Category: Curricular Areas

School College Opportunities To Succeed

Lynne Lauder, Enterprise Co-ordinator, Falkirk Council Curriculum Support Team attended the first Joint Team planning meeting for the implementation of the new  SCOTS (School College Opportunities to Succeed) programme which will be piloted as part of the Schools College Consortia in Falkirk during the 2013-14 session.

The event, planned and facilitated by Steve Dougan, Senior Phase/Opportunities for All Co-ordinator, Falkirk Council, Fiona Brown, Curriculum Manager Quality Assurance, Forth Valley College and Hazel Mackie, Principal Officer, Falkirk Council Employment and Training Unit brought together key staff from both Forth Valley College and the Schools.

Having shared an overview of the proposed pilot which detailed the importance of joint delivery and targets, staff from the varous college faculties presented their suggestions of what the college input would be.   Joint teams then worked to generate ideas of how work undertaken in the schools would complement the overall delivery.

Some time was spent on the practicalities of delivery i.e. the recruitment and interview processes and on identifying next steps.

There was a real buzz in the room as the group synergy brought forth some really exciting possibilities.  This is an exciting new addition to the curriculum in Falkirk which will bring rich benefits to the young people of the area.

The group meet again in early May so watch this space for updates.

Nethermains Parent Sessions

Over the past few weeks  Karen Thomson, Senior Early Years Officer, Falkirk Council Education Services Curriculum Support Team, has held Parent Information and ‘Come and Play’ Sessions to enable parents to become more informed of the outdoor learning initiative that Nethermains Nursery Class have taken forward.

See Powerpoint for Parents

These sessions have proved very successful with parents being able to explore the woodland with their child and becoming more aware of the benefits of outdoor play and learning.  Many of the parents discussed the shift in attitudes towards play since they were children and the importance of them knowing their child is safe while in this exciting environment. 

Here is some video footage of the children’s experiences in the woodland.

http://animoto.com/play/o3Zy34OiH5uJSHiN2BzDyw

Using Active Approaches to Reading Using Moving Image as ‘Text’

Sharon Wallace, Effective Teaching and Learning Teacher, Curriculum Support Team, has been working with a number of schools on active approaches to reading.

Sharon has been working on the development of skills which address ENG 1/2-17a – ‘To show my understanding, I can respond to different kinds of questions and can create different kinds of questions of my own.’

Working with ‘Lost and Found’ moving image as a text, Sharon has been working alongside class teachers to use Blooms question fans to support generating, and indeed, answering their own higher order questions.

Using a ‘book detective’ approach, pupils have been given specific tasks to find evidence within the ‘text’ to support themes/ characterisation/ setting/ plot and structure.

Incorporating co-operative learning strategies such as ‘corners’ (literal, evaluative and inferential questions) and ‘two stay/ two stray’, pupils have generated their own questions and model answers for other pupils to solve.

In their co-operative learning roles of question master, clarifier, recorder and summariser, pupils initially answered prediction questions about the text, followed by generating their own questions to ask others.

Pupils were highly engaged and motivated during the whole of the sessions. These sessions culminated in pupils taking on the role of teacher (Reciprocal Teaching) where they devised their own lessons for younger pupils using the same moving image as ‘text’. Pupils incorporated Assessment is for Learning strategies into their own lessons and shared learning intentions and success criteria.

CPD TV

Stuart Lennie, ICT Curriculum Development Officer in Falkirk Council Education Services Curriculum Support team, has just launched the official Falkirk Council Education Services YouTube Channel.

The channel, available HERE, will be used to provide CPD opportunities, support, and guidance for education establishments across Falkirk Council. Within the page are links to the other official YouTube channels for Falkirk schools.

The channel also works on the YouTube app for Smartphones and Tablets, giving you access to content whenever you need it.

[kml_flashembed movie="https://www.youtube.com/v/XKk9V7fI8Rg" width="425" height="344" allowfullscreen="true" fvars="fs=1" /]

Make sure you subscribe to the channel to get all of our latest updates!

 [kml_flashembed movie="https://www.youtube.com/v/0aRIlnQzw-A" width="425" height="344" allowfullscreen="true" fvars="fs=1" /]

Active Literacy – CPD tv

Sharon Wallace, Effective teaching and learning teacher, Curriculum Support team, has been working on GLOW CPD tv sessions relating to Active Literacy.

The short CPD tv clips provide an introduction to each stage/ aspect of Active Literacy for class teachers.

http://www.youtube.com/user/fcEducationServices

[kml_flashembed movie="http://www.youtube.com/v/Al8aAuatSpc" width="425" height="344" allowfullscreen="true" fvars="fs=1" /]

[kml_flashembed movie="http://www.youtube.com/v/eTnP9ArCeck" width="425" height="344" allowfullscreen="true" fvars="fs=1" /]

[kml_flashembed movie="http://www.youtube.com/v/NuHmDLxFREs" width="425" height="344" allowfullscreen="true" fvars="fs=1" /]

[kml_flashembed movie="http://www.youtube.com/v/32oXIbrzzgo" width="425" height="344" allowfullscreen="true" fvars="fs=1" /]

[kml_flashembed movie="http://www.youtube.com/v/D0Sb-Jm_mEA" width="425" height="344" allowfullscreen="true" fvars="fs=1" /]

[kml_flashembed movie="http://www.youtube.com/v/A62fESpf8DY" width="425" height="344" allowfullscreen="true" fvars="fs=1" /]

[kml_flashembed movie="http://www.youtube.com/v/Rkz1CuJnx7M" width="425" height="344" allowfullscreen="true" fvars="fs=1" /]

[kml_flashembed movie="http://www.youtube.com/v/i4cA9YJl-O8" width="425" height="344" allowfullscreen="true" fvars="fs=1" /]

RED Book Award

Yvonne Manning, Principal Librarian, Curriculum Support Team, Falkirk Council Education Services organised the Falkirk Council Book Award called Read Enjoy Debate. A shortlist of four books was read by students in each of the mainstream secondary schools between August and December 2102. Voting took place and book reviews were submitted in December. The award ceremony was held on 23rd January 2013 at Falkirk Town Hall, where the young people presented creative interpretations of each of the shortlisted books. The shortlisted authors attended and there was a lively question and answer session. The day culminated in the opening of the red envelope to reveal the winning book… and the winner: An Act of Love by Alan Gibbons.

The shortlist:

An Act of Love by Alan Gibbons

My Sister Lives on the Mantelpiece by Annabel Pitcher

Gladiator by Simon Scarrow

Blood Red Road by Moira Young

“Best day out I have had in a long time. I was really impressed by the seamless efficiency of it all and the enthusiasm of all involved.”  Simon Scarrow, shortlisted author.

“It is a brilliant event and we are delighted to be associated with it. Congratulations to you all for putting on such a super day.” John MacPherson, Bright Red Publishing Ltd (sponsor).

“My class thoroughly enjoyed their day out. Thank you so much for inviting us along. I have had nothing but positive feedback from the pupils and staff. It’s such a wonderful event to attend and I hope to work with you again in the future.” Falkirk High School

Images of the RED Book Award ceremony can be viewed on Flickr: http://flic.kr/s/aHsjDSm27M

Putting it on Record

Stuart Lennie, ICT Curriculum Development Officer in the Curriculum Support Team of Falkirk Council Education Services, is supporting the introduction of YouTube access for pupils in Falkirk Council classrooms.

YouTube is an online video streaming website that can provide useful knowledge and education content for all stages in schools and nurseries. In addition, users can create content and upload it to the site in order to store it or share knowledge or learning with others.

YouTube has been open to staff in Falkirk Council for many years and has proven to be a vital tool in terms of classroom practice and staff development. It is regularly the top visited site in education establishments and staff now integrate the content into their lesson plans and activities.

Currently, all pupils are blocked from access to the YouTube site, plus any embedded YouTube content in other websites, in Falkirk schools. This decision was taken based on two main factors:

  • The limited bandwidth available to our schools and the demands upon it.
  • The proportion of content deemed unsuitable by staff.

Recent developments in bandwidth improvements and safety filters put us in a position where these two factors no longer apply.

To facilitate such change, a Technologies in the Classroom group has been formed, made up of classroom practitioners from all stages of education in Falkirk Council. This group will have the mandate to call upon advice from appropriate groups of additional individuals including pupils, parents, and partners.

The immediate tasks for this group will be to:

  • Create support materials for staff and pupils
  • Develop methods to educate staff, pupils, and parents on the safe filtering features in Social Media sites and to ensure acceptable use in line with the Acceptable Use Policy and schools’ positive behaviour policies
  • Pilot pupil access with schools
  • Work to gather and analyse evidence of how YouTube is enhancing learning through previously unavailable delivery methods such as Flipped Learning models which enables pupils to bring to the classroom project work and studies undertaken outwith the school.

Here is an example of one of the support videos for teachers, hosted on YouTube:

[kml_flashembed movie="http://www.youtube.com/v/tkMPZuNFNBs" width="425" height="344" allowfullscreen="true" fvars="fs=1" /]

In addition, education establishments will be set up with individual YouTube channels to act as an official public repository of content for their establishment.

Reading Flash Mob

Yvonne Manning, Principal Librarian, Curriculum Support Team, Falkirk Council Education Services organised a reading flash mob on 30th November 2012 to celebrate Book Week Scotland. Pupils from Bantaskin Primary School and Windsor Park School met in Falkirk Town Centre each with a book, and at 11am the reading began, starting with one voice and building up to over 50 voices reading aloud. At the signal (a whistle) the reading immediately stopped and everyone walked off in the spirit of a flash mob.

[kml_flashembed movie="http://www.youtube.com/v/TChhGYLcWbs" width="425" height="344" allowfullscreen="true" fvars="fs=1" /]

Book Week Scotland is organised by Scottish Book Trust, http://www.scottishbooktrust.com/