Moderation Innovation Summit 31.8.12

As part of Education Scotland’s on-going commitment to moderation, practitioners from across the country gathered in Carnegie Conference Centre, Dunfermline for an Innovation Summit. The focus was on celebrating and sharing the good practice of the participants, all of whom had developed moderation projects of differing sizes which have now been successfully exemplified on the National Assessment Resource.

A highlight of the day was the presentation by Douglas Brown and Chris Morris from Glasgow who gave an excellent insight into how they worked with five other Glasgow secondary schools to develop a moderation CPD resource for use in departments. It was clear that their bright spot of good practice was extending across the city. There was high demand for the ‘little white book’ of moderation they had produced.

Sheila Quigley PTC at West Calder High School, who is recently seconded from her role to join the assessment team shared how her cluster took one Health and Well-being E&O and moderated the evidence of learning, looking closely at progression. The richness of the evidence gathered was inspiring.

Another highlight of the day was the Marketplace where the moderation projects were on display, facilitating a buzz of professional dialogue. George Sinclair, previously Head of Service in Moray and now Senior Education Officer and National Coordinator for Assessment, QA, and Moderation rounded the event up in the Marketplace. Having given a very clear and concise presentation on moderation earlier in the day, George left the participants inspired to build on the projects and embed the moderation good practice between classrooms, schools, clusters, local authorities and beyond.

All presentations from the day have been uploaded onto the Glow assessment section in the ‘events’ tab, where there are many good presentations and resources at your disposal.

Wise Up Wednesday – National Poetry Day

This year National Poetry day is on Thursday 4 October 2012. During National Poetry Day, people all over the UK take part in a celebration of great poetry. 

Poetry helps us to remember stories, from Jack and Jill all the way to the Odyssey. Children love rhymes and rhythms, but poetry also helps to improve literacy skills.

You can download poetry posters and practitioners’ notes from the Scottish Poetry Library website. This year’s theme is Stars and the resources include “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star” in both English and Scots.

To keep up to date with what’s happening at the Scottish Poetry Library and find out about their resources, training and freebies, you can sign up to their monthly e-newsletter here. As well as support for practitioners, their website also has a useful section for families.

Further resources to support National Poetry day are also available in the resources section of the Education Scotland website.

Please come back and tell us in the comments what you have planned to celebrate National Poetry day in your establishment!