen Primary School.

These pupils are being supported for them to then support classes around the school in the use of technologies in their classrooms. They are led by teacher Louise McGlynn.

Communicating and Collaborating

This session let the pupils explore different features within Office 365, including a specially created SharePoint site for them in Microsoft Office 365 (which is accessed via their Glow username), their sites for each class, one for their Digital Leaders Group, their own site, the local authority site and a site within the national site. All learners in Glow have access to their own Outlook email account (each user has 50GB storage, and each email can have attachments up to 25MB), a discussion app (which provides the facility for pupils sharing questions, comments or responses to set tasks (peer to peer or teacher-pupils). weblink sharing, and a document store (where documents were created using Microsoft Word Online as part of Office 365, meaning that the document can be created online without need for the software to be installed on the PC or mobile device).

Simultaneous Collaborative Writing in Word Online

The pupils all worked simultaneously on a shared Word Online document in their Digital Leaders site (and were shown how the same could also be done in their own OneDrive personal storage area called MySite, giving them unlimited storage space online). They all collaborated on the same document online all at the same time from their own PCs – and there was general excitement as they vied with each other to add lines of text, increase or decrease font sizes, and see the resulting writing from the rest of the group change in front of their eyes, with flags in different colours indicating who had added or amended each section of the writing.

How to avoid being locked out of Glow when you forget your password

Pupils were shown how to set a recovery email address in their profile within Glow so that in the event that they forgot their password in the future they would not require to ask a member of staff to reset their password for them – they would simply be able to click on “Forgot your password?” on the login screen and an email would be sent to their recovery email address to then let them into Glow to reset their own password to one they will remember. To set up their recovery email address within Glow they login and on the RM Unify tiles screen click on their name at the top right-hand corner, then “My Profile” then add their email address, click save, and most importantly then go to that email account and click on the email which Glow will have sent to that email account and confirm it (without that last step the password recovery facility will not work.

Avatars

Pupils were shown how they could create an avatar (an image which would be seen throughout Office 365 as a fun representation of them) using one of the tools of their choice from this link, and how to add it to their Office 365 profile by going to Office 365, clicking on the head-and-shoulders icon at the top-right, then clicking on “change below the head-and-shoulders image to browse for their created avatar image and upload it. http://primaryschoolict.com/avatars/

Access via Mobile Device

Pupils were told about how they can be access Glow via a mobile device, with different apps for each tool, including Office Mobile (in order to be able to edit Word or Powerpoint for example) and OneDrive.

Newsfeed and Discussion tool for all pupils

Each class site in Hallglen Prmary School’s Glow site will have their own online collaborative class space created for them. Each class space is set up by default with access for pupils to view content added by their teacher, and with teachers able to add content anywhere in their site. The Discussion part and newsfeed app are both set for pupils to be able to contribute so that a teacher can set tasks, or ask questions and pupils are able to respond. The Digital Leaders have their own site which is set up for these specific pupils to be able to contribute in any part of their site, but with all other pupils to be able to respond to questions or tasks set by the digital leaders in the discussions part or newsfeed app.

Want to know more about Digital Leaders?

Several schools have pupils who act as supporters to other pupils in the use of digital technologies. More information about Digital Leaders can be found here: https://blogs.glowscotland.org.uk/fa/ICTFalkirkPrimaries/pupils-as-digital-leaders/

November 6, 2015

Pupils as Digital Leaders at Kinnaird Primary School

These pupils are being supported for them to then support classes around the school in the use of technologies in their classrooms. They are led by teacher Karen Nichol.

Office 365 in Glow

Communicating and Collaborating

All learners in Glow have access to their own Outlook email account (each user has 50GB storage, and each email can have attachments up to 25MB), a discussion app (which provides the facility for pupils sharing questions, comments or responses to set tasks (peer to peer or teacher-pupils). weblink sharing, and a document store (where documents were created using Microsoft Word Online as part of Office 365, meaning that the document can be created online without need for the software to be installed on the PC or mobile device).

Simultaneous Collaborative Writing in Word Online

Access via Mobile Device

Newsfeed and Discussion tool for all pupils

Each class site in Kinnaird Prmary School’s Glow site has their own online collaborative class space created for them. Each class space is set up by default with access for pupils to view content added by their teacher, and with teachers able to add content anywhere in their site. The Discussion part and newsfeed app are both set for pupils to be able to contribute so that a teacher can set tasks, or ask questions and pupils are able to respond. The Digital Leaders have their own site which is set up for these specific pupils to be able to contribute in any part of their site, but with all other pupils to be able to respond to questions or tasks set by the digital leaders in the discussions part or newsfeed app.

Want to know more about Digital Leaders?

September 11, 2015

Happy Birthday Whitecross PS

Whitecross Primary School celebrates its 60th anniversary this year. The actual date is 5th December, but pupils, staff and parents are preparing to create a very special memento of the occasion.

Claire Quigley, head teacher at Whitecross PS , is collaborating with colleagues in Graeme HS and Camelon Education Centre to create a permanent clay tile installation for the foyer of the school. They are solving practical problems like how to get 250 plus tiles made and fired! But they are also building effective links between schools and their communities, as well as individual pupils. This all contributes to the life and ethos of both schools and the wider experiences of pupils. All of this is in addition to the art and design skills being developed by pupils.

Henry Meldrum, art and design teacher at Graeme High School saw an opportunity for his S2 class to support groups of Whitecross pupils in their creation of terracotta clay tiles for the installation. Each pupil will make at least one tile which shares their interpretation of their local area. On Friday 11th September, the first group of 12 primary 6-7 pupils from Mrs McNeill’s class in Whitecross PS visited Graeme HS to make their tiles.

After watching Mr Meldrum’s demonstration of clay techniques, the S2 pupils advised the primary pupils on how best to create their tile. They offered practical advice on techniques, and artistic advice on how the tile looked.

Daniel in S2 acted as photographer and Yvonne McBlain gathered the thoughts of the pupils involved:

Connor “I’m enjoying being in the high school, and I like using the clay. Also having a nice person to help me do shapes and have ideas about different things.

Abbie “It was very good that we had people to help us”

Thomas “I did it myself with no help!”

S2 also valued the experience:

Demi ” I’m enjoying working with the clay and the kids. It’s helping me knowing and understanding the clay…cos we’ve never used it in second year before.”

William “It’s fine – fun. Not helping me, but helping him”

Aimee ” I think it’s good because our class was chosen to help with this. It’s something different and it’ll give us an experience in working with younger ones.”

Yvonne McBlain, curriculum support teacher, will lead a practical workshop with staff and parents on 30th September, to support them in making sure that everyone in Whitecross School, and its local area can create a tile for the installation.

On 2nd December, the school will be hosting an open afternoon and evening when pupils will be able to use new skills gained from their visits to Graeme HS art department to “teach” their parents, friends, former pupils, and wider community how to make their tile.

A date for the grand opening will be decided once everyone who wishes to be involved in the 60th birthday celebration has had the chance to contribute.

August 28, 2015

Glowbusters – an interactive online trail for teachers to use with pupils to introduce them to a range of tools and resources in Glow

Malcolm Wilson, ICT Curriculum Development Officer within the Curriculum Support team of Service and School Improvement, Falkirk Council Children’s Services, presented a session for staff from a number of teaching staff from around Falkirk Council schools called: “Glowbusters – an interactive online trail for teachers to use with pupils to introduce them to a range of tools and resources in Glow”

This had been devised as a collaborative activity with Chrissie Lamont (Education Scotland), Karen-Ann McSwiggan (from RM Education) and Dawn Adams (Education Scotland) as one way to provide an engaging, fun interactive activity which teachers could use as an introductory activity with a class of pupils to let them experience a wide range of the tools and resources available to Glow users.

Through a series of “missions” the pupils have to explore many of the tools and resources available to Glow users, and find clues within each, while using some of the tools to create and share with their peers and their teacher. So participants using the Glowbusters activities learn to use Word Online, Powerpoint Online, OneDrive, Outlook Mail and Newsfeed (all part of the Microsoft Office 365 for Education suite included for all users of Glow), and are able to find and explore WordPress blogs, Wikispaces Wikis and Adobe Connect video-conferencing tools available to all Glow users.

Staff and pupils in Falkirk Council educational establishments can access the Glowbusters Falkirk interactive activity trail at the link below (note that a Glow username and password is required):

http://tinyurl.com/nmjalt2