Author: George Milliken

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Digital Registers at Mearns Primary, East Renfrewshire

Digital Registers at Mearns Primary

Our class teachers set a question on the assignment tab asking if the pupil is present or not. This allows the SMT team to easily see who has engaged with the learning that day and who has not. 

They followed this guide made up by one of our teachers:

Members of SMT take this information and complete this Google Sheet for each classroom. 

 

This form is set up to provide an overview of the school statistics and percentages of pupils completing the digital registers. We then use this information to contact pupils who have not been engaging and see if there is any reason for this and if we can provide support. 

 

 

Google Forms for Hub Provision 

We have been using Google Forms to allow parents & carers to communicate what pupils require provision in the hub and for which days they require this. We use that information to populate a Google Sheet which we use for our daily register. It provides our office staff with the information they require for FileMaker. 

Similar to the digital registers, our hub daily register generates statistics which we use for our records. 

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Photography Competition at Hillview primary School, East Renfrewshire

 

Photography Competition 

During this period of closure it is more important than ever to have families involved. Our photography competition invites all our stakeholders to enter and be part of something creative.

The final exhibition will be online but we hope to host it in a virtual art gallery using artsteps.com and allow our visitors to take a virtual tour where they will be able to admire and comment on our entries.

It isn’t quite the same as being in the gym hall but being in the same ‘virtual’ room is a step in the right direction! Creativity and connection are both good for mental health, which is a priority at this time. 

Twitter https://twitter.com/HillviewERC  

 

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Online Learning at St John’s Primary School, East Renfrewshire

Online Learning at St John’s Primary School 


St John’s, in Barrhead, have created their very own free-to-use website for teachers, parents and pupils to support learning from home during isolation periods of the Covid-19 outbreak. 

https://sites.google.com/view/homelearningsite

 

The purpose of the site is to support pupils and families by offering a wide variety of: 

  • Daily Challenges
  • Activity Ideas
  • Useful Websites
  • Useful Apps
  • ‘How to…’ videos
  • COVID-19 Support Resources for Children
  • YouTube links to support learning
  • Articles
  • Google Drive Resources
  • Discussion Groups 

There are a wide range of resources available across a number of different curricular areas in line with Scotland’s Curriculum for Excellence. It is live and dynamic and is updated regularly. 

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History Teachers Connecting Through Teams

Scottish Association of Teachers of History (SATH) on Microsoft Teams by Rebecca Hay

If you are a Scottish History teacher get in touch with the SATH team:
twitter – @SATHinfo 

We got the Team set up in early February, so it’s a very new ‘baby’ of ours. Great timing as it turns out, as it meant that the resource was essentially there for teachers when the lockdown started.  

 

We have over 500 members, with an average of 100+ active every day. The discussion has been varied and interesting – today for example, an NQT put up a really interesting professional inquiry about virtual learning and it’s been interesting to hear others experiences.

Lots of people have been sharing resources they’ve discovered online, ideas that have worked, or asking for help and advice. Some teachers have worked collaboratively on developing materials (e.g. the ‘Meanwhile Elsewhere’ resource for BGE). From the Advanced Higher channel a little sub team of those who teach Germany has formed, and we’ve had virtual meetings to chat about our practice and share ideas. 

Probably the greatest help has been the huge amount of materials available in Files – 46GB of materials has been shared by teachers, and what a wonderful resource this has been to everyone, not just in the current situation, but for normal times too.  

 

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A Selfie in Isolation! North West Community Campus, Dumfries and Galloway

A Selfie in Isolation

by Jamie McKie, Primary Teacher from North West Community Campus in Dumfries and Galloway.

A Selfie in Isolation, an activity shared by Nicola Orr (@MrsOrrCPS) on Twitter has been used many times by teachers across the country.  Her resources can her found here.

Due to everyone being in lockdown, we’re experiencing home-schooling, coming together as a community and a whole bunch of emotions too! The children gave themselves something to look back on by taking a ‘selfie in isolation’. This could be completed as a family, with a pet or on your own – completely their choice!

To complete this activity, the children had to download the template and then insert appropriate sized text boxes to include information underneath the sub-headings and upload a selfie in the middle. The pupils were encouraged to be creative with font, size and colour. The result and engagement from learners towards this task was very positive and rewarding, I’m sure you’ll agree.

 

 

Gauging Engagement at Our Lady of the Missions Primary, East Renfrewshire

Using Google Classroom Data to Gauge Engagement  

Each class uses Google Classroom as the vehicle to support learning and teaching. The teachers set up a ‘task chart’ of activities as an introduction each Monday. Children and families have the flexibility to complete lessons and assessment across the week to suit their individual circumstances. A ‘learning log’ is then completed by each child to reflect the ‘task chart’ contents. This ‘learning log’ is a Microsoft Form which provides a useful report for teachers and SMT to analyse in terms of planning for the following week and Google Classroom engagement. 

Any children who have not engaged are then flagged up to SMT. This will entail a cross-reference with a school Google Classroom usage report which we receive weekly from our Google Classroom Administrator showing who has logged in and the volume of activity for each child in the school.  

Class teachers are consulted by SMT and a decision is then made to contact those families via Groupcall – a generic ‘We’ve noticed your child has had minimal engagement with their Google Classroom content this week. Please contact the school if there is anything we can do to support…’ type communication. For the most part, this is sufficient for the families to re-engage or let the school know in which ways they require support.  

The next level up of contact would be a phone call from a member of the SMT. This personal touch is sometimes necessary and beneficial to reassure families and agree a more personalised support strategy for their child. The use of the ‘learning log data’ ensures a weekly touching base with all departments, stages and classes to allow us to target support and assistance for our school community. 

 

Our Lady of the Missions have also created these handy guides for adults to help learners access Classroom:

https://blogs.glowscotland.org.uk/er/OurLadyMissions/parental-involvement/parents-2/ 

https://blogs.glowscotland.org.uk/er/public/OurLadyMissions/uploads/sites/96/2020/05/12161644/Google-Classroom-Help-Guide1.pdf