Category: Learning for Sustainability

Learning for Sustainability Update – November 2020

Yvonne McBlain and Jane Jackson have liaised with partners to build a programme of professional learning and resources for the next few months. This programme will be sent to all Falkirk establishments in November via our Children’s Services Weekly Communication email, and regular updates will follow. We hope it supports colleagues with their ongoing development of curriculum during this unusual school session.

 

Learning For Sustainability – CLPL and Resources – The following sessions can be accessed on CPD Manager:

 

LfS 3-2021:  26th November – Developing Social Enterprise in Education as part of your schools LfS

This session is being run by one of our LfS partners Social Enterprise Academy and will introduce this exciting project that could see your pupils taking part in a Dragons Den!

 

LfS 4-2021: 1st and 15th December – Outdoor Journeys

Find out how local area journeys can enable young people to find out about the people and place in which they live in a fun and engaging way.  Keep Scotland Beautiful will be facilitating this session with links to how Outdoor Journeys can be part                                                              of your wider outdoor learning and LfS curriculum.

 

LfS 7-2021: 4th February – An Introduction to LfS

A session aimed at practitioners with limited knowledge of LfS.  As well as finding out what LfS is all about you will get resources linked to a Falkirk LfS framework that is being developed.

LfS 6-2021: 9th February Building LfS in to your curriculum

Aimed at practitioners with some prior knowledge of LfS this session will explore the Falkirk LfS framework and associated progressive IDL ‘bundles’.

 Other LfS CLPL opportunities

Scotdec are delighted to share with you professional learning opportunities around Learning for Sustainability for November and December 2020. All courses are free and take place online.

Secondary teachers

The future we want – a series of subject focussed webinars for secondary teachers wanting to explore how and why a global citizenship approach can add value to your teaching.

  • Active citizenship through maths – 3 December, 14 January and 11 February 5 – 6.30pm

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/the-future-we-want-active-global-citizenship-through-maths-tickets-128563515937

  • Active citizenship through modern languages – 8 December 5 – 6.30pm

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/the-future-we-want-active-global-citizenship-through-modern-languages-tickets-128565780711?aff=ebdssbonlinesearch

All teachers

Speak up! Race, bias and my classroom – a digital workshop series for teachers interested in exploring Anti-Racist education – for more information see attached fliers.

  • Edinburgh’s Black History –  24 November 4.30 – 6pm
  • Towards and Anti-Racist classroom  – 25 November and 2 December 4.30 – 6pm

Teaching for the Sustainable Development Goals – a series of webinars focussing on specific SDGs and how to engage young people with key global issues. Follow the links for more information and to register.

  • SDG 12: Responsible Consumption and Fairtrade – 19 November 4 – 5.30pm

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/sdg-12-responsible-consumption-and-fair-trade-tickets-126257689147

  • SDG 16: Young people, democracy and political literacy – 2 December 4 – 5.40pm

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/young-people-democracy-and-political-literacy-towards-sdg-16-tickets-125152800395?ref=estw

  • SDG 13: Climate Action – 3 December 5 – 6.30pm

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/lfs-and-sdg-13-climate-action-tickets-125152431291

 

Bantaskin Primary School Eats Sustainably

In August 2017 Alistair Findlay, acting principal teacher at Bantaskin PS began to work with primary 5, 6 and & 7 pupils on a “Good Food” project. This project developed from recommendations in the Better Eating, Better Learning document and was instigated by findings from the Healthy Living surveys which take place each year. Evidence from the 2017 survey showed that only 30% of primary 5-7 children were eating fruit daily, and only one fifth of pupils ate vegetables daily.

Alistair therefore saw potential to improve healthy eating habits across the school and the decision was taken to appoint a food technologist to support this aim. Alistair worked with a RACI group of colleagues to plan and teach a series of lessons which included:

  1. Learning about why it is important to have a balanced diet
  2. Learning about the Eat Well plate and recommendations
  3. Developing a range of skills for life including cooking & food preparation, horticulture and growing healthy ingredients for our cooking from seeds, etc.

A kitchen classroom was created within school to facilitate all of this learning and ensure that the new Food and Health experiences and outcomes and benchmarks could be addressed fully. This project extended to enabling parents to become involved in developing their cooking skills and cooking healthy, affordable meals within the school, gradually gaining a REHIS Elementary Cooking Skills Certificate. Susan Kennedy, NHS, supported Alistair and the group in designing this elementary course for parents. Jennifer Robertson from Quality Meat Scotland (QMS) also supported the school by cooking with parents one afternoon – a tasty beef stir fry resulting from this collaboration. Both parents and their children took a trip to Bonnyhill Farm to see where their food came from and gain a deeper understanding of the impact of food miles. This visit was supported by collaboration with RHET (Royal Highland Education Trust).

The project involved other partnership working, including Jamie Stevenson from Torwood Garden Centre who donated plants for the evolving “Growzone” – the name pupils gave to their school garden. The school also registered with the Royal Horticultural Society and within a single academic year, has achieved levels 1, 2 and 3 of the Gardening in Schools RHS Award.

A team of gardening parents and grandparents now maintain the school orchard as well as helping pupils with heavy labour required in their Growzone.  The success of the Growzone also benefits from weekly input from gardening volunteer Lorraine Milligan.  These collaborations have all extended pupil opportunities to develop skills beyond school and to gain a broader understanding of skills for work. In addition they have developed the ethos and life of their school as part of its community.

These collaborations have all extended pupil opportunities to develop skills beyond school and to gain a broader understanding of skills for work. In addition they have developed the ethos and life of their school as part of its community.

Yvonne McBlain popped in to get a flavour (no pun intended) of the impact all of this excellent work was having. She very much enjoyed seeing the school displays and awards gained, and meeting Gail Henderson, the school’s food technologist and the pupils she was working with. Primary 4 pupils had chopped & cut to make a cucumber and mint dip with the herbs from their garden. Throughout the school pupils look at and talk about their plants and garden during lunch times and breaks, they look after the garden well, pointing out when plants need water. They are also excited about harvesting their current crop and turning these into delicious meals and snacks.

Alistair and colleagues will harvest crops which mature over the summer and preserve these in the school freezer so that pupils can use these later in the session. Plans for next year include the building of a polytunnel so that children can sow and grow their  crops earlier and perhaps expand the range of things they can cultivate.

Learning for Sustainability in Carron Primary School

We all know how effective learnng can be when it is related to real life, especially when young people can direct further learning and see where/how they can contribute and make an impact.  The subject of  energy usage and climate change was brought to life when  Jenny Deacon, class teacher at Carron Primary School,  worked closely with Brenda Roddy (Climate Change and Sustainability Officer) to explore these issues.

Brenda is able to provide statistics for every Falkirk Council establishment which show how much energy is being used on a daily and annual basis.  These statistics can be used in a range of ways with many opportunities for pupils to influence what they do with that information, where they take their learning and how they link this with global issues like climate change.

carron elec day use

Jenny and Brenda planned two lessons, the first one focused on energy and usage in Carron Primary School but the second lesson involved using heat sensitive cameras.

thermal imaging

The pupils appear to have had an interesting time taking images throughout the school as well as of themselves!

thermal imaging 2We look forward to finding out what Jenny Deacon and her class did with the information they gained from the sessions.

Brenda Roddy is keen to help other schools with issues related to Climate Change and Sustainability and further CPD sessions will be programmed to explore how she can work in partnership with schools.  In the meantime Brenda can be contacted via email brenda.roddy@falkirk.gov.uk.