Tag: connected learning

June 30, 2017

Real Life IDL at Langlees Primary School

Between 1^st and 29^th June 2017, primary 5 pupils at Langlees Primary School worked with their teacher Ashley Turnbull & Yvonne McBlain, curriculum support teacher, Falkirk Children’s Services to try to solve a real-life problem. Some members of the class had previously worked with Jane Jackson, curriculum support teacher & with Grounds for Learning to have part of their playground landscaped. They launched their wonderful new outdoor play area in spring 2017, but could not then use it because of their local cats!

As you can see from the photo below, the cats were using the gorgeous new sand pit as their toilet! This meant that pupils at Langlees couldn’t use their fantastic new play area. Dylan and Iona from primary 5 have written the following blog post about how the class tried to solve this problem – Jane and staff at the school had previously tried various solutions, and wanted to offer the children themselves the chance to explore possible options.

First we figured out what the problem was and then we had a look at the sand pit. We estimated how long the sand pit was in metres, then we made a decision about how we thought we should solve the problem. We tried to count how many cat droppings there were – about 42 we thought!

We worked in pairs to decide what we thought was the best solution – replacing the sand, making a cage, etc.

Then we made little models of what we thought might help solve the problem. We made these out of pipe cleaners and damp sand.

We also researched and found out about cat sensors and alarms. Then we researched about toxoplasmosis – this is a disease you can get from the cat poo. 4 of us did more detailed research and gave a power point presentation to the class.

Next we had a closer look at the 3 best cat alarms and the class voted for the one they felt was most effective – Alarm A. We also thought about getting a cover for the sand pit. We were worried that the cat alarm wouldn’t stop the cats from doing the toilet – it might take a while to work. So we thought we should get both to help the cat sensor to take its time to work.

We knew our estimated measurements weren’t good enough for ordering our cover. We took a metre stick and some cones outside so that we could measure the sand pit properly. We needed to know how big the sand pit was for our cover and to check how much distance the alarm sensor could cover. We took the measurements back into class and talked about a long jump cover which Mrs McBlain had found online here http://longjumprunway.co.uk/sand-pit-cover/

Then we felt we were ready to go and see our head teacher and the other adults in school who would have to help us look after our sand pit. We planned what to say to them, and chose 3 people to be the voice of the whole class. (Kai, Gregor & Amy).

On the 28/6/17 the meeting happened in the Mrs McGlynn’s office. The next day Mrs McBlain came back to hear what the outcome of the meeting was. Kai, Gregor & Aimee did a speech and told us that the outcome of the meeting was to replace the sandpit with rubber tiles.

We all showed how we felt about the outcome using our thumbs –

Up = 6 Middle = 6 Down = 2

Then we had a think about what we learned throughout the journey of solving our Sandpit Problem. Take a Look below

As can be seen from the Smart doc image above, pupils felt they had progressed well with the project success criteria they set. Ashley and Yvonne had a very brief opportunity to review the impact of this work on the pupils. They agreed that the children had risen to the challenge of working with others as part of a team – enabling the class to listen more effectively to others while they focused on the job in hand. This project linked experiences and outcomes in Health and Wellbeing, as well as developing key listening, talking and reading skills in Literacy across learning. During the project pupils had a chance to apply other skills they had learned in Technology and Numeracy.

March 22, 2016

The Oxgang Primary Infinitree Crop

On Friday 18th March, Bartek and Scott in primary 5 at Oxgang School, told Mrs McBlain all about the imaginary Infinitree crop which they invented. This is a very special crop which is a blend of chocolate cane and a tree. The tree has leaves which can be crushed to give chocolate oil and then the leftover leaves can be made into chocolate paper, AND the chocolate canes can be crushed to make chocolate powder!!

The Infinitree crop is grown in the town of Little Market by very special characters. These include:

Rocko Bartson who is the harvester for the village farm. He is 18 years old and gets up at 6 o clock to harvest the Infinitree crop.

Bella Flower checks the fences and she drives the trucks which take the crop to market.

Declan Donald has 5 children, and he has to get up at 1am every morning to start watering the crop. He has to water 5000 plants, 5 times a day!

Miranda Rubber plants the seeds, she has one child and she works five days a week and does housework on the other 2 days. She gets up at 5 in the morning.

Bartek and Scott helped to write this blog post and were very good at explaining how their harvesting machines worked – they chose to make these from Knex instead of making them with their bodies during drama.

As you can see from the photos above and below, Bartek and Scott have had to think hard about farming, farmers and the crops they grow. We hope you enjoy reading about the valuable learning the boys have done with their teacher Mrs Stephen. They would be delighted to read any comments would like to write in the space below.

December 2, 2015

The Water Source Storyline Develops at Head of Muir PS

Pupils and teachers in primary 6 & 7 at Head of Muir PS are enjoying their developing Water Source storylines. The Water Source is a global storyline created by the West of Scotland Development in Education Centre (WOSDEC) and University of Strathclyde, which you can learn more about by clicking here.

Kirsty Bruce is working on the storyline with her primary 7 class as part of her second year of global storyline training. She is also supporting her colleagues in primary 6 and 7, with their delivery of the storyline, including Nicola Harding, a probationer teacher for primary 6. Nicola has very effectively documented what she has done so far, and how it has impacted on her pupils – see a short extract below, and click here for Nicola’s full documentation:

We started our topic by creating a strong foundation of community. Following initial research into what the term means, we set about creating our own fictional community to become our ‘home’ for the next 8 weeks. Learners were fully engaged with the process from the beginning, largely because they had full ownership of the village and sense of community. We discussed the careers and responsibilities needed to support a village and created characters/families based on these ‘needs’.

Here is our village display. We brought in a selection of junk items and were free to create our buildings in our own way using our own ideas for design and materials. We all worked together to create the river, road and houses.

Since we created our ‘families’, they have become very important to us and we do a lot of things together. We update our character diaries on a weekly basis detailing each new and exciting thing we have been involved in.

Global storylines are strong interdisciplinary learning which help practitioners develop skills, knowledge, attitudes and values in a powerful, but naturally connected way for their pupils.

Kirsty explained that: “Initially we got together to plan how we would approach the storyline and I shared information I have gathered from the Global Storyline course. I have been very impressed with how Nicola has taken this on in her class and it is great to hear about how involved the children are.

We have mainly collaborated on ideas for the classroom displays and resources that we have each created. However, frequent discussions about how things are going have been very useful for sharing ideas and talking through the plans and how best to approach the learning at each point.”

For more information about global storyline training in Falkirk schools, contact yvonne.mcblain@falkirk.gov.uk .

November 17, 2015

Primary 4 learn about Law & Order at Bantaskin PS

Yvonne McBlain visited Primary 4 at Bantaskin PS on 16th November, to hear about their Green Street and Friendship Street Storyline work. Mrs Russell’s class helped Yvonne write this blog post, and took some of the photos too. Mr Davidson’s P4D class held their court hearing during the visit – they were all desperate to hear the verdict! 4R will visit Falkirk Sheriff Court on 17th November and then stage their court proceedings back in class.

We have been busy creating a street of houses in our classrooms. Each group in our class created a “typical” Falkirk 8 year old character, then made up a whole family to live with them.

Our families needed houses, so we designed homes which were just right for them. We got letters asking us to do different jobs. When an elderly couple from Malawi moved into the empty house on Friendship Street, 4D had to come up with ways to make them feel welcome in their new country. Another letter said that the council had given us a piece of land near our street, and that we had to design and make a community garden on it. Primary 4 used their tiling skills to create a tiled centre-piece for the garden using squared paper. The gardens had to be Eco-friendly – Olivia said that eco-friendly is “putting everything in the right bins”, Caitlin said “eco means don’t waste anything”. We learned how to tile a hexagon shape, and when our gardens were finished, we displayed them and organised a Grand Opening tea party to celebrate. The next day we were “outraged” to discover that our community gardens had been vandalised! Who would do this terrible damage? Why would they do it? The pupils discovered clues – a bottle of black paint, some fingerprints, and apples with bites taken out of them.

Children in both classes learned about Law and Order in our country by investigating the crimes of vandalism which took place in their community gardens (SOC 1-20a). Their storyline included a visit to the local Sherriff Court, and the storyline letters they received, highlighted skills and knowledge they would develop during this interdisciplinary work. The letters helped to engage the children in their learning and made it accessible to them. The pupils also developed their understanding of the impact of vandalism on real people because they experienced it through their make-believe storyline. Storyline is often valuable for this reason in helping children to develop sound values and attitudes which contribute to their development of the four capacities.

Click here to see a version of this storyline plan which was developed by Yvonne and primary 5 teachers at Ladeside Primary School a few years ago. It has proven to be a valuable way to link or bundle, specific Social Studies and Health and Well Being experiences and outcomes with elements of Learning for Sustainability.

November 6, 2015

Primary 6 Learn about RMS Titanic

Kayleigh Docherty and her primary 6 pupils at Carron PS are embarking on an interdisciplinary storyline about RMS Titanic. Kayleigh is a probationer teacher with Falkirk Children’s Services, and is using the Cambridge Education, Joyning the Learning resource “The Unsinkable Ship” as a starting point for her storyline. She provided the description below:

I introduced the topic as a story line involving a secret mission. Letter one was delivered on a Friday afternoon and told the class that they had been chosen to participate in a secret mission. It also asked them to bring old clothes to school on Monday as the mission would involve a lot of paint and glue. As you can imagine, this grabbed the pupils’ interest and excited them beyond belief.

When they arrived on Monday another envelope was waiting, this time containing ‘secret agent’ badges. The next envelope was then delivered which revealed the first mission which was to bring the Titanic back to life in their classroom. The pupils then decided to create a huge replica of the Titanic and worked in groups for the full day to complete this. Over the past two weeks they have added a huge amount of detail and have now completed their task.

The pupils are also studying ‘Kaspar, the prince of cats’ by Michael Murpurgo as the novel links to the titanic theme. I find that they are much more enthusiastic during literacy due to the excitement and engagement from the Titanic being embedded throughout their learning.

This work is still in progress, but Kayleigh reports that “It certainly has engaged the children and having just finished parents’ evening, parents are very pleased with how engaged and enthusiastic the pupils are.” Primary 6 are developing a range of skills through this IDL context, as can be seen from the photos of their work in progress.

November 6, 2015

Professional Learning Linked to the Antonine Wall

We are delighted to be able to offer practitioners in Falkirk schools and establishments some new professional learning linked to the Antonine Wall World Heritage Site. Patricia Weeks, Antonine Wall World Heritage Site Co-ordinator, Heritage Environment Scotland will lead this session and prepared the following information:

Find out more about how the Antonine Wall can help deliver outcomes and develop the capacities of Curriculum for Excellence in your classroom. The session approach will be cross-curricular, and will focus on what physical and digital resources are available to help you prepare and deliver a range of topics. It will cover: a short history of, and introduction to, the Antonine Wall; real and replica handling materials and how to use them; the new Antonine Wall website and how to make the most of the wealth of primary and secondary evidence it showcases; and how to use and access new digital resources in development such as a game and forthcoming site-based app.

By the end of the session, participants will be able to:

Share information about the Antonine Wall with colleagues and pupils
Say how learning about the Antonine Wall could help them deliver elements of CfE
Create learning experiences based around the resources and support materials available

Participants will also receive a support pack on the day, with copies of teaching resources and promotional material to support future development of your own lessons.

The training takes place on 3rd March 2016, between 4-6pm, and is coded YMc26 in CPD Manager.

October 26, 2015

World War I Project at Laurieston Primary School

Interdisciplinary information about this project in a nutshell-

What happened: In 2014, primary 6 pupils at Laurieston PS developed their research skills by discovering how previous Laurieston pupils contributed to World War 1. With the support of Louise Tierney and Laura McDonald from the heritage learning team at Callendar House, they discovered wonderful, sad and heart-rending stories during their “Our Area in the First World War project”(click here to visit the heritage learning team blog). Pupils were able to work with a range of people during this project, including: relatives of the people they learned about, a reporter from the Glasgow Herald, ( click here for more detail of the stories uncovered in his article about their work), and a television researcher. They also worked with a storyteller and artist, who helped them to interpret the stories they uncovered in a creative and informative way. The resulting “memory box” exhibits were part of a travelling exhibition which was launched in the Hippodrome Cinema, Bo’ness, visited Callendar House, and local libraries throughout the Falkirk area.

The pupils continued their involvement into primary 7, and their representatives shared their work with HRH Prince Edward, on 2nd July 2015.

How does this work relate to Curriculum for Excellence?

These pupils applied their literacy skills within the “People, past events & society” organiser of social studies, to research the legacy of the first World War on their local area. Discrete subject skills were developed within and across literacy, social studies and expressive arts. The project blended the four contexts for learning – the transferable skills used across the curriculum progressed learning in a discrete and connected way. The project enhanced the positive life and ethos of the school in its local community, and offered pupils opportunities for wider achievement.

As a result of this project pupils:

Developed and applied transferable skills such as: analysing information (primary & secondary sources), working with others, planning and organising, creating & presenting information
Explored their own thoughts about conflict, and their values and attitudes towards their school and community
Deepened their understanding and appreciation of the impact of war on real people & society
Experienced active and engaging learning
Benefitted from working with a diverse range of partners including the Heritage Learning Team

Sarah Black said “I feel that the WW1 project let me do fun and exciting things. Not only did I learn a lot but I am sure it will help me in the future. It was really special getting to meet Prince Edward. I really enjoyed meeting him as he was really nice and it was a once and a lifetime opportunity.

The most important thing I learned was that thousands risked their lives and many were killed to save my generation. I am very glad I learned about WW1 and the opportunity I got to be on television with it.”

Falkirk Community Trust’s Heritage Learning Team received a small grant for from the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) of £9,900 from their First World War – Then and Now programme.The project had an intergenerational focus with a group of adult participants from the local community also working with the Heritage Learning Team and artist Jan Bee Brown and Storyteller Allison Galbraith to create a further 6 memory box exhibits to complement those created by the children and to provide a current cross-generational perspective on the impact of the War on the local area. Both generations came together to present their exhibits at the Hippodrome in Bo’ness to the wider community.

October 23, 2015

Let’s Build Deep & Progressive Interdisciplinary Learning

44 practitioners from establishments all over Falkirk are developing their interdisciplinary learning during 5 twilight sessions as part of our authority development of Interdisciplinary Learning. Session 3 took place on 21st October, and involved practical and collaborative planning of IDL which progresses skills, knowledge and understanding from related Experiences and Outcomes across the curriculum. Staff in schools all over Scotland are going through similar processes to create the interdisciplinary part of their curriculum framework. This process is often referred to as “bundling”, and involves finding the strong and natural connections/overlap between curricular areas & E & Os, then planning how these could be taught in an integrated way. Many schools have, or are giving a huge amount of their professional learning time to this process, so Falkirk Children’s Services are supporting a whole authority experience to help accelerate progress and improve practitioner confidence, understanding and skill.

Cathy Quinn, curriculum support manager, Yvonne McBlain, curriculum support officer, Marianne Savage, acting head teacher at St Bernadette’s RC PS, and Andrew Watson, DHT at Bonnybridge worked together to plan the first 3 of these IDL sessions. Click on the documents below to get an insight into how this highly complex process is evolving. Click here to view one of the example plans created to model the planning process for participants. Watch this space for the results of practitioner planning coming soon!

1. Extracts from 2015-16 Inspection Briefing Paper relating to IDL

2. Education Scotland definitions of what good IDL looks like – and common misconceptions

3. The blank pro forma practitioners are using to capture their “bundles”

Practitioner evaluation of the IDL project so far is very positive, with most people saying their confidence is growing, and they feel as though they now understand what “true” IDL actually is. Most people taking part are sharing their experience and the materials used with colleagues in their schools – usually as part of a Raci school improvement task. Consequently, our service is finding sustainable ways to build our capacity to design deep, progressive and engaging learning for our pupils.

September 21, 2015

Interdisciplinary Learning Update

Interdisciplinary Learning in Falkirk – a Quick Update

Yvonne McBlain, is working with colleagues across our authority to review and develop our Interdisciplinary Learning. As part of this work, she will be taking forward the task “Build guidance and support for interdisciplinary learning through Glow and Glow blogs”. The Falkirk IDL Glow group has now been updated to act as a “one stop shop” for practitioners looking for guidance, and can be reached using this link http://glo.li/103OdF4.

Yvonne has built in a Frequently Asked Questions section which has comprehensive answers and supporting resources for the most common queries. In addition, people can respond and contribute to this section as a discussion board. The group links to national guidance from Education Scotland, and to other national and international research and ideas about connecting learning across the curriculum. Yvonne will continue to add to and develop the Glow group – please send any suggestions you have to yvonne.mcblain@falkirk.gov.uk.

This blog complements the Glow group, and is open to all without the use of a Glow password, http://glo.li/1ftOaIZ . Its purpose is to share good interdisciplinary learning from all sectors and all establishments across our authority. When you deliver strong IDL which makes a real difference to your pupils’ understanding and skills, please email Yvonne so she can help you celebrate and share your effective teaching.

June 24, 2015

Interdisciplinary Learning and the Antonine Wall World Heritage Site

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.