Category: Falkirk Council Educational Establishments

Sharing Active Literacy with Parents/ Carers

 

Sharon Wallace and Stuart Lennie, Curriculum Support Officers from the Curriculum Support Team, have been working together on a short active literacy animation. The aim of this short film is to share the terminology relating to active literacy to a wider audience, including parents and carers. This animation can be accessed through Falkirk Council’s You Tube channel and schools are also using it as part of Active Literacy workshops.

The voiceover is that of Maddiston P6 pupil Elliot who did a super job explaining the active literacy terminology.

Active Literacy Animation for Parents and Carers

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Satisfying the yearning for mobile learning!

Stuart Lennie and Malcolm Wilson of the Falkirk Council Education Services Curriculum Support team have been working to create a Mobile Devices in Falkirk Education Blog.

The blog is designed to support Falkirk Council education establishments in their use of mobile devices in learning and teaching.

Beginning from September 2013, this site will develop to have further materials as work develops in establishments.

Click here to visit the blog: https://blogs.glowscotland.org.uk/fa/mobiledevices/

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Westquarter Primary School – Better Movers, Better Thinkers

Karen Thomson, Morag Simpson and Morag Young, Physical Education Lead Officers, Falkirk Council Curriculum Support Team visited Wesquarter Primary School for some Better Movers, Better Thinkers Sessions on Friday 30th August 2013.

Better Movers and Thinkers (BMT) is an innovative, exciting and challenging movement and learning programme for Physical Education, that focuses directly on enhancing links between movement and thinking, and how these critical elements scaffold the development of physical performance and learning across the curriculum.

Parents were invited in during family time and joined in with an introductory session of BMT.  The turnout of parents was exceptional – well done to everyone who turned up and took part.  Westquarter staff are keen to incorporate this strategy into their Physical Education lessons.  A follow up session with staff is planned for 13th Setember 2013.

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Glenbervie Kindergarden – Outdoor Learning

Karen Thomson, Senior Early Years Offcier, Falkirk Council Curriculum Supoprt Team has been supporting Glenbervie Kindergarden who are the latest private partner nursery to start using NHS Larbert Woods on a regular basis.  Following a parent session on 14th August children aged 3 and 4 are now accessing the site weekly.  The children walk from the nursery and stay on site for approximately 2 hours before begnning their walk home.  Staff were amazed how well the children have managed this and noticed an increase in their stamina and energy even at the end of a busy session.

During the session on 21st August the children explored the environment and found some very interesting features to play – especially a large puddle.

The staff are also listening to the children’s interestes and some of the children found a hole which they believed to be a fox hole.  A conversation about other nocturnal animals then evolved with all children taking part – this is now something that the nursery can take forward as a topic and be able to make it relevant for the children because of their visit to the woods.

All children had great fun – although I am sure the washing machine might have been pushed to the limits!

Sharing the Learning with Parents and Carers at Shieldhill Primary School

 

Sharon Wallace, Curriculum Support Officer of the Curriculum Support Team has recently been working with a group of children from P2 to P4 in Shieldhill Primary School. The children were very enthusiastic and keen to be helping out at an upcoming session for parents and carers. Pupils demonstrated their knowledge of active literacy strategies and methodologies with confidence. They are very much looking forward to being ‘reciprocal teachers’ to their visitors at the active literacy workshop.

The children were able to eloquently explain about a range of strategies including: the five finger strategy, Elkonin boxes and diacritical marking.

Other activities on the agenda for the workshop are spell-er-cize, fun spelling tasks for their common/ tricky words and looking at their favourite ‘texts’.

Developing Active Literacy Reading Skills at Antonine Primary

Sharon Wallace, Curriculum Support Officer of the Curriculum Support Team has been engaging in professional learning opportunities at Antonine Primary School relating to Active Literacy.

Teachers and member of the Senior Management Team were all really enthuisastic about taking forward active literacy in their school.

The P7 teacher has developed some super resources relating to the development of the six comprehension strategies for reading and her pupils are responding well to them. Sharon was impressed with the jotters demonstrating a great awareness of comprehension strategy 2 – metalinguistics.

The class teachers were so excited the head teacher reported, “P6 and P7 teachers apparently couldn’t sleep last night….they were both excited about AL in their classes this year!!!”

Gateway to CPD now open!

CPD Manager Portal

Stuart Lennie, along with Lynne Lauder and Anne Hutchison of the Falkirk Council Education Services Curriculum Support team have been working to commission and implement a new way for staff to search, request, and record CPD opportunities.

The new CPD Manager Portal is now live for all Falkirk Council Education Services staff, and can be accessed here:

http://falkirk.cpdservice.net

All Falkirk Education Services staff should have received their logins via email by now. If you have not received your email, please contact cpd.educ@falkirk.gov.uk from your Falkirk Council emial address.

Active Literacy for P6/7/S1 – New Online Support Materials

Sharon Wallace, Curriculum Support Officer, Curriculum Support Team, has been working on a number of new CPD training support videos for Active Literacy.

These short video sessions are aimed at Second level, however some of the materials can be adapted and applied to earlier stages.  

Sharon has recorded nine short videos for ‘Reading’ including using film trailers, critical analysis, non-fiction analysis and moving image education. There are two sessions relating to spelling and these include the new spelling section and vocabulary building which explores homophones and affixes. There is one training session called ‘Developing Writing at Second Level’ and this looks at incorporating a range of different genres, as well as the use of mixed ability writing trios and effective conferencing to improve writing skills.

 These short animation videos are part of a series of CPD online sessions which range from P1 to S1.[kml_flashembed movie="http://www.youtube.com/v/gvXEPThdi2c" width="425" height="344" allowfullscreen="true" fvars="fs=1" /]

Frankie and Bennys support for schools recognised by an Enterprise Champion Award

Lynne Lauder, Enterprise Co-ordinator, Curriculum Support team met last week with Jenn Rough of Frankie and Bennys Restaurant to begin planning for school visits for the 2013-14 session.  Jenn is pictured here collecting her Enterprise Champion Award from Andrew Sutherland, Director of Education.

Information and booking forms for next session will go out to schools on 12th August 2013.  Places go quickly, so interested schools will need to be quick of the mark to get a place booked.

Frankie and Bennys have supported the schools for the past 3 years hosting visits for up to 30 pupils from P5 and P6 which allow them to experience the working environment of a busy restaurant.

During their two-hour visit the children  enjoy the individual attention of the restaurant manager, kitchen manager, and staff.  The aim is for pupils to experience the grown up world in an exciting and productive atmosphere.  Towards the end of the visit the children  choose pizza toppings and aid the chef in the preparation of their very own pizzas; of course they do not participate in the actual cooking process or enter the kitchen for safety reasons.  Although the children may see this as the highlight, it is in fact the ‘process’ which holds the real value, as the children learn about hygiene, food/ingredients, numeracy, co-operation, teamwork and health and safety, in a fun and constructive environment.

For further information contact lynne.lauder@falkirk.gov.uk