Category Archives: Education News

Assessment, College CLNs, CPD, Education News, Technologies

Festival of Dangerous Ideas – free events

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Tuesday  18th June
Wild Ideas – Celebrating Failure and Success (1000-1500)
West Highland College UHI, Carmichael Way, Fort William

In the first part of the day, the West Highland Way Walkers who will just have completed their 5 day walk, led by young people from West Highland College  will exhibit the dangerous ideas that grew during their journey in the  wild. In the second half of the day, Outward Bound will lead a session that will explore how they have used the research on Mindsets to develop their work with young people

View Programme and Book Online

Wednesday 19th am and pm

Modern Assessment Tools to Match Modern Literacy Practices in These Dangerous Times

College Development Network, Argyll Court, Stirling (1030-1230)

In order for pedagogy to stay aligned with this seismic shift in communication, how could the ubiquitous practice of digital photography be used as an assessment tool?

View Programme and Book Online

Dangerous Assessment Conference (1300-1600)
College Development Network, Argyll Court, Stirling
Alastair Pollitt from UCLES will put forward the argument that we stop marking exam papers.

View Programme and Book Online

Thursday 20 June 2013
Learning Through Gaming (1000-1600)
Dundee College, Gardyne Campus

As part of the Festival of Dangerous Ideas, participants at the event are encouraged be as ‘dangerous’ as possible in considering how gaming can influence pedagogy and encourage greater engagement with learning.

Speakers include Chris van der Kuyl of brightsolid, Derek Robertson of Education Scotland and David Renton of Reid Kerr College.

View Programme and Book Online

Assessment, Research

Assessing Creativity – OECD working paper

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The OECD has published an interesting working paper on research to establish the viability of creating an assessment framework for tracking the development of young people’s creativity in schools:
The Centre for Real-World Learning (CRL) at the University of Winchester was commissioned to undertake this research by Creativity, Culture and Education (CCE) in partnership with the OECD Centre for Educational Research and Innovation (CERI).
The paper includes:
  • Why assessing creativity in schools matters
  • The pros and cons of assessing creativity
  • Guiding principles used for the research
  • The development, testing and refinement of a prototype tool
  • Conclusions and next steps
It is interesting to compare the five creative dispositions identified for the study, with the five creative attributes we are looking at in Scotland. This research model explores the following five core dispositions of the creative mind:
  • Inquisitive
  • Persistent
  • Imaginative
  • Collaborative
  • Disciplined
The Education Scotland Creativity Review has identified the following five core creative attributes:
  • Inquisitive;
  • Open-minded;
  • Imaginative;
  • Able to identify and solve problems;
  • Confident in their right and ability to influence change
Assessment, CPD, Events, Research

The Festival of Dangerous Ideas

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13 – 21 June 2013 at various venues across Scotland


The Festival of Dangerous Ideas aims to re-establish the importance of dangerous ideas as agents of change in education – to shift the axis of what is possible!

You might be interested in the following events:

Dangerous Assessment

This conference will address the following questions:

  • how do we assess a diverse range of evidence?
  • how do we assess creative thinking?
  • do we trust our own professional judgements?

http://events.collegedevelopmentnetwork.ac.uk/events/show/4685

Thinking Dangerously in teacher education: Walking, drawing and extending sites for learning

The University of the West of Scotland will share initial findings from its Creative Scotland funded research project which responds to the Donaldson Report, ‘Teaching Scotland’s Future’.
http://events.collegedevelopmentnetwork.ac.uk/events/show/4671

Click here for full details of The Festival of Dangerous Ideas Programme

CLD, Education News, Fife

Inspectors find excellent examples of Curriculum for Excellence implementation at Queen Anne High School, Dunfermline and in its learning community

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Queen Anne High School in Dunfermline, Fife and the learning community around the school have achieved outstanding evaluations in two separate reports by HM Inspectors published by Education Scotland today.

Queen Anne High School has become one of the few secondary schools in Scotland to receive evaluations of nothing less than ‘excellent’ and ‘very good’ from inspectors since the issue of updated guidelines by Education Scotland that reflect the increased expectations now applying as a result of the implementation of Curriculum for Excellence.  At the same time, the learning community has been evaluated as ‘very good’ in all four quality indicators used nationally to monitor the quality of learning communities

The report about the Queen Anne’s learning community states:

  • Learners are achieving very well across the community, becoming more confident and active, and increasing their life chances.
  • Performance reporting is well-embedded, with robust reporting systems that demonstrate that CLD is achieving most targets.
  • Young people are achieving well through a good range of learning programmes.
  • Work with parents is well-established, with a strong focus on early intervention.
  • CLD providers are supporting a range of community groups that are achieving well.
  • CLD partners are working well together to improve the quality of services.
  • Partnership self-evaluation is leading to improvements.
  • There are good arrangements for workforce development.

The inspection found the following key strengths within the Queen Anne learning community:

  • Highly developed partnerships and positive collaborative working.
  • Continuous improvement which is embedded in practice.
  • Innovative professional learning leading to well‑trained and highly motivated staff.
  • Joint reviewing and planning with partners.
  • Well‑targeted provision for young people, adults and community groups which is improving life chances.

Read more by clicking here

Education News

Have your say about the future of the Scottish Learning Festival

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The Scottish Learning Festival (SLF) has been the largest education event in Scotland for the last 12 years.  Each year many thousands of practitioners have attended and benefited from the thought-provoking conference programme, visited the exhibition to see and try the latest resources available and networked with colleagues from across Scotland.

As part of our on-going commitment to SLF, Education Scotland is undertaking a review to ensure that it meets the needs of the education community.

Over the past few months, a number of reference groups have met to consider whether SLF should continue, how it could best support the needs of Scottish education and to propose possible future formats for consideration.

The key findings from these review groups have been analysed and, in a two-step research approach, we have now created an online survey to capture the thoughts of the SLF audience and the wider education community.

This is your opportunity to help shape the future of SLF and your input and contributions are valued and welcome.  Please take time to complete the online survey which is open until Friday 19th April 2013 and will take you up to 10 minutes to complete.

All responses are anonymous, thank you in advance for your contributions.

Kind regards
SLF Team

CPD, Education News, Teachers

GTCS launches revised Professional Standards

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A suite of revised Professional Standards for teachers was launched by GTC Scotland this week.

The revised Standards which will replace the current four Standards in August 2013 are:

  • The Standards for Registration (incorporating the Standard for Provisional Registration and the Standard for Full Registration)
  • The Standard for Career-Long Professional Learning
  • The Standards for Leadership and Management (incorporating the Standard for Middle Leadership and the Standard for Headship).
CfE, Education News

New Professional Focus Papers published

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Education Scotland has now published materials covering all subjects at National 4 and National 5  – the papers are designed to assist those supporting learners as they work towards the new qualifications.

The materials highlight important features of learning which are enhanced or different from previous arrangements and are intended to stimulate professional reflection and dialogue about learning. They provide advice on approaches to learning and teaching which build directly on those used in the 3-15 Broad General Education, in order to promote continuity in learners’ acquisition of knowledge, understanding and skills.

They come as part of the development of exemplar course materials across the full range of National 4 and National 5 qualifications, being managed by Education Scotland in partnership with ADES.

The Professional Focus Papers are now available for download on the web-based course materials site on Glow and the Education Scotland website

Assessment, Careers and Pathways, Glow, Literacy, Science, Social Studies

Glow TV events coming up

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The Vikings! at the National Museum of Scotland
4 March 2013, 2.00 pm
http://bit.ly/glowvikings

What were the Vikings really like? Fierce warriors in horned helmets or peaceful farmers and traders? Join experts at the National Museum of Scotland to explore some amazing real and replica Viking objects, which might help you to decide what they were like.

Assessment Community – Using Glow to Support Assessment
6 March, 2013, 8:20 am
http://bit.ly/usingglowforassessment

This is one of a series of Glow Meets taking place in the Assessment Community and will be hosted by Jem Anderson from the team. NB: This same event will also run on Thursday 7 March at 3.45 pm.

Scottish Children’s Book Awards Ceremony
7 March 1.30 pm

http://bit.ly/13pKgth

Celebrate World Book Day with the 1000-strong audience in the Caird Hall by watching the 2012 Scottish Children’s Book Awards Ceremony live in Glow.

There will be readings, music, illustration, Oscar-worthy drama performances, song, readings, interviews, all of the shortlisted authors and illustrators and of course, the announcement of the wining books as chosen by over 32,000 children across Scotland.

Women and Science in Scotland: Careers that Science can Offer
8 March, 11.30 am

http://bit.ly/YZ6flh

On International Women’s Day on 8 March Glow TV will be going to the European Parliament in Edinburgh for a special event.

The event will feature a panel of speakers, all of whom studied science and have gone on to a range of different careers, talking about their experiences and what led them to study a science subject.

Daily What Newsround
8 March 2013, 11.00 am

http://bit.ly/YI45sr

Join us for another fun round up of the news with quizzes, missing words and a unique take on the week’s events. Melissa and Andrea with a special guest make the top stories accessible and enjoyable for young people. You might win one of our new “I made the News Today” Daily What badges for your contribution

For full details of these and other events, please log in to Glow and view the current schedule

(Glow login and password required)

CfE, Education News

CfE Briefing – Progression from the Broad General Education to the Senior Phase, Part 3: Curriculum Planning at the Senior Phase

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The next title in the popular series of CfE Briefings is now available on the Education Scotland website and focuses on Progression from the Broad General Education to the Senior Phase, Part 3: Curriculum Planning at the Senior Phase.

This latest addition to the series explores the ways in which schools are changing the curriculum at the Senior Phase and how they are building progressively on the 3-15 Broad General Education (BGE). It should be read alongside CfE Briefings 6 and 7.

CfE Briefing 8

Achievement Pathways