Hi All

This week’s CLPL is on the STEM Self Evaluation and Improvement Framework.  This framework has been provided by Education Scotland to support schools with developing their STEM practice by evaluating their current work and giving focus for next steps.  We are very aware that we are in an ever changing and somewhat uncertain times.  The last thing we want to do is to create more work for practitioners or place importance on tasks which may not seem pressing.  The current situation is far from ideal and has pushed us down paths in providing education we may not have chosen.  However it is apparent that some excellent work is being done and as enthusiasts for STEM, multiple opportunities to engage our pupils and colleagues in STEM have presented themselves.

Family learning has been the status quo for most pupils for the last 3 months and this may continue to be the case for some in part at least.  Are we making the most of this family learning to engage parents in STEM?  Are we providing equity for our families with the provisions we are making?  If so can we continue to build on this?

Outdoor learning lends itself so well to covering STEM Es and Os, as outdoor learning seems to be being encouraged as we return to school can we capitalise on this to support STEM work in our school? Could we lead the outdoor learning through STEM?

We have been engaging with technology in ways we probably never imagined.  Pupils and practitioners alike are up skilled, can we continue to build on this? Are we going to change the way we teach?

Pupils are working in a very different way at home with different timescales, is this increasing their higher order thinking and creativity? How do we continue to support this in school? Could this be through STEM?

The framework allows us to evaluated these exact topics.  Perhaps as this is where we are for now and these are the opportunities we have been afforded we could work to take advantage of this and find ourselves in a better place at the other side?

To help you engage with the framework and provide examples of good practice we have asked Gayle Duffus, National Education Officer for Primary Science and the RAiSE program to provide this CLPL.   Some of you may know Gayle from our Friday Q and A sessions.  Below you will find Gayle’s video for this.  The associated resources are in the teams drive in the CLPL folder.