Category: Ideas & Inspiration

Denny PS makes BBC 10 Pieces into Powerful IDL

IMG_2341Catherine Cybulska, primary 5 teacher, and Susanne Bell, Youth Music Tutor, at Denny Primary School used the BBC 10 pieces project to truly enrich and link their curriculum for pupils. Primary 5 were among many Falkirk classes who attended the premier of 10 pieces at Falkirk Town Hall last autumn, but went on to become one of only 4 Scottish winners. Their “prize” was to host a Scottish Symphony Orchestra-led BBC 10 Pieces music takeover day which happened on 23rd March 2015. Mrs Cybulska and her pupils are also learning how to the play the violin from scratch and are enjoying their lessons from Mr Atkinson, their music tutor.DSCN0180

These musical experiences have naturally linked learning and skills development across the curriculum and made a very positive difference to the life and ethos of Denny PS. The SSO/BBC visit was a truly transformative experience for everyone involved. Pupils applied to take part in stop motion animation workshops linked to the pieces of music and got to work with a BBC film crew. Catherine said “There are no words to explain how good it was…just amazing…I would advise anybody to do it” The people in Denny PS also made an impact on BBC staff involved, who wrote a lovely thank you letter with the following extract “Denny is a truly wonderful school…staff/pupil interaction we witnessed were both humbling and inspiring”. 145

Catherine and Susanne felt that BBC 10 pieces helped them bring CfE to life for pupils by linking their analysis, interpretation and evaluation skills across music, ICT, media studies and literacy. The project has also developed pupil confidence, motivation, enthusiasm and creativity and contributed to a more positive attitude towards learning which pervades the classroom and certainly extended across the school on the 10 pieces day. Pupils model the 4 capacities better in their contributions to all areas of learning, and in their increased attention to detail, behaviour and ability to persevere with tasks. Use this link to hear some of the primary 5 pupils being  interviewed about their experience by Radio Scotland.

Catherine and Susanne have succeeded in involving others very effectively in the project in order to create a lasting legacy from the project. Click here to listen to the pupils’ composition, and here to read their song lyrics. The PR video P 5 made to inform other classes about the upcoming takeover day can be viewed by clicking here. The photos below show one of the banners each class made to interpret one of the pieces of music. P5 invited 2 pupils from each of the other cluster schools to join in on the day.  Look out for 10 Pieces 2 which will begin in session 2015-16 for primary 7 – S2 classes.

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Moray PS Celebrate their Storylines in Style.

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On 29th April, Primary 5 pupils at Moray PS shared and celebrated their learning during their Scottish Wars of Independence storyline. Pupils gave parents and guests a personal tour of their work and most guests took a quiz at the end to check how well they’d been listening! Taylor, Olivia and Emma gave Yvonne McBlain a tour and told her about the storyline characters they had become. They gave a particularly good explanation of the feudal system in Scotland and how it felt to be a villein at the “bottom of the heap”. It was clear that primary 5 had enjoyed this topic and that they could see how it had enabled them to develop skills, knowledge and understanding across social studies, literacy and technology. Quite rightly, they were extremely proud of their Scottish landmark constructions which they had done as “rich” homework tasks.  WP_20150429_020Because this contextualised learning was done at home, teachers helped ensure that parents, grandparents and carers could be involved in their children’s learning.

Primary 5 class teachers Miss Spalding and Miss Hallam adapted our Falkirk Scottish Wars of Independence storyline to the needs of their pupil – click here to view. As can be seen from the sample of feedback below, parents and guests were very impressed by the learning, the storyline methodology, and with being invited to the celebration.

The pupils clearly evidenced their deep understanding of Scottish historical events, especially the actual and moral dilemma presented to William Wallace and others required to sign the Ragman’s Roll. They have obviously enjoyed and been engaged in their learning and confidently shared this with their guests.

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Class 2 in Timezone go back in time!

P1010105 Yvonne McBlain  was delighted to return to class 2 in the Timezone at Maddiston Primary School to find out how their “Castles” storyline had gone. Heather Garland teaches class 2 and has outlined this project below:

“Attending the fantastic storyline course provided me with an excellent opportunity to learn how to progress to the next stage of storyline with children with additional support needs.  Yvonne provided valuable advice and together we were able to plan a storyline which gave the pupils more of a leading role than previously carried out.  My class embraced this opportunity and provided fantastic work in a variety of curriculum areas.  P1010112This interdisciplinary approach allowed children to be creative in a variety of ways from role play (Battle of Bannockburn) through to story writing using the characters they created.  It allowed scope for inclusion and all pupils were engaged and worked extremely hard producing work of a very high standard.  It was lovely to have parents into our class for our celebration which consisted of a feast in mainstream and then showing our film, stories and all our other work to parents.  I am very proud of Class 2 in the Timezone.  Well Done everyone!”

P1010106Heather adapted a tried and trusted storyline called “There was a princess long ago” to engage her pupils really effectively in their learning. It was wonderful to watch the video of the children re-enacting the Battle of Bannockburn at the site of the Bruce memorial. Below are comments from pupils:

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Mala – Writing my story.

Mollie – Being a princess in the battle and writing in pen.

Jamie B – The battle…knights and swords.

Jaimie – Going in the castle and learning to fight.

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Parents also gave feedback on their children’s storyline work:

“It was a very interesting, informative and enjoyable afternoon.”

 “ From acting to editing I thought it was fab.”

 “It was an absolute privilege to attend and watch the castles project work.  I was blown away by the outstanding commitment, attention to detail and effort from staff and pupils alike.  The delight on Lewis’s face will stay with me forever.”

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Impact of International Storyline Conference

WP_20150329_002On 28th & 29th March Yvonne McBlain attended the 6th International Storyline Conference in the new Technology and Innovation Centre which is part of the University of Strathclyde. Yvonne outlines the impact of this event on her own professional learning below.

Key note speech by Carmel O’ Sullivan, Head of the School of Education at Trinity College, Dublin: It was fascinating to learn how effective  social drama (almost identical to pupil-led storylines) has been in developing the creativity, social skills and communication capabilities of young people with Autistic Spectrum Disorders. We saw film clips of this long-term research project and Carmel shared her analysis of the positive impact recorded. This included: a reduction in general anxiety among students; increased use of appropriate body contact; increased use of imagination and spontaneous creativity. She has clear evidence that young people with autism can make up stories in the drama, and is now exploring why this stops when they leave the drama.

Outdoor Education Through Storyline seminar:  Alicia Vickery from Highland Elementary School, USA explained how she and colleagues deliver their curriculum through storyline. Their education authority (like us) are developing sustainable education and encouraging teachers to take learning out of the classroom. She has been developing storyline incidents which lead pupils to environmental education and has built very effective partnerships with local people and agencies to support this. I liked the idea of a whole school storyline which happens every 2 years in Highland School. This year’s storyline was called “The River Keepers”, and  each class took a different section of their local river, researched the habitats and issues surrounding their section, then presented and shared their learning in various ways. I could see potential for this approach in our schools too – great way to link science & social studies within a Learning for Sustainability context.

Youth Games storyline seminar: Angela Speirs shared an excellent storyline she has created and used with her P6 class in St Ninian’s PS in Glasgow. Using characters from an imaginary “games”, Angela specified an overarching science learning intention for her IDL unit which also linked skills, knowledge and understanding in technology and health and well-being. There was a javelin athlete who led pupils to the study of friction, a cyclist who developed understanding of aerodynamics & air resistance, and an athlete whose training was not progressing well – pupils needed to study their diet and training regime to analyse and evaluate how to address this. Angela very effectively combined the storyline methodology with curricular learning by building on prior learning and also developed problem-solving and research skills in her pupils. I hope to get a copy of this plan and share asap.

Key Note 2 – Stories in the Land: Joyce Gilbert, environmental educator and consultant, and Claire Hewitt, storyteller and artist,  shared the development of Drove Roads of Scotland storyline. This sounded like an emotional and organic experience which had obviously impacted on pupil understanding of Scottish heritage and traditions. Teachers and pupils at Moray PS have trialled this storyline and I would like to get their views on how impacted on learning.

My own workshop – Storyline as a tool for literacy skill development in the secondary classroom: I thoroughly enjoyed working with the 12 educationalists from around the world who attended. Click here to see my presentation (minus pupil photos) where I shared storylines which took place in Falkirk HS, English department and part of an IDL project with the art department at Braes HS. I was glad to get very positive feedback and now have valuable links to follow up. One participant was particularly struck by the simplicity of developing literacy and higher order skills through the analysis of product packaging in art and design.

Whole school book-based storyline “Kladremus og de andre dyr”: Dyrini Halsaskogi, head teacher of Karsnesskoli, which is a primary school in Kopavogur, Iceland, shared their use of a very well-known story to develop eco-sustainability education and pupil self-discipline. She referred to the Self-Discipline theory of Diane Gossen which I would like to learn more about. Pupils first explored their own motivation and behaviour styles (am I motivated by Power, Belonging, Fun or Freedom)  to get to know themselves, then did the same for the characters in the story. A whole school ethos of positive behaviour, community and citizenship was created by this storyline which would seem to link HWB, RME & Social Studies in our curriculum. I felt this was a great idea and hope to explore further with interested schools or teachers.

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Connecting History Themes to Today’s Child: Rebecca Plaskitt of ACS Cobham International School shared how she has shifted from a content to a process based approach to the delivery of historical learning. She is using storyline to develop pupil independent learning and collaboration skills. Her practice reminded me of the “Joyning the Learning” resources like “The Unsinkable Ship”, and also the rich task approaches being used in our schools. She echoed our principles of curriculum design by placing great emphasis on the need for teachers to identify what is relevant about historical periods and taking time to explore this and what pupils want/need to learn. She made use of timelines with pupils and reminded my of an idea I’d had a long time ago – that every school should have a physical representation of chronological times in history to help pupils relate to and place events in their understanding. I need to look out for schools who like this idea and might like to try something out.

Storyline and the new Finnish Science Curriculum: Ann-Catherine Henriksson gave details of the structure of the new curriculum and rather debunked recent media reports about the role Interdisciplinary learning would play. I felt that the what Ann-Catherine described sounded very like our Curriculum for Excellence – even down to the shift towards the development of higher order skills using Krathwohl’s revision of Bloom’s taxonomy. The curriculum changeover happens in 2016 and it sounds as though the whole education system is mobilising to ensure that everyone is ready for this new holistic approach to teaching and learning. Other similarities with CfE include the emphasis on transformative pedagogy (storyline being one potentially valuable methodology), building an enquiring profession and an ethos of enquiry among pupils, integrating learning for sustainability and other contexts which effectively link learning; and shifting to greater use of formative assessment which is planned into the learning. I would love to learn more about the set of 7 “competencies” which are central to the structure of the curriculum and seem to encapsulate our skills, attitudes and capacities. The main focus of staff training between now and August 2016 is these key competencies and formative assessment.

Storyline with Adult Language Learners: Shane Corbett, University College Dublin, shared his findings around his research question “Is storyline an effective method for teaching English as a second language?”. These included a huge increase in long utterances by students; greater and more varied vocabulary; enhanced enthusiasm and positivity about classes where storyline was used; greater confidence in using the language which resulted in increase autonomy in using new words in real life. All of this is very positive and makes me wonder if there could be a role for storyline in our 1 & 2, Scots Language and Gaelic programmes?

Round Table discussion about the role of storyline in secondary schools: I enjoyed facilitating this group – we had no trouble at all filling an hour with exploration of the potential value of storyline in secondary classrooms. We also had no trouble identifying the challenges involved in this – these were very similar to those cited by Ann-Catherine in the implementation of the new Finnish curriculum. I was able to offer some solutions being tried in Falkirk schools, such as the senior electives choices offered to pupils at Graeme HS.

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Closing Key Note: Brian Boyd delivered a humorous but thought-provoking overview of how storyline fits within education at the moment and the benefits it could and does bring. He linked storyline as a vehicle for powerful interdisciplinary learning through the writing and ideas of key figures like Bruner, Lipman and Vygotsky and I noted a short quotation which I felt encapsulated the aim of the whole conference for me “every child a thinking child and every school a thinking school.”

 

 

 

 

 

Great Arty Collaboration at Comely Park PS

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On 27th March, staff and pupils at Comely Park PS proudly presented their successful collaborative work  with The Park Gallery. This project was initiated by the gallery and was inspired by Ruth Nicol’s exhibition, Three Rivers Meet which combined landscape painting with poetry. The project links to Falkirk’s successful Creative Place Award and encouraged pupils to look at their place and select their favourite icons of the area.

Ruth Nicol is an award winning Scottish Contemporary landscape artist based in Edinburgh. In her exhibition Three Rivers Meet she is inspired by Alexander Moffat’s “Poets’ Pub”, and investigates the landscapes of the seven great Scottish poets. She worked directly with 8 P7 pupils from Comely Park School in her Edinburgh studio, where they produced their own landscape paintings of well-known Falkirk landmarks. The pupils had to go through a selection process to be one of the final 8 who learned new techniques and  created the stunning works included in this post.

Kelpies by Megan and Zara

Zara said it was “A really different experience from what we were used to.” Her partner Megan said “I was really glad I put my name down. I loved being in the real artist’s studio. It was great to work with Ruth.”

Reid and Amy chose to depict the Kelpies and said “It was really easy cos we’re best friends. I drew the background then we did a horse each.”

Heather and Lisa said “I just enjoyed a bit of everything about the paint – we sprayed, and painted and chucked everything, then it really started to come to life when we added parts in.”

Grangemouth by Molly and Tomi

Tomi said “I think my favourite bit was actually going to the artist’s studio. I’ve wanted to be an artist since I was 5”

Yvonne McBlain and other invited guests were highly impressed by the whole occasion and the work shared. The paintings took centre stage, but the poetry linked to their local area produced and read by the pupils was  well-written and moving. It was obvious that teachers Gillian Hepburn and Gillian Cain had maximised the value and impact of this interdisciplinary learning for their pupils in partnership with Ruth Nicol, and Barbara Murdoch, visual arts assistant with Falkirk Community Trust. Comely Park PS has a Makar named Ruby, who read her poem inspired by her local area and said “I like writing poems – it’s another way of expressing yourself.” Click here to see Barbara’s record of the second of the studio visits.

Ruth Nicol said:

“Working with the pupils and staff of Comely Park School was very exciting and has been a privilege. The creativity, commitment and expression of all the pupils was evident to see. I hope everyone enjoys the paintings and poems we have made together.”

The Kelpies by Reid and Amy             The steeple

S2 Design Unit Update at Braes HS

 

WP_20150323_007Alison Morton and colleagues in the art department at Braes HS continue to develop and improve their S2 design unit. Since  their initial development of Curriculum for Excellence  courses for S2 in art and design in session 2011-12, they have adapted their unit through collaborative working within their department, and with student teachers and a graphic designer. Yvonne McBlain initially worked with Alison to build in elements of Teaching for Understanding and link pupils’ learning to other parts of their S2 curriculum. WP_20150323_008

These course developments and collaborations succeeded in deepening pupil understanding of the ways product packaging persuades consumers. Alison,  Yvonne and Janine White from the English department, shared this work at the Scottish Learning Festival in 2012. Yvonne also shared how elements of the storyline approach contribute to this pupil understanding at the 6th International Storyline Conference on Saturday 28th March 2015. She was able to pass on the impact and images of current S2 pupil work following a recent chance meeting with Alison. Delegates attending Yvonne’s workshop at the conference were enthused by the idea of building small elements of storyline into their practice at secondary level. Some of them had not previously appreciated the impact the use of characters and setting could have in subjects across the curriculum. They were also struck by the idea of product packaging as a “text” which could be analysed and evaluated in the same way as a written text or digital image. They felt this approach could help them develop subject-specific skills while also addressing their responsibility for the development of transferable literacy skills.

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Braes HS is developing interdisciplinary connections across all departments, with teachers looking for opportunities to take full advantage of natural overlaps between subjects in order to deepen and enrich pupil learning. Read more about Falkirk’s contributions to the 2015 Storyline Conference by clicking here.

Falkirk Storylines Shared at International Conference

WP_20150329_002Teachers and senior managers from Kinnaird and Moray Primary Schools shared their use of the storyline approach at the 6th International Storyline Conference on Saturday 28th and Sunday 29th March 2015. Gemma Douglas and Brenda Bennie presented their global storyline practice with teachers from Glasgow schools and the West of Scotland Development Education Centre (WOSDEC). Ashley Thomson, teacher at Limerigg PS prepared the Falkirk contribution with Gemma, but was unable to attend due to illness and Brenda thankfully stepped in. Everyone involved shared the powerful impact of the Global Storyline training on the 14 teachers involved and their pupils. Feedback from the workshop delivered on Saturday was very positive, and the delegates attending engaged fully with the practical elements built in to help them understand how powerful this interdisciplinary learning is. Click here and here to read previous blog posts with more information about these storylines.

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Lynda MacDonald, DHT, Gillian Brodie, PT, and class teachers Alison Feasby and Simran Multani also shared their development of storyline within Moray PS. In their  session entitled “One School Telling Many Stories”, this team described the storyline journey taken by their whole school community over the last 2 sessions. During this time a small group of teachers have worked with and championed the storyline approach. Session 2013-14 saw every class embarking on a Storyline at the same time; their classrooms and playrooms were filled with vivid representations of characters, settings, plots and an abundance of new learning. In April 2014, all stages from nursery to Primary 7 celebrated and shared “Telling Many Stories” with parents, grandparents and other special guests. The school journey continues this session 2014-15 with an aim to improve practice and achieve greater consistency across the whole school and a drive to build in progression of skills across learning. The pictures above and below come from the nursery storyline floorbook.  WP_20150328_004

At the conference, Lynda and colleagues made connections with 2 schools in the USA whom they plan to share practice with next year – there will be opportunities to link classes and storylines across the Atlantic which is very exciting for everyone involved.

Falkirk teachers are recognised for their use of the storyline approach to deliver powerful and engaging interdisciplinary learning. It was wonderful to see this practice being shared with an international audience – maybe we will have even more to share at the next International Storyline Conference in Istanbul in 2018!

 

Braes Anatomy going well for pupils at Braes HS

WP_20150323_003S2 pupils at Braes High School are coming close to the end of their Braes Anatomy interdisciplinary experience. This experience links science, social studies and RMPS through the context of vaccination – click here for more information about the whole project.  On Monday 23rd March  2015, Yvonne McBlain joined S2.5 for their RMPS lesson with Mrs Menzies to see how things were progressing. Mrs Menzies  gave a lesson entitled “Playing God or Doing Good?” where pupils developed their understanding of religious concerns regarding medical ethics.

During this lesson, the young people explored their thinking about a number of medical moral dilemmas such as: stem cell research, designer babies and “saviour siblings”. They began by considering their own views about these dilemmas, then created a table showing how these were viewed by major world religions.

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Mrs Menzies highlighted the links between the subjects involved for her pupils and outlined their final essay task and homework. Yvonne was able to collect feedback from the young people about how this interdisciplinary work has/is making a difference to their learning:

“It’s good. It helps me understand it so you don’t forget about it so easily and understand it more.” TJ

“It’s alright. It feels like it’s carrying on a bit towards the end – the science bit and history.” Hannah

“I think it’s quite good that instead of doing separate topics for each subject, they’re getting a bit linked up. The science bit was the best because it was more interesting” Ellie

“It’s alright. Simple really.” Omar

“I really like it because you can take what you learn from RMPS and use it in science.” Alix

“It’s quite interesting and helpful when all of the subjects tie in together. It gives you a different understanding on each subject.” Elly

“It’s quite good because it links them all together and helps us gather information and use it different ways. It could be useful even if we don’t take these subjects – like, we can use it in other subjects.” Alana

These comments suggest that the young people value being taught in a connected way and can clearly say how this benefits their learning. Some of them are able to recognise the value and necessity of transferring knowledge and skills across learning.

 

Falkirk Schools Do BBC 10 Pieces!

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Audrey Mackay, primary music teacher at Wallacestone PS and St Mary’s RC PS, has been working with pupils on the BBC 10 Pieces initiative. Click here to learn more about this project.

A number of her classes have been listening and responding to classical music during the “Ten Pieces” project.  This project is designed to introduce young people to the world of classical music in a fun and interesting way.  Primary 7 at St Mary’s RC PS have been particularly inspired to create their own response to the music by working together to compose a fusion between the opening bars of Beethoven’s 5th Symphony, the familiar theme from Greig’s “In the Hall of the Mountain King” and Scottish Composer Anna Meredith’s body percussion piece “Connect”.  The class are now in the final stage of rehearsing and hope to complete the video of their composition in the next week.

At Wallacestone PS, primary 5 classes attended the launch of the project at Cineworld in October and have been studying the various pieces during their Music lessons. Primary 5D chose Anna Meredith’s “Connect it” as the piece they would like to create a response to – click here to watch a performance of this piece.  In co-operative learning groups they created their own body percussion compositions.  Their performances were videoed for evaluation in class .

BBC 2Primary 5E chose “A short ride in a fast machine” by John Adams.  Their response was completely different to the other class. A suggestion from one child about playing the music whilst running his remote control car round the classroom led to a filming project in and around the school.  Video clips were taken in various locations and then edited using Moviemaker. Whilst some children were filming others were experimenting with the mp3 track of the music and Audacity. The children were able to select how much or little of the original to use and then experiment with Audacity’s various features.   After consultation with the class, one track was chosen to be the sound track for their film and was further edited using Audacity.   The film is now in its final stages of editing and will hopefully be completed by 25 March 2015.

Audrey’s work is a good example of interdisciplinary learning, with pupils applying their musical literacy analysis skills while broadening their understanding of music in our society. The pupils have been able to use personalisation and choice and develop their creativity and ICT skills while creating their responses to their chosen pieces. Pupils will also develop understanding of how each subject within the expressive arts can be combined through a performance.

Grand Space Library opening at Wallacestone PS!

IMG_4655[1]Primary 5E and Primary 5D at Wallacestone PS have been working together to develop their enterprising learning. On Friday 6th February the children and their teachers Mrs Davidson and Miss Eaglestone were delighted to welcome a great turn out of guests. Click on the photo on the left to watch the eagerly awaited moment when guest of honour, Yvonne Manning, officially cut the ribbon and declared the primary 5 Space themed library open.

This event celebrated interdisciplinary learning which the pupils and teachers of both classes have developed since last October. Cameron, 5E said “We wanted to learn new stories and have a greater imagination of books to read…We wanted to turn the room between our classrooms into a library. We all came up with ideas then voted for a space theme – it was a tie between a jungle and space but space won by a point!”  IMG_4658[1]

Cameron liked making the bookmarks for the books – he enjoyed being able to “design it however you liked”. Megan, Zoe and Leoni from 5D enjoyed doing the drawings for the library – they liked choosing whether “to do a space man or a rocket”

The children began their project by considering how they could use their quiet room – thinking about how to create the right atmosphere to encourage good reading and use of imagination. Click here to see all of the stages involved in creating the library.

IMG_4668Take a tour of the project display by browsing the photos below and watch the impromptu video of their library made by the children during the event.

 

 

 

Mrs Davidson and Miss Eaglestone carefully structured this learning so that pupils led as much of the learning as possible during this project. The  enterprising skills across learning pupils progressed include: working with others, problem-solving, managing self and others, literacy – talking, listening, reading and writing, numeracy. Pupils also developed their creativity in a whole range of ways – most noticeably through their art, design and technology work in the library itself.

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