Category: Falkirk Council Educational Establishments

Animated about Curriculum for Excellence

Stuart Lennie, ICT Curriculum Development Officer in Falkirk Council Education Services Curriculum Support team, has created a short animation to explain the key concepts of Curriculum for Excellence to Parents.

The animation, scripted by Carol Paton of the Curriculum Support Team and voiced by St Bernadette’s Primary pupil Rosie Wallace, explains the key changes to the curriculum and how we are implementing them in Falkirk Council education establishments.

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Active Learning in Health and Wellbeing using Smart Notebook software on a Smart Board interactive whiteboard

Malcolm Wilson, ICT Curriculum Development Officer in Falkirk Council Education Services Curriculum Support team, organised and supported a hands-on continuing professional development session presented by Anne Forrest of Steljes for staff from primary schools in Falkirk on the use of Smart Notebook software with the Smart Board interactive whiteboard to support active learning in Health and Wellbeing.

Anne Forrest guided participants through hands-on use of a host of interactive techniques using Smart Notebook software with the Smart Board which a teacher could use to support learning and teaching in the classroom in health and wellbeing. These included different ways of using tools like the magic pen tool (to zoom in, magnify, spotlight, and fade out annotations), object animations to provide feedback, rub and reveal, move pictures to reveal, hyperlinked objects on images, pulling items to self-correct, matching images within tables, page activity recording. The variety of different gallery items from images to engaging interactive tools such as timers were illustrated in health and wellbeing activity contexts, as well as how to adapt the host of lesson activity toolkit pre-created game-type interactives to any topic. Hands-on use of the resources on the Smartboard by participants illustrated how the activities can be used to help engage pupils in their learning.

There are also many free pre-created templates and question sets ready to be downloaded and adapted by teachers from Smart Exchange to suit the needs of their own pupils. Click here for the online Smart Exchange site where these can be downloaded.

Anne Forrest made her resources available to all participants, which can be accessed by clicking here (note that a Glow username and password is required to access these resources).

Feedback from participants included:

“Excellent with clear explanations and practical examples.” HK – Bonnybridge Primary School

“Excellent presenter.” MS – Kinnaird Primary School

Wallacestone Wanderers – Nursery Outdoor Learning

Wallacestone Nursery are about to embark on an Outdoor Learning Project.  The children will be visiting Lionthorn Estate on a regular basis with effect from 29th May 2013. 

Karen Thomson, Senior Early Years Officer, Falkirk Council Education Services Curriculum Support Team, facilitated two parent information sessions to advise parents of this new venture. (see presentation)

This is part of Early Years Officer, Heather Cochrane’s  Start Right Project and she has lead this initiative and will share her report with colleagues as part of this professional development programme.  She is still looking for funding to purchase all-in-one weather suits for the children.

“Here are some of the comments from parents after the information session:- 

“My child will really enjoy this experience and I think it will really help her confidence and problem solving skills.  Looks like it will be great fun.”

“My son will gain more confidence and understanding of risks and outdoor.  I think this will be very good for my child, as he does not get to take risks with me as much as he could.  He will thoroughly enjoy himself.”

“Very enthusiastic.  I work as an Ecologist and really feel this area of learning could be introduced at an early age.  Gives them an alternative classroom with a whole different range of skills to learn.”

“Very interested and excited – I think my son will get a lot from outdoor learning experiences, in terms of physical activity, confidence-building, risk assessment and social interactions.  Also, might encourage us as a family to spend more time out of doors too!”

Watch this space for photos and videos of the Wallacestone Wanderers first trip!

Using Reciprocal Teaching to Engage Parents in Active Literacy

Sharon Wallace, Effective Teaching and Learning Teacher, Curriculum Support Team, along with Class teachers and  pupils, carried out an Active Literacy Parental Awareness Workshop at Deanburn Primary School.

Pupils participated in an overview of the strategies and methodologies relating to Active Literacy before engaging parents in an active workshop.

Pupils used the Reciprocal Teaching method to engage their parents in activities such as: spell-er-cise, fun spelling tasks, Elkonin boxes, diacritical marking and dictated sentences.

Parental feedback was collected by P7 pupils.

‘What did you like about the Active Literacy Workshop?’

  • WOW
  • Very informative session will definitely use some of those ides with my son
  • Very useful workshop has gave me a greater understanding of my daughter’s learning journey when she starts P.1
  • It was good to get to see what kind of activities go on in schools in Falkirk council
  • I have a much better understanding of literacy and thought it was very intelligent of the children how they explained it

‘Which ideas or advice will you use to support your child?’

  • I will use the recipe checking together and the list making for shopping and packing bags
  • I will read more to my children even they are older
  • Very informative, especially diacritical marking #
  • I will try and make up stories in the car with my son
  • I loved it
  • I will get them to think of unusual ways to learn tricky words (e.g. mnemonics or words within words)

Parents took way Active Literacy leaflets which contain a glossary of terms, useful websites and lots of great ideas to support literacy activities at home.

Can We Persuade You To Eat Your Sprouts?!

Sharon Wallace, Effective Teaching and Learning Teacher, Curriculum Support Team has been trialling some of the new Active Literacy materials for P6/7 with Head of Muir Primary School.

Sharon has been working with 33 P7s on the persuasive writing genre. The learning intention was to develop the pupils ability to give an opinion through a piece of writing. Using the success criteria, pupils looked at persuasive language, synonyms for ‘persuade’ before embarking on an opening paragraph.

Pupils watched this shared ‘text’ to gather evidence of persuasive language and techniques and really enjoyed this activity. Eat Your Sprouts!

Pupils in this class will persuade you, through their writing, that ‘There’s always time for a sprout!’ and they invented new characters to convince readers of the benefits of sprouts.

Here are some of their characters they designed to persuade younger audiences to eat their sprouts:

Working in writing trios, pupils worked hard  incorporating the success criteria of: changing the mind of the reader, using powerful verbs and strong adjectives and setting out main points in a paragraph.

Here are a few examples of their opening paragraphs:

‘Do you eat brussel sprouts? No? Well, you should! Eating brussel sprouts will provide you with many benefits such as making you live longer, run faster than Usain Bolt, jump higher than Captain America and be smarter than Steven Hawkin. You will increase in height and muscles galore, these are just a few of the benefits, so rush out to the shops and buy some now!’

‘Brussels Give You Muscles’

‘Why should we eat these scrumptious brussels? Well, for a start, I am going to convince you that they are God’s greatest creation yet! Can I coax you to understand that if you eat sprouts every day and night, you will become marvellously wealthy, even wealthier than Robbie Williams!’

‘Your dreams will come true with brussel sprouts! How will eating brussel sprouts make your dreams come true I hear you asking!? Well, can I coax you to understand that sprouts of the God of vegetables? I bet you will have them on your plate every night. You might even be caught washing with brussel sprout soap! Messi eats them everyday – that is why he is the best footballer in the world!’

Have they managed to persuade you yet?

 

Powtoon, School YouTube Channel, Twitter for Schools, Maths Interactives and History On This Day – a support session for ICT Co-ordinators in Falkirk Primary Schools

Powtoon, School YouTube Channel, Twitter for Schools, Maths Interactives & History On This Day – some of the tools presented by Malcolm Wilson (ICT Curriculum Development Office in the Curriculum Support Team of Falkirk Council Education Services) at the support sessions for ICT Co-ordinators in Falkirk Primary Schools (and to which secondary ICT Co-ordinators are also invited) – an opportunity to be guided through a hands-on exploration and use of a variety of online tools to support learning and teaching in Falkirk primary schools.

* The YouTube Channels for Falkirk Council Education Services and schools provides a resource to share videos created for Education Services in Falkirk Council as well as a link to each of the YouTube channels of Falkirk Council educational establishments. Having a school YouTube Channel provides a means to upload school-created videos and more easily share or embed elsewhere such as class blogs or school websites. Playlists in a YouTube Channel also let you bring together videos, of relevance to your own school, created by others from elsewhere on YouTube in topic/curricular headings. Falkirk school YouTube channels are created centrally for each school on request so that the technical setup of settings, etc, is not a burden on schools, yet the control for the each school channel is with the school.

* Powtoon provides a free online tool to create short animated promotional videos for schools or event in schools. These can be embedded on school websites and blogs. These animated videos can be used to promote a school event, activity or explain a topic. A description and examples can be found here: http://glo.li/WY4Ek2.

* Interactive Teaching Programs for Numeracy and Mathematics are free online resources designed for whole-class teaching via interactive whiteboard. Each tool is versatile in letting teachers use it in any way to best suit the needs of their learners. For each tool there is an extensive helpguide available as a pdf for viewing either on-screen or printing out. These tools are designed to support the teaching and learning process with a teacher guiding a pupil, group or class of pupils, through their learning, and a pace appropriate to them. They are flexible tools so can be used at many stages in primary school. There is a host of tools included covering: Area, Calculating angles, Coordinates, Counting on and back, Data handling, Decimal number line, Difference, Division Grid, Fixing points, Fractions, Grouping, Isometric grid, Line graph, Measuring cylinder, Measuring scales, Moving digits, Multiplication facts, Multiplication grid, Number dials, Number facts, Number facts, Number grid, Number line, Number spinners, Ordering numbers, Place value, Polygon, Remainders after division, Ruler, Symmetry, Tell the time, Thermometer, and Twenty cards. They are available online here: http://glo.li/UR9HOS

* #OnThisDay in History – resources for connecting historical events, related to specific anniversary dates, to pupils today, can provide a means to connect events of past with work in class on specific days across curriculum – helps make connections with the past whether for a curricular area, a historical topic era, or lesson starter on any specific day. These free online tools provide short descriptions of events which happened on each day in the calendar (for any year). They can be searched on specific days, and any year. So if studying a historical period such as World War 2, the Romans, etc then events in sequnce day by day in any particular year can be shown. If teachers like to help pupils relate to historical events sometimes the starting link can be to look at events which happened on the day (in any any year) of their birth, or the year of their birth. If looking for links to music events, or studying art techniques through artists in history, then there are specific sites here which group these related anniversaries of events (including first performances, display, births and deaths).   The information which suits the occasion for the teacher and learners on any specific occasion can be used on a class blog or school website as a “hook” to connect events yesterday and today http://glo.li/Whu37F

* Twitter for schools – most Falkirk schools have school  Twitter accounts to help share activities going on in the school and increase engagement by the wider community. A list of these Falkirk educational establishments with links to their Twitter feeds (as well as resources supporting the use of Twitter by schools) can be found here: http://glo.li/12iKXTz. Once the Twitter feed of posts is embedded on school websites, posting information via Twitter on a mobile device makes it quicker to add news items onto the website as the information being shared by the school is instantly shared on the website without the need to log into the editing panel of the school website. Using Twitter also means that parents and others in the school community can choose to follow the latest information from the school, and share this with others to help more widely spread the good work of the school. Support can be provided to schools looking at setting up and using a school Twitter account or getting it added to a school website.

Feedback from participants at the support sessions included:

“Great, practical ideas as ever!” JC – St Bernadette’s Primary School

“Lots of useful resources.” AW – Head of Muir Primary School

“Lots of great ideas today – very worthwhile.” GM – St Joseph’s Primary School

“Now a convert to Twitter!” CM – Bo’ness Academy

“Yet another very useful session – many thanks.” LB – Moray Primary School

“Helpful and informative insight into ICT developments.” SD – Grangemouth High School

“Lots of great ideas.” FB – Kinnaird Primary School

“Great information – thanks!” FK – Bantaskin Primary School

“Thank you – very informative as always!” CH – Comely Park Primary School

“Very practical and helpful as ever.” RO – Easter Carmuirs Primary School

Airth Nursery Class – Larbert NHS Site

Airth Nursery Class have also embarked on the Outdoor Learning Early Years Project.  They are visiting the Larbert NHS Woodland Site on a regular basis.  A group of 10 children are off-site every week on a Tuesday for the full nursery session.  Karen Thomson, Senior Early Years Officer, Falkirk Council Curriculum Support Team, visited the group on 30th April.

 It was clear that the children are becoming more confident in this new exciting environment and they were able to explain to Karen what they like to do in the woods and where they like to explore.

During the session, it was clear to see that the children are experiencing a wide range of Curriculum for Excellence Outcomes and Experiences for example:-

The children noticed that there were more ‘flowers’ (daffodils and dandelions) than their previous visit.  They are discussing and examining the changes that have occurred since they were last here.   (I explore and discover the interesting features of my local environment to develop an awareness of the world around me.  SOC 0-07a) 

 On the walk to the woods, one child decided to count the dandelions at the side of the path.  (I am developing a sense of size and amount by observing, using and communicating with other about things in the world around me.  MNU 0-01a).  She discovered that there were “80 dandelions!”

It was one of the few sunny days that we experience in Scotland and the children noticed that their shadows were cast onto the path.  They asked the question “why is my shadow in front of me but when I turn around it is still there?”   This began a conversation about where the sun was in the sky and how this has created the shadow there.  Later on in the session, when the sun had moved, the children recalled this discussion and noticed that “my shadow has now moved to the side of me”  (By observing and recording the sun and moon at various times, I can describe their patterns of movement and changes over time SCN 1-06a). 

We then went for a walk around the pond.  The children were keen to feed the ducks and tried to attract them over to them.  Where the children were standing was very mucky and the children commented that they should move to another spot as the ducks would not come over in the muck.  We discussed that we might have to be a bit quieter as they may be scared of us. 

At the water the children also explored a variety of objects and whether they would sink or float and which object made the biggest splash!

Throughout all these child directed activities they are developing a curiosity and understanding of their environment and their place in the living, material and physical world.

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St Patrick’s Primary School CAT Session

Jane Jackson, Outdoor Development Officer and Karen Thomson, Senior Early Years Officer – Falkirk Council Education Services Curriculum Support Team, were invited to facilitate a CAT session for all teaching staff at St. Patrick’s Primary School on 29th April.  This is a follow up to the project that has been embraced by the Nursery Staff in getting the children off site regularly for the whole nursery session (see previous blog).

During this session, the staff took part in a number of practical activities that could be used with a class when taking them outside.  These activities ranged from creating a clock using natural materials to writing poetry.  See sample planner of activities.

Here are some of the poems that were created:

“North I stood facing the wood
to the East was buzzing a bumblebee
I turned to the West in my waterproof vest
then down to the South I spotted Grangemouth”

“Blue skies, fluffy clouds
what do you feel underground?
Turn around, what do you see?
bare trees and one queen bee
Church spire, lets enquire ….
I’m off to explore!”

Karen Downie, Principal Teacher, has already reported on the impact of the session – “Thanks for Monday night, I have to admit there was a wee buzz around the school on Tuesday and the foyer door was revolving all day with classes going outside.”

St Patrick’s staff will continue to develop Outdoor Learning within their school and Karen and Jane will carry out a follow up session on Monday 13th May.  Staff are also planning a full day outside on Friday 21st June as part of the ‘Play on the Longest Day’ initiative.

Watch this space for more information and some photos!

How Good is your Spelling? An Active Literacy Approach to Strategy Spelling

Sharon Wallace, Effective Teaching and Learning Teacher, Curriculum Support Team has been working with a number of Falkirk schools trialling the new materials contained in the Second Level Active Literacy pack.

The new spelling programme is run on a two week basis with the first week looking at spelling strategies and the second week looking at vocabulary building.

Word lists are divided into 13 sets of the most common tricky words with 15 words in each set. Pupils are to choose five of their own spelling words to add to these sets.

Sharon has been working with Miss McNally (P6/7) at St. Bernadette’s and Mrs MacLeod (P7) at Bankier Primary School on Set 1 in order to gather feedback from staff and pupils on the new programme.

Sharon is going to use the experiences and feedback from these trials at forthcoming training sessions for the new programme.

Sharon demonstrated strategies for three words: ‘accommodation’, ‘queue’ and ‘climb’ and the pupils then used the Reciprocal Teaching method to devise strategies for other words on the list.

Some pupils then incorporated at least half of these tricky words into a paragraph. Other pupils chose to present these in different ways including plays and other performances.

Feedback so far is very positive.

Which strategies did the pupils like best?

Accommodation
‘Two heads and two beds because it is easy to remember’
‘I like the two heads and the two beds because it rhymes’
‘Accommodation – the two cc’s are the heads and the two mm’s are the bed’

Climb
‘Climb the mountain because the M is in the middle of the word’
‘Climb because ‘M’ for mountain’

Queue
‘I like granny at the bus stop, it is easy to remember’
‘I think the granny at the bus stop with her four grand-children’

Pupils completed exit passes containing three words from the list and this assessment strategy demonstrated successful learning had occured.

An overview twilight of the new Active Literacy programme is being held at Camelon Education Centre on 13th May from 4 til 5.30 where the new packs will be distributed.