Monthly Archives: March 2013

Literacy, Literacy and English

Featured community – Literacy

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A year ago, in March of 2012, Claire Hancox and Hilary Bombart of Education Scotland approached me with their plans for a Literacy Unconference. Taking its lead from TeachMeet and other educator-led CPD models, there was to be minimal talking from the front, lots of impromptu 5-minute slots and ‘co-create sessions’. All participants had to commit to joining an online community and sharing online the impact of the event. And so the Literacy professional learning community on Glow was born!

It now features a grand collection of professional learning and classroom resources as well as:

  • videos of the all the 5-minute slots at all Literacy events since May 2012
  • co-created collections focusing on wider texts, critical literacy and research skills
  • contact details for over 220 literacy champions from across Scotland

The Literacy community now has offshoots such as the National Literacy Network, Librarians and the Moray Literacy hub (but more about these in future posts!)

Claire moves on this week to a new depute post in East Dunbartonshire but she will continue to be active in the #literacy community, and maybe all its various offshoots! I wish her all the best in her new post!

Like all of the PL communities on Glow, colleagues on this community are making their professional learning visible for the benefit of other educators. You can find the community on the drop-down on http://bit.ly/plcommunity or go straight to http://bit.ly/lithome

Early Years, Responsibility of All, Young people, children & families

Wise Up Wednesday: GIRFEC supports UNCRC

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A report by Professor Jane Aldgate reviews how embedding the Getting it Right for Every Child (GIRFEC) approach supports implementation of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. Read or download  UNCRC: The foundation of getting it right for every child.

How are you embedding children’s rights into your provision? We’d love to know. Why not share in the comments below or if you are a GLow user share it with us on the Early Years Professional Learning Community.

Expressive Arts

Featured community – Learning about Scotland

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Providing Scottish contexts for learning has been the job (and passion) of Jenni Curson of Education Scotland. She was a prime mover behind the Studying Scotland online resource and to complement this resource, she founded the Learning About Scotland online community (aka #lscot)

Many of the members of the community were recruited as result of Jenni’s sessions in schools and local authorities. The community’s Share area features more than 30 free lesson plans for all levels which is the result of a collaboration with Digi-Map. A quick glance at the #lscot Change area shows a number of colleagues intending to bring a Scottish dimension to their practice.

Look out too in summer term for an affiliated community from the Scottish Council on Archives.

Jenni moves on this week to take up a depute’s post in Argyll and Bute but will continue to be active in the #lscot community, so we can look forward to sharing her expertise for the foreseeable future. I wish her all the best in her new post!

Like all of the PL communities on Glow, colleagues on this community are making their professional learning visible for the benefit of other educators. You can find the community on the drop-down on http://bit.ly/plcommunity or go straight to http://bit.ly/lscothome

CLD, Community Capacity Building, Early Years, Health and wellbeing, Health and wellbeing, Outdoor Learning, Young people, children & families

The National Play Strategy – Consultation with Children & Young People

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The Scottish Government want Scotland to be the best place in the world to grow up. Making sure that children and young people are able to take up their right to play is an important part of this. The Scottish Government is writing the strategy to make sure that people know about children and young people’s right to play and understand why it is important.
The views of children and young people are important and the Scottish Government would like to know what they think.

If you are a child or young person you can help by filling in an online survey, either as an individual or as a group. The group could be a group of friends, a class at school, a football or hockey team, your Scout or Girls Brigade Group – it is up to you.
If you are a parent or carer of a child or young person who is not able to complete the survey by themselves, you can help by recording their responses for them.
If you work with groups of children or young people, in whatever setting, please help by gathering their views with one of our group surveys.

Just choose the link that is right for you:
For individual 3-5 year olds
For groups of 3-5 year olds
For individual children and young people of primary school age
For groups of children and young people of primary school age
For individuals aged 12 – 18 years
For groups of 12-18 year olds

If you want to print out a PDF of the survey to take along to your group you can download the group surveys here:
NPS Group Survey – 3 to 5
NPS Group Survey – Primary
NPS Group Survey – 12 to 18

Printed copies should be returned to National Play Strategy Consultation, Education Scotland, The Optima, 58 Robertson Street, Glasgow, G2 8DU or emailed to enquiries@educationscotland.gov.uk. Please note that the closing date has now been extended to the 23rd April.

Expressive Arts, Social studies

V&A at Dundee – Teachers’ Survey

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The V&A at Dundee invites primary and secondary school teachers from across Scotland to take part in an online survey which will help to shape an education programme for the organisation.

V&A at Dundee’s aim is to offer a programme which will encourage interdisciplinary practice and learning, covering a wide range of Curriculum for Excellence areas.  For example, a session looking at Hollywood costume
might discuss the use of costume design to represent particular faiths and debate issues of potential stereotyping, or how people of different faiths are represented in film genres. A session looking at green design would explore
moral issues about climate change and sustainability.

If you’d like to participate in the online survey, please click on the following link.

Early Years, Responsibility of All, Young people, children & families

Children &Young People Bill Consultation Response

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The Scottish Government has today published its response to the consultation on the Children & Young People Bill. This sets out the results of the consultation and the next steps. The Bill will be introduced to Parliament this year, with the intention that the early learning and childcare provisions (increase in pre-school entitlement and support for looked after 2 year olds) will start in 2014. Dates have not yet been set for the implementation of other aspects of the Bill.

Read the Scottish Government response to the consultation

Early Years, Young people, children & families

BBC Baby Britain Series

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The Baby Britain Season starts tonight on BBC3. It sets out to explore what life is really like for Britain’s young parents. Tackling everything from post-natal depression to the role of dads in the delivery room, this provocative BBC Three season explores what it means to be a young parent in Britain today.

You can find out more at:
The programmes are likely to be available on the BBC iplayer for up to a week after their broadcast date.

It will be interesting to see the approach taken by the BBC to these issues. It would be great to hear what you think about these programmes and whether they reflect the lives of the families you are working with.Are there lessons for us to learn about how we support families? What kind of messages about parents and parenting are being portrayed in the media and what is the impact of this on families living in Scotland today?

Remember you can join in the discussion in the comments here or, if you are a Glow user,  on the Early Years Professional Learning Community at : http://bit.ly/earlyhome.

Additional Support for Learning, Health and wellbeing, Health and wellbeing, Supporting Learners, Universal Support

respectme Anti-Bullying Awards

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respectme has announced the launch of its first Anti-Bullying Awards.

The awards are designed to recognise the contribution made by children, young people and adults through anti-bullying projects, activities and initiatives across Scotland. There are two categories in this year’s Awards; one for a young person or group of young people, and the other for an adult or adults, who have made a difference for others through their anti-bullying work.

Nominations are now open, and are welcome from groups and individuals from across Scotland. The deadline for nominations is Friday 28 June 2013 and Award winners will be presented at an event during National Anti-Bullying Week in November.

Further information on the respectme Anti-Bullying Awards, together with an application form can be found here

Early Years, Health and wellbeing, Literacy, Supporting Learners

Wise Up Wednesday: Early Years In Edinburgh

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Colleagues from the City of Edinburgh Council have shared news from their annual Early Years conference on the City’s Children and Families blog.

Over 300 delegates from Early Years establishments attended the at Hibs Stadium and Lesley McDowall, Quality Improvement Officer for Early Years, introduces a report from the event, with feedback from delegates. Dr Margot Sunderland from the Institute of Child Mental Health in London made a keynote presentation on “Working with Children with Difficulties and Challenging Behaviour” which seems to have made quite an impact judging by the delegate comments.

The conference also saw the launch of new resources to support literacy and health and wellbeing.

You can read the full report and see the photographs here.

Were you there? Why not leave us a comment to let us know what impact the day has had on your practice?

We’d love to hear more about what is happening to support the development of Early Years, Children and Families in other parts of the country. Have you had an event, shared some learning, or developed practice? Why not get in touch and share it with others?

Remember that Glow users can share, discuss and ask for support from other practitioners on the Early Years Professional Learning Community at http://bit.ly/earlyhome .

Glow TV, Health and wellbeing, Health and wellbeing, Young people, children & families

Forced Marriage in Scotland

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Figures collated from Scottish agencies, who support victims of forced marriage, estimate that almost 20% of the 59 people who contacted them in 2011/12 in fear of being forced to marry were under 18 years of age. Those seeking help included both boys and girls and agencies believe that these figures may just be the tip of the iceberg, with many victims often too scared to speak out.

This shows that forced marriage is a very real issue affecting young people in Scotland and it is important that they know how they can get help. In November 2011, legislation came into force in Scotland to protect those affected by forced marriage. The Forced Marriage etc. (Protection and Jurisdiction) (Scotland) Act 2011 provides civil remedies for those at risk of forced marriage and those who have already been forced into marriage.

Teachers and education professionals therefore play an important role in recognising potential victims of forced marriage and in signposting them appropriately to ensure that they receive the right kind of help they need.

With this in mind, a forced marriage information resource is being launched this month for those working with young people in Scotland. A Glow TV event has been scheduled for Monday 18th March at 4pm to give education professionals the chance to discuss the issues which surround forced marriage and how they can help those in their care who they are worried might be affected. The Glow TV event is appropriate for all education practitioners.

To help education practitioners understand the legislation and how their work might be impacted by forced marriage, a panel of experts, including a forced marriage survivor, will be present to answer questions on the issue such as:

• What is a forced marriage?
• Are many young people in Scotland being forced to marry?
• How does the law in Scotland to help those in a forced marriage or under threat of one?
• How can education professionals help any young person in their care that they are worried might be affected by forced marriage?

Why not sign up and find out more in Glow TV – Forced Marriage in Scotland Or if you miss it click the Watch Again link to view the recording.

Early Years, Young people, children & families

Wise Up Wednesday: This Is Where It Starts

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The Institute for Research and Innovation in Social Services (IRISS) is a charitable company with a mission to Promoting positive outcomes for people who use Scotland’s social services

As part of their Early Years Evidence Project for 2012/13, they have produced the “This is where it starts” collection of case studies of work with children and parents in the early years (pre-birth to eight years old).

The case studies are based on in-depth interviews with those working with children and parents in the early years to uncover what professionals perceive supports positive outcomes, early intervention and prevention. The case studies attempt to capture some of the experiential knowledge held by professionals working in the early years, to share this knowledge more widely across the sector and to provide inspiration to others.

An overview report, which explores learning from the seven case studies, is also available.

Read This is where it starts overview report and case studies.

As always we’d love to hear what you are doing to support children and families in your area. Why not share in the comments?

CfE, Expressive Arts, Glow TV, Health and wellbeing, Responsibility of All

Choices for Life Online – Winning Awards

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The large Choices for Life venue music events run by the Scottish Crime and Drug Enforcement Agency were the highlight of many a Primary 7’s year but not everyone could get to a live event and learn more about making the right choices for their life.

That is until November 2011 when Choices for Life Online began. During the course of two days over 25,000 pupils from across Scotland tuned in to watch the new Online experience provided to them through Glow TV. The live webstreams featured thought provoking drama pieces from PACE and interviews with celebrities who all wanted to help youngsters think about making the right choices about their lives.

Since then the format of the broadcast has continued to be a massive success with young people having the opportunity to tune in either via a Glow TV live webstream or though Glow Meet with the session being repeated on the same day so noone misses out!

This huge success was marked yesterday when Choices for Life Online was awareded a presitgious award at the Scottish Police Awards for Making Communities Safer. The competition was fierce with 4 other excellent projects in the same category so the representatives from SCDEA and Glow were surprised to be honoured and receive the award from Kenny MacAskill, Cabinet Secretary for Justice and be congratulated by Dougie Vipond, Scottish television personality.

You can keep up to date with Choices for Life Online both in our Choice for Life Online Glow Group and on the excellent Choices for Life Online website which was launched in September 2012.

Well done Choices for Life and make a date in your diary for the next event which will be held on May 22nd -more details nearer the time in Glow TV.

Social studies

Glasgow 2014 – Cheer on the Queen’s Baton Relay

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The Glasgow 2014 Queen’s Baton Relay is the curtain-raiser to the Commonwealth Games. The baton will visit 71 nations and territories, cover 190,000 kilometres and involve a third of the world’s population, making it the world’s most engaging relay.

The Queen’s Baton Relay will be launched at Buckingham Palace, where Her Majesty The Queen Elizabeth II will place Her message to the Commonwealth into the baton.

Over a period of 288 days the baton will cover more than 190,000 kilometres, averaging one to four days in each nation or territory. The first region the baton will be travel to will be Asia, from Asia the baton will travel onto Oceania, Africa, Americas (south), Caribbean, Americas (north) before returning to Europe.

Throughout the Commonwealth the baton will be relayed by thousands of people. Magical memories will be created on this journey across continents, terrains and time-zones. From Sydney Harbour Bridge to the forests of Rwanda; from Pacific Islands to the mountains of Scotland, the baton will showcase each nation and territory in the Commonwealth family before making its way back to Glasgow for the Opening Ceremony.

The finish line is in host nation Scotland just in time for the Opening Ceremony at the Games in Glasgow, where Her Majesty The Queen’s message to the Commonwealth will be read aloud.

You can get more information on the Queen’s Baton Relay, its route and timings at www.glasgow2014.com/baton-relay.

Early Years, Expressive Arts, Glow TV

Comic Relief Day 2013

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This year Glow TV is celebrating Red Nose Day which is on Fridat 15th March with two fun packed events!

Kicking off Comic Relief Day at 9.30am we want you to log in and share what you will be doing on the day to raise money. You can tell us on our special Red Nose Chat Board and we’ll give you a special shout out or if you are doing a song or dance we’d love to see it! We know that you will be doing lots of new and exciting ways to raise money for Comic Relief 2013 and we want you to share them with us on the day!

If you do want to perform and want a practice beforehand all you’ll need is a webcam and mic and I will happily do a test session for you before the day. Contact Jen on – jennifer.mcdougall@educationscotland.gov.uk However if you are confident and can turn up on the day and let us see you then that is fine too! – Sign up and join us in Glow TV.

Then as your Comic Relief 2013 fun in school is drawing to a close why not join us for an hour of live Red Nose entertainment from Banchory Primary in Clackmannanshire?

Join us from 2pm for a Red Nose Day Parade, performances from P 1-3, an interactive quiz that you can play along with in your classrooms and live singing in Polish and English!

As if that wasn’t enough P4 and P6 will entertain you with Comic Relief sketches to round off the afternoon of fun and laughter join the school in a conga! Sign up and join us in Glow TV

And remember if you join us for eithr event make sure tht you make a donation to Comic Relief 2013 through your school!

Early Years, Expressive Arts, Literacy

Wise Up Wednesday: World Book Day

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Polly Dunbar and Long Nose Puppets

Did you know that tomorrow is World Book day?

As part of the celebrations the Scottish Children’s Book Awards Ceremony is being streamed live from the Caird Hall in Dundee on Thursday 7th March. This is likely to be suitable for learners in P1 to S4. You can find out more about the event of glow tv here.

In April there is a treat for the children in the early years – Polly Dunbar and the Long Nose Puppets. There are 2 parts to this – the first is a live stream from the BBC. More information for Glow users can be found here. If you don’t have access to glow you can check it out on the Scottish Book Trust website here.

After the BBC live stream glow users will be able to access a question and answer session from the Glow TV Studio. You can register for this here.

How are you celebrating World Book Day with children and families? Let us know in the comments!

CfE, Expressive Arts, Glow TV, Literacy, Literacy and English, Literacy and Gàidhlig

Scottish Children’s Book Awards Ceremony

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Join us in Glow TV on Thursday 7th March at 1.30pm to celebrate World Book Day with the 1000-strong audience in the Caird Hall for the 2012 Scottish Children’s Book Awards Ceremony live.

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.

Like the awards, the event is suitable for children in P1-S4. This event is a live web stream from the event and the link to this and to sign up is available in Glow TV.

CfE, Expressive Arts

A Man Came to A Women Glow Meet

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On Wednesday 6th March at 1.45pm join acclaimed Russian director Natalya Leonovan live from the Tron Theatre for a sneak peek into the rehearsal room while she works on ‘A Man Came to a Woman’ with two Scottish based actors. This is a rare opportunity to watch a professional at work and see live the different rehearsal techniques Natalya uses to enable the actors to become equipped to perform the piece.

This is the first UK staging of Semyon Zlotnikov’s brilliant physical comedy and is being made in collaboration with ALEKO Theatre St Petersburg. Banned in the USSR and hugely popular in post-Soviet Russia, Zlotnikov’s surreal farce satires the age-old conundrum of how exactly two people of a certain age and an uncertain future meet and get along.

This event is aimed at S4-6 drama students but would suitable and of interest to younger pupils also. Sign up and join us in Glow TV.