Category: Early Level

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

St Patrick’s Nursery Class

Relaxing in the woods!

Over the past three weeks,  Karen Thomson, Senior Early Years Officer, Falkirk Council Education Services Curriculum Support Team, has been supporting St Patrick’s Nursery Class to access the Stoneywood Woods in Denny as part of the nursery session. This initially involved meetings with Karen Downie, Principal Teacher, to identify and risk assess the site and address any issues that may arise. Information was then sent out to parents to inform them of the new inititiative that their children would have the opportunity to take part in (see parent presentation).  Karen then held information sessions for the parents to come along to and ask any questions they may have. Having gained consent from the parents, all nursery children have now had the opportunity to access these woods for the full nursery session, the children are dropped off and collected at a meeting point and then staff walk with the children into the woods. As with any normal nursery session, the children are given the opportunity to play freely, explore their own interests, the environment, build confidence and take risks.  The children also have a warm snack while outdoors. Some activities are set for the children (for example maths activities such as measuring and information handling).

It is now planned that staff will take this inititiave forward in the summer term and also look at other green spaces around the school to give the children the opportunity to explore a number of different environments. It is also planned to take this forward throughout the school.

Have a look at the videos taken throughout the sessions:-

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Twitter to support Falkirk Early Years Collaborative

Malcolm Wilson, ICT Curriculum Development Officer in Falkirk Council Education Services Curriculum Support team, presented to the Falkirk Early Years Collaborative about ways to harness Twitter to support their work.

Throughout the country local Early Years Collaborative teams (which comprise a coalition of Community Planning Partners, including social services, health, education, police and third sector professionals working towards improving children’s start in life) have been encouraged to make use of Twitter as part of local input to the national campaign #BestPlaceToGrowUp. The Falkirk Early Years Collaborative now has a Twitter account.

Resources shared included those which showed how schools locally and elsewhere have been making use of Twitter for sharing the activities of the whole school, class, school-group or faculty. In addition there were resources shared supporting education staff in making use of Twitter to develop Professional Learning Networks.

Shared with members of the Falkirk Early Years Collaborative was the excellent “Twitter for Educators: A Beginner’s Guide” written by Amber Coggin with Alison Flowers and Deana Nunn. This is in the form of a very visual, graphically-engaging set of poster-like pages in booklet form, guiding teachers through getting started with Twitter.

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

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Outdoor Learning

Karen Thomson, Senior Early Years Officer, Falkirk Council Education Services, Curriculum Support Team provided support to nurseries prior to outdoor learning opportunities for early years children.

If you would like your nursery children to access a local woodland or greenspace here are some of the documents that could get you starting in your planning.  If you wish support in setting up this programme and supported visits from myself please contact me on 01324 503764.

Initial General Letter and Consent Form

Sample Outdoor Education flyer

Sample Powerpoint for Parents can be obtained by contacting Karen.

Active Literacy – What do the Pupils Think About It?

Sharon Wallace, Effective Teaching and Learning Teacher, Curriculum Support Team, has been carrying out some research with pupils in Falkirk establishments to see what they really think about Active Literacy and how they think it helps them to learn.

We first asked the pupils:

“How would you describe active literacy”?

It is fun and really exciting! It is also very helpful with spelling words, I really like it (P6/7)

Active literacy is a language task that is used to help children improve their spelling and sounds (P7)

It helps you see the phonemes in words (P6/7)

Fun if you are working with a partner (P4/5)

I would describe it as a fun lesson to learn different phonemes and spelling rules to help us spell accurately although I enjoy the tasks (P7)

Fun, great way of learning and very helpful for spelling and understanding of spelling (P6)

A better way than spelling tests (P4/5)

I do like active literacy, but sometimes it can be difficult (P5)

We then asked the pupils how they think Active Literacy has helped them in class and this is what they said:

The spelling rules and syllabification.

I understand my literacy work more using active literacy.

I have got better at spelling and I learn lots of new words.
It helps me get better at my literacy work because we learn different language rules that we remember to help us spell so our work is correct.

It has helped me get better because I really understand it now.

I have learned more about the sounds of words.

It helps you see phonemes in words.

I have learned loads using active literacy.

Here are a few pupil quotes:

“I like active literacy because it helps me improve on my story writing and phonemes. I really like the active literacy homework. I like the spellings”. (P4)

“I like active literacy because I am a better reader and speller and I like all the fun tasks for homework. My favourite task is bubble spelling”. (P4)

“I like active literacy, my favourite part is Elkonin boxes. I prefer Elkonin boxes to diacritical marking, but at least it is helping with my vocabulary and spelling. For homework I like the jingles. My spelling has improved since I started Active Literacy. (P7)

Active Literacy and the Specialist Subject in Primary

Sharon Wallace, Effective teaching and learning teacher, Curriculum Support Team delivered an Active Literacy workshop to the Primary Specialists team. Specialists in P.E., Music, Modern Foreign Languages, Art and Drama examined the connections between their subject area and active literacy. We examined the literacy skills needed for each area which included: subject specific vocabulary, visual literacy, sharing ideas, following instructions, interpretation of texts and presenting.

Feedback from colleagues included:
“Will work with class teachers to enable pupils to create a piece of writing linked to work carried out in a drama session”
“This builds confidence and encourages me to do more. Will use Victoria Libraries and GLOW links as suggested”
“Makes me more aware that a lot of what I am doing already links well to active literacy. Makes me more confident”
“I will get my pupils to work more in pairs (Reciprocal teaching) to improve their communication skills”
“Some practical ideas of how to include Active Literacy in a specialist lesson”
“To work co-operatively with the class teacher to enhance active literacy in music class”

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Learning Journey Evaluation

Daniel Barrie QIO with the Falkirk Council Curriculum Support Team is visiting all Nursery Schools and Classes to evaluate the impactof the introduction of learning journeys on children’s experiences.  Karen Thomson, Early Years Support Officer with the Falkirk Council Curriculum Support Team will be working with him. The focus of these visits will be to discuss with staff and children  the way in which  learning journey’s are used to plan experiences for young children that are responsive to their interests

Quality P.E.- The 2 Hour Target

Morag Simpson, Physical Education Lead Officer in Falkirk Council Education Services, Curriculum Support Team has been engaging in series of meetings supporting the delivery of quality physical education in Falkirk primary schools. These meetings with Headteachers of the Larbert and Falkirk cluster primary schools were to explore a variety of ways in which schools were able to meet the delivery of the 2 hour target to fulfil the pupil entitlement. These discussions provide the means to share different solutions to the different contexts in relation to staffing, accomodation and resources to name but a few.