Monthly Archives: May 2012

CfE, Health and wellbeing

Going Sport Mad!

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Join this exciting event to preview the Bank of Scotland National School Sport Week and London 2012 World Sport Day with the London 2012 Mascots Wenlock and Mandeville!

With a little under 100 days to go until the London 2012 Olympic Games begin, Mid Calder Primary School in West Lothian will be hosting a very special Glow event designed to give schools ideas on how to have their very own celebration events around Bank of Scotland National School Sport Week and World Sport Day.

As well as suggestions for fun using the flags of competing teams, the London 2012 Mascots Wenlock and Mandeville will be making a special appearance to introduce their very own dance routine that celebrates the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games!

Bank of Scotland National School Sport Week, delivered in partnership with sportscotland – the national agency for sport, uses the excitement around the upcoming London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games to inspire school children to try more sport. From 11-15 June, schools across Scotland will be staging their own Games, Torch Relays and celebration events. Following the week, schools also have the opportunity to get involved in celebrations that will welcome the World to the UK for the London 2012 Olympic Games when World Sport Day, presented by Bank of Scotland takes place on 25 June.

Sign up and join us in Glow TV.

CfE, Expressive Arts, Literacy and English, Social studies, Technologies

A documentary about Scotland – made by you

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The new project Northern Lights sets out to be Scotland’s first ever mass participation documentary, an innovative way to build a movie about contemporary Scotland. Basically it will be composed, and edited into a final feature-length film, from videos made by people all over the country and contributed to a common pool of rich material.

Global Citizenship often starts local, and this seems a great way for secondary schools and students over the age of 14 to reflect on their own community and how it is represented to the world. And the skills involved in such a piece of work: research, team work, communication, media, ICT, and lots of creativity.

It’s all explained here www.wearenorthernlights.com with extra description of how to participate, ‘how to’ guides, etc, http://wearenorthernlights.com/get-involved/preparing/

The project is open for submissions until 21st June. There are already a lot of submitted videos, and web audiences get to vote on their favourites. Why not get your secondary school involved, and showcase the creative skills of your pupils?

For further information, please contact workshops@wearenorthernlights.com

Health and wellbeing

Sexually active teens in the UK

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There was an interesting article in The Guardian on 25th April 2012 –

Britain has the third-highest proportion of teenagers who are sexually active at an early age and also ranks badly among high-income nations for harmful teenage drinking, according to a series of studies published in the Lancet medical journal on Tuesday.

The research, plus a report by Unicef, call for more attention to be paid to the changing needs of the young, warning they are at risk of mental and physical illness, vulnerable to unhealthy product marketing and that too many will die early.

Follow the link below to read more –
http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2012/apr/25/uk-third-highest-proportion-sexually-active

CfE, Sciences

Marine Science Glow meet – answers now available

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Thank you once again to the 58 schools and 1700 pupils who took part in our Marine Science Glow meet on 23 Feb 2012 which was organised in partnership with Marine Scotland.

Congratulations too to Abbi from St Mary’s Primary School in Bannockburn who won her school a visit by the Edinburgh Science Festival Marine Detectives Workshop. Abbi’s question was chosen by the judges as the winning question on the day from the hundreds that were received.  She asked, ‘Do whales have bellybuttons?’

If you want to find out the answer to this question and the many other questions asked by pupils on the day then visit: http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/marine/education/faq/creatures

The answers to the questions put directly to the presenters on the day are also available and can be downloaded from the link below.

Download presenters answers to Glow questions >>

Special thanks to Marine Scotland all all their staff who have gone to great lengths to provide answers!

Early Years, Expressive Arts, Health and wellbeing, Literacy and English, Responsibility of All, Technologies

Wise up Wednesday – This Sucks!

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Hello everyone!

Thank you for logging in for your Weekly Wednesday Wise Up! This week we are really excited to highlight the fantastic work created by Glasgow Film Theatre, Starcatchers, Platform and Toad’s Caravan. One of our team attended the premier at the Galsgow Film Theatre last week and had a great time! Lovely to see the stars of the show in their glamorous clothes on the red carpet!

This film presents a fantastic example of partnership working in the early years. What a great way to use the expertise of others to enhance children’s experiences.

As you watch you may get ideas for new experiences in your establishment. Your children will really enjoy this film, why not show it to them at story time?

Thank you and Enjoy the film!

The Early Years Team 🙂

THIS SUCKS: THE MOVIE!

Glasgow Film Theatre, Starcatchers, Platform and Toad’s Caravan have joined forces to produce This Sucks: The Movie, starring a talented cast of hundreds of nursery children from across Glasgow.

This Sucks: The Movie is a short film made by and starring children four-years-old and under from nurseries around the East-End of Glasgow. The film tells the story of Hetty the Hoover and the love of her life — Mike Dust.

The concept grew from a previous, highly successful Starcatchers project, This Workshop Sucks, which premiered at the Glasgow Youth Film Festival, a fun interactive workshop, telling the same story to pre-school children combining theatre, art and moving image.

Over two weeks in February 2012, hundreds of children from Glasgow nurseries participated in making the film with directors Matt Addicott and Katy Wilson from Starcatchers and the support of Toad’s Caravan.

This Sucks: The Movie! was made possible by Glasgow City Council’s Area Committee Grants.

CREDITS

CAST

Hetty the Hoover
Mike Dust
The Man and his family
The Doctor and Nurses
The Dancers

STARRING CHILDREN FROM:

Barlanark Family Learning Centre
Helenslea Nursery School
Hullabaloo Children Centre
Sandaig Nursery School
Westercraigs Nursery

STORY

Matt Addicott
Katy Wilson

NARRATION

Matt Addicott

FILM PRODUCED BY

Toad’s Caravan

DIRECTED AND PRODUCED BY

Joanna Susskind
Marissa Keating

ANIMATION

Joanna Susskind
Bruce Cameron

FILMING

Brian Sweeney

MUSIC

Stuart Brown

PROJECT MANAGER

Paul Macgregor

Thanks to Numatic, James Dean and Rhona Matheson

© Glasgow Film Theatre / Starcatchers / Platform / Toad’s Caravan

For more info on Glasgow Film, visit http://www.glasgowfilm.org

For more info on Starcatchers, visit http://www.starcatchers.org.uk/

For more on Platform, visit http://www.platform-online.co.uk/

For more on Toad’s Caravan, visit http://www.toadscaravan.com/

Sciences, Social studies, Technologies

Circular economy event – resources now on Glow

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Cross post from Global Citizenship Blog.

Education Scotland hosted an event in partnership with the Ellen MacArthur Foundation and the University of Edinburgh on 30th March 2012 at the Menzies Hotel in Glasgow to explore how the concept of a circular economy can be used as a focus for sustainable development education and interdisciplinary learning.

The circular economy is a generic term for an industrial economy that is, by design or intention, restorative and in which materials flows are of two types, biological nutrients, designed to re-enter the biosphere safely, and technical nutrients, which are designed to circulate at high quality without entering the biosphere. The circular economy proposes a coherent framework for re-thinking and re-building a positive vision of the future.

Find out more about the Ellen MacArthur Foundation and the circular economy by watching this short video.

The presentations and resources from the event are now available on Glow (Glow log in required).

Adult Learning, CfE, CLD, Community Capacity Building, Young people, children & families

Live UnLtd – Summer of Social Action Campaign

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Live UnLtd support young people to run inter-generational projects, start sports, arts, environmental and community projects; projects to address bullying, isolation and much more. Some of their award winners start their own sustainable social enterprises. All projects and enterprises are run by young people themselves (those under 18 need an adviser who can be a teacher, youth worker, parent or similar). For examples of projects please see here.

Individuals or small informal groups leading their own idea can apply. Applicants must be aged 11-21 and live in the UK. Applications cannot be made on behalf of organisations such as youth clubs or schools.

Applications must:

  • Show how the project will have a positive social impact on the applicant’s community;
  • Have identified a problem and show ho the project will tackle the problem;
  • Tell Live UnLtd what specific activities the project/enterprise includes and what it hopes to achieve;
  • Show how the project provides a learning experience for the applicant.

Receiving an award allows individuals to use their creativity and learning a hands-on way which may enhance their CVs. They can also help erase the negative stereotypes associated with ‘youth culture’ in the media today while making their world a better place.

What can they apply for? The costs of running projects. For example: venue hire, equipment costs, marketing materials, travel and volunteering expenses.

Eleven to 15 year olds can apply for up to £500 and 16-21 year olds can apply for up to £5,000. Award winners also receive the support of a Development Manager.

The deadline for applications is 31 May 2012.

Contact: Gina Headden at Live UnLtd in Scotland, Tel: 0131 220 0511 [ e-mail | website ]

Social studies, Technologies

Stock Market Challenge

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The Investment Challenge is being run as an online competition for S5 students from across North East and South East Scotland. Students will compete online using the new Global Investor simulation, which will be launched on 7 May 2012.

The competition comprises an in-school qualifying event during May and early June involving all participating schools. The top 8 schools from the first round will compete in the final on Thursday June 14 at Standard Life’s offices in Edinburgh.

Competition entry is free and each participating school will receive a site licence to the full Stock Market Challenge resource. Students from the winning school will visit Standard Life’s offices in July for a prize presentation and a chance to observe how the company’s trading desk works.

The competition’s main aim is to promote higher education opportunities and develop students’ business awareness and transferable skills. The challenge is sponsored by Standard Life, Scottish Investment Operations and Skills Development Scotland.

The closing date is 4th May.

For more information visit their website.

National Qualifications, Technologies

Advice & Guidance for NQ Technologies

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As you will no doubt know, the SQA have published their final documents for National 2 – Higher. In order to support schools in the delivery of key aspects of the new qualifications, Educations Scotland have published published a suite of practical advice and guidance for teachers and lecturers.

There are new materials to help practitioners deliver their national 4 and 5 courses, although with some amendment, practitioners could use these materials at other levels too. Practitioners can also use the ideas and suggestions to apply them to their own materials as they see fit.

I think all teachers who will be delivering the new qualifications will find them useful and we would be delighted to receive your feedback. To access the advice and support from Education Scotland please click here.

To access the SQA website pages containing the final documents for Technologies please click here and selct your subject from the drop down menu.

Sciences, Technologies

Stirling University Investigate STEM Central

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On Friday I visited Stirling University to complete a Technologies workshop with BEd2 students. We began by discussing the misconceptions surrounding Technologies within Curriculum for Excellence, and spent the rest of the time looking at draft second level learning journeys for STEM Central. The students thought the website was easy to use and felt that there was lots of ideas that they could adapt to their own lesson planning.

You can find the presentation here. (Glow log in required)

We ended by looking at some of the other resources available from Education Scotland to help with teaching Technologies:

STEM Central in Motion

Technologies Staffroom (Glow log in required)

Glow Science (Glow log in required)

Technologies area of the website

Exploring Climate Change

Weather and Climate Change

Working in the Energy Sector

National Qualifications

Advice and guidance for new NQs

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Education Scotland has now published a range of practical advice and guidance to support teachers and lecturers in the delivery of new NQs. This is now live on our website.

The advice and guidance which is available to download has been developed through ongoing discussions with Scotland’s national education stakeholders. My involvement has seen me working with many practitioners who are at the chalkface.

The views of teachers and lecturers have helped to shape the priorities for the advice and guidance. The focus has been on the delivery of courses where there is significant change – new units, combined courses and / or new contexts of learning. The advice and guidance hosted online is presented in a variety of accessible formats and include written advice, videos and some PowerPoint presentations. Links to other information and websites are also available within the documents and practitioners can use and / or adapt these materials to suit the needs of their learners.

The files are freely available – a Glow login is not required to download them. They can be found on the Education Scotland website here. Please take some time to read the materials and leave your comments on them.