personalisation and choice – Falkirk Council Children's Services – Service & School Improvement Support Directory

Yvonne McBlain, curriculum support teacher with Falkirk Education Service, is continuing the filming process for Falkirk’s pupil version of their education policy Learning to Achieve. For the past two years, pupils from as many Falkirk schools as possible have been contributing to the creation of the policy in collaboration with Yvonne, staff in their schools and at the centre. Click here to see the paper version. Pupil council members have played a leading role in the organisation of the tasks at every stage. They suggested that the policy should be digital, and as dynamic and visual as possible.

Yvonne offered all schools the opportunity to be involved in this creation process and currently, secondary pupils are sharing their thoughts on their role in getting the most from their education. Many pupils are taking the opportunity to share and celebrate the educational experiences they have had so far.

On Friday 21st March, St Mungo’s RC HS S5/6 sociology students were filmed in conversation about their role in their own education. These students spoke eloquently about what they would like their lives to be like in 10 years time, and how their education has equipped them for this life. Paul and Martin from Baby Grand Productions are the media partners providing technical support for the creation of the policy.

Carrongrange High School pupils were filmed during their Enterprising Fridays and Life-Long Learning experiences. Each Friday pupils develop their skills for learning, life and work within a range of elective groups.

At Braes HS in the afternoon, a small group of S3 drama pupils were also filmed in conversation. They had prepared some thoughts on how best to conclude the policy video and “acted” out a conversation which they felt would do that well. Their vital task was to persuade and communicate a summary of the policy message to their target audience – every Falkirk pupil!

Mariner Support Service pupils will be filmed on 31st March sharing some of their diverse learning experiences and then all of these parts will be edited with the content already created by S4 Denny HS Creative Industries pupils in conjunction with Baby Grand Productions.

Yvonne McBlain from the Curriculum Support team is working with groups of pupils and their teachers to create the pupil version of Learning to Achieve, Falkirk’s education policy. Christine Snedden and Yvonne have been working with pupils and pupil council members for a while, to create the draft version of this policy. Groups of teachers and their pupils have now volunteered to turn this text document into something digital like a video or animation. John Chalmers primary 5 class at Grange Primary brainstormed ways that they could bring each bullet point to life. Click here to see some of their initial ideas – most groups thought about making drama performances which could be filmed. The animation club run by Sarah Ritchie at Bonnybridge Primary spent most of an afternoon coming up with ideas for animations which could bring each bullet point to life. Click on the photos to take a closer look at their initial ideas. Yvonne was very impressed by the way all of the pupils began this task – they quickly understood the message and content of the policy text in the document and made very clever judgements about how best to get their message across to fellow pupils. When these ideas are turned into a digital multi-media policy, the senior pupil council have suggested that this is shared with all pupils and staff working in education services at a launch assembly in every school, sometime in October.

Filming for Pupil Learning to Achieve Policy

Pupils start making their version of Learning to Achieve