The Scottish Education Awards celebrate the hard work and success which takes place in Scottish education. They recognise the achievements of people who dedicate their lives to children and young people and showcase the valuable work and innovation in Scottish classrooms. Nominations close on Friday 2 March 2012. Visit the Scottish Education Awards website for more information.
I met yesterday with our colleagues at SCILT as a member of their MLPS short working group. Laura Stewart,who chairs the group, has posted some really excellent resources and ideas that will help those of you who teach a modern language in primary schools. To access the correct page please click here. Have a look at the posts on the notice board but also click on the Glow groups and documents tabs to find loads more interesting examples and materials.
The kind and talented people at Radio Lingua launched the first in a series of ebooks aimed specifically at secondary-aged learners. It’s called Focus on French and is available in the iBookstore, so any student with an iPod Touch, iPhone or iPad can download the content. It features a young native speaker who introduces each chapter with a video and there are audio clips for all words and phrases contained in the book. Best of all, Focus on French Conversation is entirely free and can be downloaded from the iTunes Store. Search for “Focus on French” and learners can download the book straight to their devices. Focus on French Conversation is the first in the series and they are currently in production for two further titles in the series focusing on S3-4 vocabulary – “Focus on French Vocabulary – Sport and Leisure” and “Focus on French Vocabulary – Education and Work”. There’s more information at Radio Lingua’s website. To visit it please click here or contact Mark Pendleton directly at
With announcements like those below indicating the health of Scotland’s renewables future, what better time to explore the contexts in STEM Central for use with learners?
This Interactive Map of Renewable and Alternative Energy projects in the UK would make a good starting point for discussion.
Osborne unveils £103m renewables funding for Scotland
A RIGHT wee blether, a creative conversation led by Scotland’s Commissioner for Children and Young People ran from 12th September – 31st October 2011.
The Commissioner, Tam Baillie, has a responsibility to promote and safeguard the rights of children and young people in Scotland. A RIGHT wee blether encouraged children to creatively express how they feel by answering five key questions:
The views and experiences of children have been captured and summarised. These responses, in addition to the consultation with school age children a RIGHT blether, will inform the Commissioner’s work over the next four years.
Click here to access the 2010 health profiles, along with complementary profiles focussing on children and young 
people. These profiles highlight the considerable variation in health between areas and help identify priorities for health improvement. The profiles give a snapshot overview of health for each area using spine charts (which show how the area compares to the Scottish average), and allow further understanding of the results via rank charts and trend charts.
We started off our new season of World of Work Wednesday events looking at Working in the Theatre and we now move to looking at other careers that you can have – and in particular working on the stage!
Artistic Director, Stage Manager, Marketing Manager are all jobs within theatre and roles you may have heard of. But what does it really take to do a job like this and how do you get a foot in the door? Join Andy Arnold, David Sneddon and Lindsay Mitchell from the Tron Theatre for World of Work Wednesdays. Don’t miss out on your chance to ask these professionals all about the different aspects of their jobs.
So why not join us on Wednesday 1st February from 1.45pm – Sign up in Glow TV.
Glow TV is delighted to announce that two further Chinese New Year events have been added to the schedule. On Monday 30th January at 1.20pm we will be coming live from the Confucius Hub at St Ninian’s High School in East Dunbartonshire with a Chinese New Year Show. Throughout the hour long show you will be entertained by Dragon Dancing, Chinese singing and dancing, Chinese drama and a live singing competition between 6 S1 classes!! Plus much much more. To finish the show the young people will be singing Auld Lang Syne in Mandarin and English. We hope that you can join us – sign up in Glow TV!
Then on Thursday 2nd February we will be continuing the celebrations with a recorded performance from a group from Shanghai who visited Scotland this week. As part of their brief visit to Scotland for the Chinese New Year a delegation from Shanghai performed in certain Confucius Hubs and also paid a visit to Education Scotland where we were lucky enough to have the event recorded.
The performance is beautiful and colourful and includes singing and dancing as well as Chinese drama. We invite you to join us for a Glow Meet with Fan Lin, LTS Confucius Institute Manager where you can watch the recording of the performance and then ask Fan questions about it and all other things that interest you about Chinese New Year!! Sign up in Glow TV for – Shanghai Delegation Perform Confucius Institute Spring Festival Performance 2012
And don’t forget our King of Masks event on the 6th February from 10.15am and later that day the 龙年大吉 Good luck with the year of dragon – Close of Celebrations events at 2pm!!
Last night I was lucky enough to win tickets to the Tells They Tell presentation at the 26 Treasures Exhibition at the National Museums Scotland in Edinburgh.
For this exhibition, the museum selected 26 objects from their Scotland galleries, which together trace Scotland’s history from its ancient geological roots to its technological future. Some are iconic, others less well-known, but all have a story to tell. The 26 writers from poets and novelists to screenwriters, journalists and academics. The writers were paired up with objects at random, and set the intriguing challenge of responding to their object in exactly 62 words.
Object number 26 was a Bionic Hand which relates to our up and coming STEM Context of Bioengineering. (Watch this space for more information on this context being released).
To read the poem Hand of the Future click here.
Remember to visit STEM Central in Motion to find out how practitioners are using STEM in the classroom.
WWF’s Earth Hour – 31 March 2012
WEAR IT BRIGHT!
Join with schools and youth groups across the UK for WWF’s Earth Hour, the world’s largest display of hope for a world with a bright future.
From Edinburgh to Sydney, New York and Singapore people all across the world will be joining WWF to switch off and show they care about tackling climate change and protecting the natural world.
WWF is encouraging schools and youth groups to support the event and there is a range of FREE resources which can be used in the days or weeks leading up to Earth Hour, including:
Get involved, visit http://earthhour.wwf.org.uk/get-involved/sign-up-for-schools-and-youth to register
Do you have an interest in, or remit for, global citizenship? Need some advice or want to share ideas with like-minded practitioners?
If so, then you’ll probably want to have a peek at the shiny new online community for global citizenship on CPD Central. Join now so you can brag to colleagues about how you were one of the pioneering members .
Why have we set it up? Well, there’s always a buzz of ideas and sharing at our face-to-face CPD events and we thought it’d be amazing if we could find a way of bringing people together again and again to keep the discussion and buzz going. Well we’ve found a way! Here’s your bit:
Step 1 – Visit http://bit.ly/DGConline and add your picture (Glow log in required)
Step 2 – Share an idea or ask the audience
Welcome gift! If you join before Friday 17th February 2012 we’ll be happy to offer you a special gift to welcome you to the community – one of our highly-prized global citizenship wall calendars (these have been flying off our shelves!).
Twig Science won a BETT award earlier this month for Glow Science.
Glow Science is a free resource offering rich engaging learning material for learners aged 8-14. It can be used in many different ways to support the Sciences experiences and outcomes, as well as other areas of Curriculum for Excellence. Glow Science has been available free to all teachers in Scotland since April 2011 and is accessed using your Glow username and password. It includes over 500 three-minute films and associated learning materials (including quizzes, lesson ideas, extension questions, diagrams, images), for Biology, Chemistry, Physics and Earth Science.
Hello!
We would like to draw your attention to new links which have been added to the parents section of our Glow group. These include:
Both of these can be accessed by parents outwith Glow and without a Glow password. They give parents a chance to see up to date information related to the curriculum, learn about events and also offer an opportunity to share their opinions and views.
School open day
Whitelees Primary School, North Lanarkshire Council
9:30am – 3.00pm, Monday 20th February 2012
Theme: Sustainable Development Education
This event was originally due to take place on 8th December 2011 but had to be cancelled due to the severe storms. It has now been rescheduled for Monday 20th February 2012.
Whitelees Primary School hit the headlines in 2011 when it became the first primary school to be awarded five ‘excellent’ grades by the school inspectors. This isn’t the first time their achievements have made news. The school’s accolades and awards include:
A key factor in the school’s success has been the way it has placed global citizenship and sustainable development education at the heart of the curriculum to provide exciting, relevant and engaging contexts for learning. This has helped to create, ‘Highly motivated, confident and ambitious children who are keen to learn and to make a difference in school and the wider community.’
This CPD event offers practitioners and school leaders from across Scotland the chance to visit Whitelees Primary School to meet with the Head Teacher, staff and learners and also tour the classrooms, buildings and grounds. A focus of the event will be to identify and share the practical lessons and ideas that have helped the school develop a successful whole school approach to sustainability and global citizenship including:
Those participating in the open day will also have time to reflect and share their own experiences.
Click here to download programme for open day
How to book
To book, please email: globalcitizens@educationscotland.gov.uk or Tel. 0141 282 5172.
Places are limited so please book early to avoid disappointment. This is a free event!
Dual post from the Glow Scotland Blog.
Firstly, we would like to thank all schools who took part in our Panda leaflet competition. We were overwhelmed by the response we received, both in the sheer number of entries (which is why it has taken us so long to judge!) and in the standard of those entries.
We took into account how well the entries had met the competition’s requirements (a leaflet giving information about visiting them at the zoo) and the standard of information provided, as well as the overall design quality.
We really were most impressed with the entries and only wish we had more prizes to give out. Congratulations to everyone involved. We have also been very impressed with the number of comments on the blog and just how much interest has been shown in the topic. It clearly shows that pupils have been as excited about the arrival of Tian Tian and Yang Guang as we have. Well done! And Happy Chinese New Year to you all as well!
And now for the big news. Here are the winners:
| Name | Class | School | Prize |
| Ellis Stables | P3 | Kirkcowan Primary | 1st– Panda and GTV T-shirt |
| Rory Crombie | P6b | St Joseph’s Primary | 2nd– Panda and GTV T-shirt |
| Liam Eccleston | P5 | Caerlaverock School | 3rd – Panda hat and GTV T-shirt |
| Ashley Leggat | P4 | Drumblade Primary | 1st runner-up |
| Faye Jackson | P7 | Caerlaverock School | 1st runner-up |
| Carine Bissett | P6 | Caerlaverock School | 1st runner-up |
| Morgan Murray + Emma Barclay | P5 | Goldenhill Primary | 1st runner-up |
| Greig Sinclair | St Joseph’s Primary | Runner-up | |
| Dylan Bell Drummond | St Joseph’s Primary | Runner-up | |
| Eilidh Skinner | Whitdale Primary | Runner-up | |
| Amy Begbie | Whitdale Primary | Runner-up | |
| Ryan Conroy | P5 | St Joseph’s Primary | Runner-up |
| Aoife Mclaughlin | P6 | St Joseph’s Primary | Runner-up |
| Abbie Ribbens | P4 | Kirkcowan | Runner-up |
| Amy Smith | P3 | Kirkcowan | Runner-up |
| Archie Mortiboy | P4 | Kirkcowan | Runner-up |
| Jy Guthrie | P4 | Barrshare Primary | Runner-up |
| Zak Service | P3 | Kirkcowan | Runner-up |
| Freya Coyle | Balbardie Primary | Runner-up | |
*Please allow until next week to receive prizes. 
We will try to post some more of the entries here as time allows, but here is the winning entry, submitted by Ellis Stables of Kirkcowan Primary School. Ellis will receive the larger of the two pandas we picked up as well as a Glow TV T shirt and some sweeties. Well done, Ellis! We picked your entry because it was very informative, with just the kind of information we were looking for. We also choose Ellis as the overall winner because of the fact that it was a P3 entry and of such a high standard.
Rory PandasThe second prize goes to Rory Crombie from P6b at St Joseph’s Primary. Rory’s entry can be viewed by clicking the link here. Very high standard from Rory, with lots of information and quite a high degree of IT skills in preparing his document. Great work!
Runners up will receive a Glow TV T shirt from us and 1st runners up will receive a Glow TV T shirt as well as a small panda gift from the Edinburgh zoo gift shop.
The Health and wellbeing team are welcoming a hundred practitioners to the 
first of our Showcase events. We have a packed day celebrating good practice across the health and wellbeing organisers. There is marketplace where some of our partners are available to discuss how they can support schools and we have a keynote speech from Dr Rosemary Geddes, Research Fellow for the Scottish Collaboration for Public Health Research and Policy at the Medical Research Council in Edinburgh. Also Julie Wilson from Outdoor Learning will stimulate ideas about how schools can deliver health and wellbeing by taking the curriculum outside. Click here to go the Outdoor Learning Blog for updates.
We hope our delegates gain a lot from the day and would encourage them to sign up to our HWB Community where we will share the presentations from the day and partner contact information. Click here to sign up to the community.
Also don’t forget to join Education Scotland on Facebook and Twitter.
New Briefing from Enquire – Extra Support at School: The Rights of Looked After Children
The law says that all looked after children should have the extra support they need to get the most out of their education and achieve their full potential. Enquire has published a new briefing paper that explains the rights of looked after children under the Additional Support for Learning Act. The briefing identifies different reasons why looked after children may need extra support to get the most out of their learning, and gives examples of different ways that support can be provided. It looks at the responsibilities that education authorities have towards looked after children’s education, including their legal duty to consider whether a looked after child requires a co-ordinated support plan to ensure that agencies work together to plan what help the child needs to learn effectively. It also considers issues around school attendance and school exclusion, and the processes by which disputes about support for learning can be resolved.
The briefing will help professionals in education, social work and health in relation to GIRFEC and the corporate parent role, and will be useful for parents and carers in knowing how to ensure their child is getting help when they need it most.
To download a free copy of Enquire’s briefing, visit here
The Early Years team hope you are enjoying Robert Burns’ Day today.
For ideas on what to do click here for last weeks Robert Burns blog post.
This Education Scotland conference will support lecturers who deliver Early Education and Childcare training programmes.
The one-day event will build on the success of our previous conferences by:
Education Scotland is delighted that Alan Bissett, one of Scotland’s leading authors, will deliver the keynote address. Interactive workshop sessions led by practitioners will explore a range of approaches to support you in your work. There will also be national updates from regulatory bodies.
The programme includes the following keynote presentations:
For more details click here
Happy Wednesday to all!
The Early Years Team have added new examples from Glow Cookbooks to the ‘Places to Go’ section of the Glow Group.
The newest example
to be added to Cookbooks is “Jessie Porter nursery: sharing and collaborating through Glow“.
In this example of using Glow in a nursery you will find ideas on creating a glow group which performs many functions including improving transitions through Glow Meets, sharing evidence in videos and photos and shared planning exemplars. You can also request to be part of the Glow group to allow you to see what methods Jessie Porter Nursery use.
The CfE and Glow News e-update provides you with updates on Curriculum for Excellence and support for practitioners, along with all the latest developments within Glow.
Click here to view the newsletter or click on the links below.
Read the January issue to find out about the following:
Today I had the pleasure of visiting Wellwood Primary School in Fife. The pupils were looking at Burns’ Poetry in a range of ways to develop their ICT skills. First of all the pupils researched Burns’ poetry and selected a poem they wanted to read. They read their poems to a talk partner, ensuring they followed the Success Criteria that they had set them themselves. Pupils used the software Audacity to record their poem and then used their creative skills to create an avatar using Voki. The Voki was then added to their individual blogs.
To find out about other Burns activities visit our resource calendar.
Click here to find out about Burns Day on Glow on 25/01/11 at 9:45 am.
A series of thought-provoking and lively Glow meets 
2pm – 3:15pm, Monday 30th January 2012
Climate change is never far from the headlines and is an issue which continues to cause much debate and controversy. Scandals such as Himalayagate and the hacking of emails at the University of East Anglia have shaken public confidence in the credibility of climate science. Media reporting of the issue has also left the sections of the public with the view that the scientific evidence is contested and inconclusive.
What is the scientific community saying about climate change? How much of the evidence is beyond doubt? What do scientists agree on and what do they disagree on? Amid claims of manipulation of evidence and conspiracies, who can we believe?
In this, the second in a series of three national Glow meets, learners will have a chance to air their views and put searching questions to our panel of scientists including:
– Dr. Dave Reay, Senior Lecturer in Carbon Management at the University of Edinburgh and author of Our Planet Needs You! A Kid’s Guide to Going Green.
– Dr. Richard Milne, Institute of Molecular Plant Sciences, University of Edinburgh – winner of EUSA award for innovative teaching as voted for by students across the university.
Visit http://bit.ly/climatedebate2 to register, post your questions in advance and join the Glow meet on the day. This Glow meet is aimed at learners in upper primary and secondary schools.
For resources and videos on climate change visit Weather and Climate Change, Exploring Climate Change, STEM Central and Climate Change on Glow.
Other events in the series include:
– Glow meet 1: Our changing weather and climate – To view the Glow Meet recording click here.
– Glow meet 3: Adapting to climate change (6th Feb ’12)
Are you able to help children and young people to have their say about Scotland’s Children’s Hearings system?
Events: 14 March – Dundee; 21 March – Aviemore; 28 March – Glasgow
The Scottish Government will be holding a series of free engagement events, in age appropriate workshop format, targeting children and young people from 5 years upwards (no upper age limit). The Scottish Government wants to hear what children and young people – who have been through the hearings system – think about its plans for reform of the Children’s Hearings system and whether they think the Government’s proposals would improve their experience of attending hearings. If you can help children and young people to come along to one of these events please express interest on behalf of the child. All children under 16 must be accompanied by an adult who should stay at the venue for the duration of the event. Each event will run from 10.45 am – 3.30 pm and lunch will be provided.
The closing date for registrations is 1 March. Register the child’s interest at: childrens.hearings@scotland.gsi.gov.uk Please indicate which event the child or young person will attend as well as their name, age and contact details. If the child is under 16 please provide your own contact details too. For more information see Scottish Government – Children’s Hearings System website http://www.chscotland.gov.uk/
On 11th January I was invited along to the Engineering Education Scheme Residential at Strathclyde University.
Young talent from secondary schools across Scotland returned to the University of Strathclyde to take part in the Engineering Education Scheme (EES) workshop on the 10th & 11th January. As a key part of the 6 month project, the EES workshop offers a unique opportunity for the whole team of students, teachers and mentor engineers to work together over the 2 day residential period to jointly solve complex engineering and technical problems. Working together the teams develop their knowledge on the practical application of theory learnt in school and gain an understanding of business and industry.
The learners have opportunities to develop key life and employability skills such as team work, project management, presentation skills, report writing and leadership.
The Faculty of Engineering at Strathclyde University hosted the event and supported the 16 teams by providing the workshop facilities and technicians on hand to assist with project development.
The organisations and academic institutions taking part in the EES programme this year are Aggreko Manufacturing, BOC Ltd, ClydeUnionPumps, Coherent Scotland, Doosan Power Systems, EDF Energy, Heriot-Watt University (Department of Chemical Engineering), Howden, Rolls-Royce. Selex Galileo, University of Edinburgh (Department of Electronic & Electrical Engineering), and the University of Strathclyde (Departments of Design, Manufacture and Engineering Management (DMEM); Electronic & Electrical Engineering: Naval Architecture & Marine Engineering (NAME); and Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering).
The teams will now work on testing and finalising their project and attend the celebration event at the University of Strathclyde on April 23rd. Learners will present the final outcome of their projects and a working prototype to panels of judges and guests from industry and compete for the best project award.
Visit the scheme’s website to find out more or contact EES Coordinator for Scotland George Foster (e-mail g.foster@etrust.org.uk)
The Enquire national conference takes place on 8 March at The Quay in Musselburgh.
As an annual gathering of key people connected to additional support for learning across Scotland, the Enquire conference intends to spark ideas and actions that will further the understanding and appreciation of practice in the field. A report of findings of the conference will be sent to attendees and submitted to the Scottish Government.
Starting in 2012, the Scottish Parliament requires an annual report from Scottish Ministers in order to monitor the implementation of the Additional Support for Learning Act. The mandatory information includes four components the number of children and young people with additional support needs, the main factors giving rise to those additional support needs, the types of support provided and the cost of providing that support.
A vital consideration following this reporting will be what we know about the positive difference being made by additional support for learning and how we can better demonstrate that difference.
Conference participants will be encouraged to share their experiences, ideas and evidence around three broad themes:
● Ensuring positive outcomes from additional support
● Engaging effectively with children and families
● Effective co-ordination across the diverse services and professions in the ASL arena.
Confirmed speakers include:
● Chair, Keir Bloomer, The Commission on School Reform and Vice-convener, Children in Scotland
● Laura Meikle, Senior Policy Adviser, Support and Wellbeing Unit, Scottish Government
● Elizabeth King, Principal Educational Psychologist South Lanarkshire Council
● and film launch – young people from Edinburgh and East Lothian share their views about support that helps.
The following link will take you straight to the relevant section of the Children in Scotland website.
The Liceo Scientifico is a secondary school situated 60kms from Turin. The school is renowned for teaching different facets of bio-technology and is equipped with state-of-the-art physics and chemistry laboratories. However, it also offers a course of study with an emphasis on languages, in which students can specialize in French and English. The school is looking for a Scottish school that teaches Italian to take part in a Comenius project in partnership with other schools from Ireland, Germany and France. English will be the lingua franca for the project, but there will be opportunitites to use Italian too. This two-year project will involve high achievers in fifith and sixth year and will mainly concentrate on a comparative study of biodiversity in each of the schools’ local areas.
In particular, the Scottish school could help the Italian science teachers build a scientific vocabulary in English to be used when working on the project.
If you are interested in getting involved, please contact Manuela Maletto at the following email address.
For more information about the school please click here to access its website.
I am pleased to attach as usual the latest figures for Get Set registration and network membership together with lists of those schools in your authority which are either ‘not yet registered’ or ‘registered but not yet networked’. You will see from the overall Get Set report that there are now extra columns detailing the final tally of schools which successfully applied for membership of the network before the 16th Dec ticketshare deadline. The overall figures show a healthy 39% of eligible schools nationally and a rise to 65% of registrations. Well done for all your efforts in making this happen!
As we move into 2012 there is still plenty of time to apply (click here!)and take advantage of many more rewards and opportunities including Get Set goes global, World Sport Day and the Torch relay. Please continue to encourage Get Set network membership!
The health and wellbeing team are busy organising a number of events to support staff in this key area of the curriculum. If you have any thoughts or suggestions regarding content for events then please let us know. Contact
An event for all practitioners takes place on 10th March 2012 at the Grand Central Hotel in Glasgow.
If you would like the opportunity to network, share good practice and hear key messages then add this date to your diary!
Watch this space for further information and sign-up details!
If you have any thoughts or suggestions regarding content for events then please let us know. Contact Yvonne Sherry at the following address: yvonne.sherry@educationscotland.gov.uk
Scottish athletics have recently launched a new national schools athletics programme booklet to provide guidance and support for schools in Scotland offering athletics opportunities.
Pasta + mathematical equations = food as a context for interdisciplinary learning?
“With over two hundred elaborate diagrams and photographs, as well as a few words on regional provence and cusine,” writes George L. Legendre in “Pasta by Design,” the book “offers a surreal interpretation of the everyday experience of making and eating pasta. “Here is a selection of photographs, mathematical equations and descriptions of unusual pasta shapes from the book.
Walk Once a Week – WOW – Badge Design Competition
2012’s WoW badge design competition is here, and we’re delighted to confirm that the theme is ‘AROUND THE WORLD‘. We are inviting schools to get their pupils’ creativity flowing and design what could be one of the official WoW badges for 2012/13.
Each winner will have his or her design transformed into the monthly WoW badges worn by hundreds of thousands of children across the country, and will be invited to an awards ceremony and fun day out in London in May 2012.
Our annual WoW badge design competition is one of the UK’s biggest art competitions, with over 150,000 primary school children taking part to design badges for a specific theme. Each participant school is invited to submit three entries for consideration. In 2011 our judging panel viewed over 1,800 fantastic entries on a Sport theme; our biggest competition yet! The deadline for receiving entries will be 16 March.
The Health and Wellbeing Team had a very positive and stimulating day with Head Teachers and Depute Head Teachers from across the Central Belt with just a smattering of snow.
There were inputs from Granton Primary and Craigroyston Community High that received rapturous praise and look to have inspired leaders to return to school and share with colleagues. Also there was welcome guidance and reassurance for delegates from Joan Mackay, HMI around inspection in Health and wellbeing. As expected assessment was a more challenging part of the day. however the evidence from feedback featured a very strong steer that assessment is the key area for development and next steps described what will be taken forward from the day.
We would like to encourage participants to sign up to our hwb lead community which will also give members access to the hwb-cpd community. To access the presentations from today please click here. To add your intention about impact after the event click here. Remember to use the hashtag #hwblead which you can also use to tweet about the event.
This exciting event will be hosted by the Lyceum Theatre in Edinburgh on Thursday 26th January at 6pm.
Join us for an exclusive Glow Meet with Candice Edmunds and Jamie Harrison, the Artistic Directors of Glasgow-based theatre company Vox Motus, who are behind the Lyceum’s show The Infamous Brothers Davenport.
Hear about the show and their directing process. The Meet will also be recorded so you can watch with your class, or encourage them to do so on their own, at a later date!
Sign up and join us live in Glow TV on the night though if you can!
Glow is proud to host two events to celebrate Holocaust Memorial 2012, which this year is on Friday 27th January.
The first is a live event from Eastern Primary in Dundee on Tuesday 24th January at 1.30pm. During this Glow Meet the Primary 7 pupils will be meeting those involved in the book and flim ‘Hana’s Suitcase’. This amazing story tells of how a suitcase arrived at a children’s Holocaust Education Center in Tokyo, Japan in March 2000 with Hana Brady written on the outside. Children who saw the suitcase on display were full of questions and the director decided to find the answers. The book and the subsequent film tells us what she found out!
At the event we will meet Fumiko, the director at the Holocaust Education Centre in Tokyo and Lara, George Brady’s daughter who also appeared in the film. George Brady, Hana’s brother will also be speaking and finally Larry Weinstein who made the film will be joining us in Dundee.
There will be plenty opportunity for questions for everyone as well. Sign up and join us on the day.
Finally on Thursday 26th January we will join the official Holocaust Memorial Event – Scotland 2012 live from the Caird Hall in Dundee. This event organised by ‘Speak Up Speak Up’ encourages young people to consider what they see and hear around them, and to use their voices to Speak Up against hatred and discrimination. The full programme and the opportunity to sign up and join in on the day is available in Glow TV.
This year Glow is joining Dalgety Bay Primary School in Fife to celebrate Burns Day 2012 with Kevin Thompson and Burns 250.
We are broadcasting two separate events one specifically for P1-3 and the other for P 4-7. The first Glow Meet is for P 1-3 and will involve story telling about the life of Robert Burns, his poems and lots of opportunities to sing along to many of his famous, and sometimes funny songs! This event begins at 9.45am – Sign up and join this event.
Then at 11am we have something for the P4 -7 children. In this our second live session Kevin in his one-man show accompanied by Powerpoint slides will tells Burns’ life-story based around his songs and poems.
The songs and poems are woven into a narrative telling about key points in Burns’ life from his birth in 1759 to his untimely death just 37 years later. The best way to enjoy Burns is to take part so audience participation is encouraged where songs have choruses!! Sign up and join this event.
So why not sign up and join us for these very Scottish celebrations live in Glow TV?!
Further Burns resources can be found on the Education Scotland website.
Glow celebrates the Chinese New Year of the dragon with a series of events highlighting what is going on in schools across Scotland to mark these exciting celebrations. Beginning on Monday the 23rd January and lasting for 15 days
Glow will be presenting a programme of different Glow Meets looking at Chinese culture and celebration.
On the 23rd we will be joined by several of the Confucius Classroom Hubs who will be sharing what they have/are intending to do to welcome this new year and we hope that you can join us too and let us know what you are doing in your classrooms across Scotland to mark this event. Even if you do not have anything to share why not join us anyway and find out more about the Year of the Dragon? Sign up and join us on the 23rd January.
On the 6th February we will be continuing the programme with a special event live from the Glasgow Film Festival entitled King of Masks. Through Glow Meet you can watch the live introduction to the film and take part in a workshop with Chinese opera singer and Ricefield workshop leader Fong Liu from St. Ninian’s High School who will be dressed in full Chinese costume. You can also obtain your own free DVD of the film to watch in school that day as well. Find out more about this event and how to get your free DVD in Glow TV.
Finally on the afternoon of the 6th February join us for 龙年大吉 Good luck with the year of dragon – Close of Celebrations. This Glow Meet will be bringing to a close the Chinese New Year celebrations in Glow with a look at the Lantern Festival, a traditional Chinese festival since Han Dynasty more than 2000 years ago. We will have images from the event that took place on 20th January in Fife and also find out more about this from the Confucius Hubs. We also hope to hear from you too and what you have done to celebrate Chinese New Year in your school. Sign up and join us for this event.
You can also find related resources for 2012 – The Chinese Year of the Dragon on the Education Scotland website.
National no smoking day takes place on 14th March 2012. Register your no smoking day event by following the link below:
http://www.nosmokingday.org.uk/organisers/eventsregister.php
No Smoking Day was established as a national event on Ash Wednesday in 1984, and has grown in status and in impact over the past the 25 years.
No Smoking Day was originally organised by a committee of representatives from organisations with an interest in smoking and health. In 1988 No Smoking Day took on full time campaign staff and the Day continues to be organised by a small number of full time staff. No Smoking Day was registered as a charity in 1991 and in 2011 the charity was merged with the British Heart Foundation.
Since its inception, No Smoking Day has aimed to support those smokers who want to quit; research shows that around three in every four smokers would like to stop.
The success of the No Smoking Day is built on the commitment of local organisers throughout the UK. There are now over 8,000 registered campaigners for No Smoking Day and the charity circulates over 35,000 campaign packs each year.
The hard work of these dedicated organisers has helped ensure that No Smoking Day has remained the UK’s foremost public health event, with over a million people making a quit attempt every year.
Last week I was invited along to the Engineering Education Scheme (run by EDT), Residential Workshop at the University of Strathclyde. At the residential S5/6 learners from around 15 schools across Scotland were brought together, along with engineers, teachers and engineering support from the University in a supportive environment in order to design prototype solutions to the industrial problem set by a company.
The Engineering Education Scheme in England & Scotland is an EDT Programme which links teams of four S5/S6 learners and their teachers with local companies to work on real, scientific, engineering and technological problems.
The scheme provides learners with an in-depth experience in science, engineering and technology that will enable them to make an informed decision about their future studies and career.
This will be achieved by giving the learners, in a 6 month programme;
During the six-month project phase, learners are encouraged to show industrial enterprise, creativity and innovation whilst gaining extensive experience of problem-solving, team-working and project management. Key life skills are developed within the context of the world of work.
Personal development education realised through work related learning is at the core of this high quality educational enrichment scheme. Find out how your school can get involved in the project.
The King of Masks is a brilliant street performer who practices the change-mask opera art of bian lian. He laments that he has no grandchild to pass on his magical skills, so he adopts an orphan boy to become his apprentice. But the boy turns out not to be what he seems… A special film from China full of colour, fireworks and adventures!
On the day of the screening of the King of Masks live in Glasgow Glow TV be broadcasting the introduction to the event which lasts approximately 10 minutes. You are able to request a free DVD to watch along in the classroom during the live screening in Glasgow. To request your free DVD please contact matt@eightandahalf.org.
At 11.55am we will return live to Glasgow to take part in the live interactive workshop with Chinese opera singer and Ricefield workshop leader Fong Liu from St. Ninian’s High School who will be dressed in full Chinese costume. This workshop will last approximately 15-20 mins.
THIS EVENT IS RECOMMENDED FOR PRIMARY 4 AND ABOVE.
Why not sign up and join us on the day Don’t forget to request your free DVD! http://bit.ly/kingofmasksevent
Date and time: 06/02/2012 – 10:15am
| Find out more on the Glasgow Film Festival Website |
Education Scotland, in partnership with Scottish Book Trust and Standard Life, is carrying out an evaluation of the ‘On the Money’ resource.
‘On the Money’ is a book of four stories by Theresa Breslin, Jonathan Meres, Nicola Morgan and Alison Prince, exploring issues of financial responsibility for children. It was distributed free to schools throughout Scotland and was also published as an online resource.
The main purpose of this evaluation is to help us decide how we take the project forward. Therefore we are looking for the views of practitioners who have used the resource with learners in educational establishments to provide us with evidence on which we can base our decision.
Please take 10 minutes to complete our online survey.
Your help is greatly appreciated, and in recognition of your support one lucky school will be picked at random from the respondents to receive a free visit from an author, organised by the Scottish Book Trust.
The deadline for responses is the end of this term.
(Please note, the online survey website contains adverts).
New reading support materials for first and second levels and new Literacy across learning materials to support the third and fourth levels are now available on Glow.
First and second level materials
‘Reading to Learn; Learning to Read’ are new reading support materials to support first and second levels. They are now available in Glow: (Glow log-in required).
These materials include practical ideas to develop and support reading at first and second level, active learning strategies for teaching reading and a wide variety of approaches to support reading.
Specific areas covered include:
Third and fourth level materials
New Literacy across learning materials to support the third and fourth levels are now available in Glow. (Glow log-in required).
These materials include information on:
Education Scotland Development Officers for Science are pleased to be joining our STEMNET partners for the annual STEM Ambassadors and Teachers Celebration Event at Glasgow Science Centre on Tuesday 31st January 2012. Science Connects and Global Science (STEMNET contract holders covering the South West and East of Scotland) are delighted to invite you to the Annual STEM Ambassadors and Teachers Celebration Event at the Glasgow Science Centre on Tuesday 31st January from 5:00-7:30pm.
STEM Ambassadors are volunteers who offer their time as inspiring role models for young people. They are people using science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) skills in their everyday lives and can help illuminate the potential of STEM subjects and careers through talks, hands-on activities, workshops, challenges or helping teachers with Curriculum for Excellence experiences and outcomes.
This event offers you the chance to meet informally with over 200 Teachers and Ambassadors as well as visiting a showcase of 36 local and national organisations exhibiting STEM related resources, activities, challenges and ideas.
Programme
5:00 – 5:45pm Registration (Exhibition area open)
5:45 – 6:15pm Presentations in IMAX Theatre
6:15 – 7:30pm Exhibition and Workshops
8:00 pm Close
Refreshments will be available from 5.00pm and throughout the evening . Car parking will be free of charge in the Science Centre.
Places are limited for this event so please register today to make sure you can attend! You can register by emailing alan.kerr@glasgow.ac.uk with your name, organisation and contact details or by visiting www.stemscotland.com/stem-registration.html and completing the online form. More details concerning location and organisations exhibiting can also be found at this webpage.
Thank you and we look forward to meeting you at the Celebration Event.
Heriot-Watt University’s Multilingual Debate is an annual event that showcases the interpreting skills of undergraduate students on their Languages (Interpreting and Translating) degree programme, as well as the developing professional skills of postgraduate students on their MSc Translating and Conference Interpeting programmes. The event takes the form of a formal debate with two multilingual teams arguing for and against a motion of topical interest in a range of languages. The teams deliver their views in their various native languages (French, German, Spanish, English, Chinese, British Sign Language (BSL)).
The Multilingual Debate stimulates an interest among young people in the international politics and social issues of the modern world whilst also setting language acquisition in a realistic context.
The audience is mainly made up of pupils coming from Scottish and English secondary schools, but also university undergraduate students considering entering the interpreting profession, as well as government and local authority representatives. The audiences participated in the debate by listening to the arguments, putting questions to the speakers in the languages represented and voting on the motion. Electronic voting is used and the audience are able to see clear changes in their opinions before the debate compared to after the debate.
This year, debate topics are:
*see references online such as: http://www.oed.com/public/globish/the-rise-of-global-english.
In past years, the debate has been so popular that we are looking to provide access and participation online to allow as many people as possible to join in.
If you would like your learners to take part in this “true celebration of linguistic diversity”, then please click here to visit Herriot Watt’s website.
Robert Burns – Lets Celebrate
Happy New Year from the Early Years Team at Education Scotland!
Its time to celebrate the life of Robert Burns on Burns’ Day 25th January.
To give you some ideas on where to get started we have provided you with some links to good practice and some interesting resources which will enable you to explore Burns’ birthday as well as Scotland itself including the languages of Gaelic and Scots particularly within the early years.
What is it like to live on an island?
What Islands are around Scotland?
Sing and speak the Scots language by tuning into our Glow meet on ‘watch again’.
Matthew Fitt, author of many stories in Scots for young children including “Katie’s Coo” and “A Wee Book O’ Fairytales in Scots” sings, tells stories and will have you ‘burlin roon’ before you know it!
Have a wee sing song
Visit the Education Scotland Knowledge of Language site and listen to auld favourites such as ‘Coulter’s Candy’ and ‘Ye Cannie Shuv Yer Grannie’. Also visit ‘Scotland’s Songs’ and see songs for the early years and songs in Gaelic too!
Celebrate Robert Burns’ birthday in a nursery setting
You could make a book all about things relating to Scotland. This would also encourage reflection and recall. You could add various pictures of Scottish food, tartan, animals, landmarks, places etc. The children may also want to add the Scots word that they like to use in conversation!
The Early Years team at Education Scotland hope you have a fabulous time during you Burns’ celebrations.
Developing Global Citizens through sustainable development education
Time: 3.45pm – 4.45pm, Thursday 26th January
Where: The shiny new Glow community for global citizenship
2012 is a big year for Sustainable Development Education (SDE):
If you’d like to tune into all that’s happening and are looking for inspiration and ideas to kick start 2012 then this is the Glow meet for you. The Developing Global Citizenship Team will be hosting this informal session open to any practitioner or school leader – just drop into the Glow meet to pick our brains, find out what’s coming up or tell us what you’re up to. If you missed the previous sessions then click here to see how they work.
Note: if you join us with a headset or webcam then it means we can have a good blether. However, if you prefer to type fast with wonky spellng then that’s good too!
One click (then another small one) to take part >> http://bit.ly/DGCdropin3
Young Scot is currently working on a project, in partnership with the 2020 Climate Group, around young people and climate change and sustainability. As part of this they are developing an interactive map of Scotland which will highlight current activities within the ‘climate change and sustainability’ field for young people to take part in, in their local area.
If you know of any relevant projects or activities (around climate change and sustainability) in your area for young people aged 14 to 26 years old please advise cats@youngscot.org Additionally, if you could send this information around your contacts/networks and ask them to contact Cat with any information. This will help to ensure that as many projects/activities that operate at a local level are identified and put on the map.
Seafood Scotland has teamed up with the 6th World Fisheries Congress to offer a competition that encourages school children to learn more about the relationship between scientists and fisheries, and how this helps to protect the marine ecosystem.
High school and primary school pupils taking part in Seafood Scotland’s ‘Seafood in Schools’ pilot project are being asked to design a T-shirt for delegates at the Congress, which will be held in Edinburgh in May 2012. The design must illustrate the association between seafood and science.
Prizes for the competition are sponsored by Seafish and include £1000 worth of science equipment for the winning high school and £500 of equipment for the winning primary school.
The pupil responsible for the overall winning design will receive a presentation T-shirt at the Congress, followed by a VIP visit to Deep Sea World at South Queensferry. A runner-up will be presented with their own design on a T-shirt and also visit the aquarium.
Jon Harman, Seafish director of development, said: “Seafish is committed to improving awareness and understanding about the importance of the seafood industry amongst all consumers, young and old.
“This competition is a creative, innovative way of encouraging school children to get excited about fisheries and science, so we are delighted to offer our support.
“This is a great way to make learning fun, and to ensure that the pupils gain a sense of how science is being applied in real life to protect our marine ecosystem for the future.”
Click here to read more.
Young Working Lives focuses on finding employment for work ready individuals between the ages of 16 to 25 that are not currently in education, employment or training.
The ‘101 apprenticeships in 100’ days is a challenge set by Stirling’s local More Choices More Chances Partnership to create 101 apprenticeship opportunities in 100 days.
hearing about the success of the campaign”
The ‘101 in 100’ programme is a great way to help fill current vacancies within a company and to ensure the workforce is appropriately skilled. It is also a great opportunity to support local young people who are ready and willing to work, but finding it difficult to compete against sometimes-higher skilled or more experienced applicants.
Click here to read more.
Councillor Hywel Davies, Lifelong Learning Portfolio Holder said: “These young people showed exceptional talent in the kitchen when they took part in the competition.
“South Ayrshire is known for great hospitality and wonderful places for residents and tourists to eat. Tourism plays a huge part in sustaining our local economy and ensuring we have outstanding people who can create new dishes, put a modern twist on traditional ones and cater for all tastes in future years is very important.
“The competition called for the students to use literacy and numeracy skills combined with their flair and talent for culinary creation.
“Cooking is a skill that will stay with these young people for life, whether they become professional caterers or enter another profession, the knowledge they have gained will be of great use to them.”
To read more click here.
Work continues towards the publication of the STEM Central context “Bioengineering”. Working in partnership with the BBC to explore the role Bioengineering plays in helping service personnel from 45 Commando Royal Marines based in Arbroath, and Touch Bionics, the Livingston based company behind world leading prosthetic technologies, this fourth level sciences and technologies based context will prove a rich source of learning, debate, discussion and creative thinking for your learners.
| A new set of educational resources on sustainable development for community organisations has been produced by CHEX’s parent organisation, the Scottish Community Development Centre (SCDC). Community Action for a Sustainable Scotland (CASS) is a set of 7 resources aimed at community projects and groups, which offer advice ranging from how to develop a sustainability plan to simple tips for recycling and saving energy. They also contain illustrative examples from projects around Scotland.
The resources were adapted by SCDC from material produced as part of the Every Action Counts programme in England and aim to support both large and small scale community organisations to carry out their activities in ways which protect the environment without impacting on efficiencies and which ensure greater levels of sustainability for the longer term. Visit the SCDC website to view and download the resources for free. |
Following on from the successful Hello Giant Pandas Glow Meet held at the end of December (remember you can still Watch Again if you missed it!) Edinburgh Zoo is pleased to highlight two events taking place there this term.
The first ‘Teaching Biodiversity with Beavers’ is a cross-curricular CPD training event for primary and secondary teachers. This session will look at how to bring biodiversity into the classroom with a range of curriculum-linked activities and to learn more about the first formal trial reintroduction of a mammal into the wild in Britain.
This event takes place on Friday 27th January from 12.30 – 4pm and includes a viewing of the Giant Pandas at 11.45am! You can find more details in the Sciences Glow Group.
The second event is a Global Classroom Conference at Edinburgh Zoo. The conference entitled, ‘Invasive Species Living with the alien threat’ is designed to support the new SQA Higher Biology syllabus. Join in for the 7th RZSS Global Classroom event and discover the impact of invasive non-native species on Scotland and the world’s biodiversity.
Looking at particular at:
What are invasives?
What impacts do they have on native wildlife? How do we control them?
This is a free event being held on Thursday 1st March. Find out more in the Sciences Glow Group.
Join the RSPB from 16-30th January 2012 and you’ll not only be taking part in the world’s biggest birdwatch, but also helping us monitor UK bird numbers.
Run every year, the Birdwatch is a free activity for all UK schools and youth groups. Little Schools’ Birdwatch is for 3-5 year olds, Big Schools’ Birdwatch is for 6-11 year olds and Really Big Schools’ Birdwatch is for 12-14 year olds.
To find out more about this competition click here.
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