June 2015 – IDL Central

Key Information at a glance:

useful context for “bundling” connected learning – social studies, literacy, learning for sustainability
wonderful teaching resource on our doorstep http://glo.li/1IyegDf
great online support and resources from the learning centre http://glo.li/1ESG43a
relevant local hook for engaging learning http://glo.li/1LttCiE
information leaflets available in French, German and Gaelic – opportunities to contextualise 1+2 languages – website can be accessed in these languages also

The Antonine Wall is extremely close to many Falkirk schools and is an invaluable learning resource for educators. It is one of Scotland’s 5 World Heritage Sites, meaning that it is globally recognised for its cultural, educational and environmental importance. In collaboration with the other 4 authorities which the wall runs through, Falkirk Council has a role to play in the on-going management of the Antonine Wall World Heritage site (click to view the 2014-19 Management Plan). Yvonne McBlain represents education services on the management group, and would be pleased to have any thoughts or suggestions for ways in which practitioners are using, or could use the wall to enhance learning and teaching.

The Antonine Wall website provides extensive high quality resources to support teaching and learning. These resources meet the needs of learners of all ages and levels of prior knowledge, and have been gathered from all available sources. It has all of the latest news about events relating to the wall, and provides relevant information about visits and field trips to each of the important sites.

Click here to see how social studies at early level could be developed through a visit, here to browse resources for first and second level, and here to explore how S1 &2, and S6 Advanced Higher History can be supported by the resources in the site.

Patricia Weeks represents Historic Scotland and is Antonine Wall World Heritage Site Co-ordinator. Patricia and Yvonne worked together to design a professional learning twilight training session for practitioners at all levels across Falkirk. This session takes place on 8th October 2015 at Camelon Education Centre and is coded YMcB36. There will be time during this training to explore the educational resources and features of the website.

Key information about this Head of Muir PS practice at a glance –

staff building their interdisciplinary learning framework together
creating related groups or “bundles” of E & Os
enabling pupils and teachers to be creative with contexts for learning
collaborating at the start of each school year to define their annual curriculum overview at each stage
trialling innovative pupil-led planning

More Detail…

Fiona Anderson, head teacher at Head of Muir Primary School continues to develop interdisciplinary learning with staff as part of school self-evaluation and improvement planning. Together they defined a framework of related groups of experiences and outcomes which practitioners use to structure learning for pupils. These bundles ensure that there is breadth of coverage, and poster sized overviews of the E & Os are used as simple, visual tracking tools in each classroom to enable pupils to share their progress.

Staff can choose which contexts for learning they use to deliver these bundles, and are currently trialling a pupil-led planning format which enables pupils to be as proactive as possible in planning their own learning. Click here to see an example of one of these plans in progress and here for a blank copy. Fiona had A2 sized versions of these printed so that these could also be displayed in classrooms and continually updated with pupils.

These plans therefore support high levels of responsiveness to pupil prior learning and enable the principles of personalisation and choice, relevance, challenge and enjoyment to be strongly addressed.

These trials are ongoing and have resulted in topics such as Dinosaurs, ” 1960, 70s, 80s”. Yvonne McBlain captured photos of wall displays (learning walls) in a selection of classrooms and these are shared throughout this post.

In August 2015 Fiona will lead staff through the following next steps in building their curriculum and their IDL framework:

Review bundles against the significant aspects of learning (click here to view Fiona’s trail pro forma for capturing the bundle and which HOTs it addresses)
Define skills being developed by each bundle
Define how each bundle progresses these significant aspects of learning
Explore how these significant aspects of learning can be assessed