Monthly Archives: September 2013

Assessment, CfE

Quality Assurance and Moderation – Professional Learning Resource

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A Professional Learning Resource for Quality Assurance and Moderation is now available from Education Scotland.

The resource provides an overview of assessment materials relating to quality assurance and moderation. It brings together, in a single location, a range of existing support materials to help meet the diverse professional learning requirements of individual practitioners, establishments and local authorities.

Sections include:

  • key messages in quality assurance and moderation;
  • National Assessment Resource (NAR) support;
  • relevant guidance papers;
  • Scottish Survey of Literacy and Numeracy (SSLN);
  • assessing progress and achievement 3-18;
  • support for curriculum areas
  • research and international perspectives.

This online resource is available on the Learning, Teaching and Assessment area of the Education Scotland website.

We are looking for your feedback on this resource and would appreciate any comments that you would like to make below. Many thanks – The Assessment Team.

Early Years, Young people, children & families

Development Officer – Children and Families Team

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Secondment Opportunity

An exciting opportunity has become available for a highly motivated and enthusiastic individual with proven track record within Children and Families to work as part of a team to promote effective and innovative approaches to improving outcomes for children and their families. They will support and deliver professional learning opportunities for the Early Years and Family Learning workforce and contribute to guidance relating to the Early Years, children and families.

Candidates should possess a degree, or equivalent, have excellent communication and interpersonal skills, and sound knowledge of Curriculum for Excellence.

The successful candidate may be based at any Education Scotland office however this will be dependent upon availability. The post is being offered on a 23 month secondment basis. For further information and to apply please go to www.educationscotland.gov.uk. The completed application should be returned to recruitment@educationscotland.gov.uk

The closing date for applications is Friday 4 October 2013.

Early Years, Literacy, Literacy and English, Young people, children & families

National Poetry Day 2013

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Scottish Poetry Library have announced National Poetry Day will take place on Thursday 3 October 2013.

The theme for this year is ‘Water’, and they are delighted to be working in partnership with Scottish Water to provide a great range of teaching resources to support.

Online resources are now available free on www.scottishpoetrylibrary.org.uk/learn and include:

a set of teaching notes for each poem

a pdf poster of each poem (doubles as a larger print text) to download and print

a pdf poster to advertise National Poetry Day

Scottish Water’s updated education materials, including a range of activity-based modules all about water for early, first, second, third and fourth level are now available free on www.scottishwater.co.uk/education

Themed water-related resources for teaching activities – images, audio & film clips on subjects ranging from Puddles, Ponds, Reflections or Ripples to Waterfalls or Waves can be sourced free to establishments on www.scran.ac.uk

Assessment, CfE, Community Capacity Building, Languages, Literacy, Literacy and English, Young people, children & families

Edinburgh International Book Festival / SottishPower – Calling All Writers Of The Future

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A search is on to find the school with the most creative minds.

The annual Story Generator competition is a national writing competition which invites young people across Scotland to collaborate and create their own stories.

This year, budding young writers from S1 and S2 are being asked to create a digital picture book about what life might be like in the future, using the first line of the George Orwell classic, 1984, as their inspiration: ‘It was a bright, cold day in April…’

The school that has written the best book will win a collection of books from the Edinburgh International Book Festival, with a printed copy of their Storybird online book included. The Pupil who devises the best page wins a Kindle which will come loaded with their own online book.

To find out more and to register your school, visit www.storybird.com/scottishpower


Early Years, Young people, children & families

National Early Years Network

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The National Early Years Network is hosted by the NHS to provide information for all professionals working in the early years sector. NHS Health Scotland are conducting a  review of the information needs of early years professionals,  this review will help them to tailor the support they offer to professionals in all sectors.

They will be conducting telephone interviews lasting approximately 30 minutes during September – November 2013. The telephone interviews will explore your thoughts on information currently provided to support you in your role, your preferences on the information you would like to receive and how this information is provided to you.  There will also be an opportunity to respond via email if this would be your preference.

In order to help us support the needs of early years professionals working in different areas it is essential that we hear for as wide a range of people as possible.

If you would be willing to contribute please contact Laura Martin (laura.martin3@nhs.net) for more information.

CfE, Glow TV, Literacy, Literacy and Gàidhlig

LearnCat Tell a Story – Journeys At the Scottish Storytelling Centre

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Join us in Glow TV for the third of our Tell a Story events with the Scottish Storytelling Centre. This event lets you find out more about ‘Journeys’

‘Tell a Story Day’ is celebrated across Scotland in October. In the 3 weeks leading up to this national event join Storytellers in the ‘bothy’ at the Scottish Storytelling Centre in Edinburgh via Glow TV.

Enjoy listening to the storytellers share tales about nations and territories within the Commonwealth, about personal challenge and achievement and memorable, adventurous and incredible journeys. ‘Journeys’ is the theme for this year’s event.

While listening, learn how to tell and perform oral stories. Then take the opportunity to ask the storytellers questions about their ideas and techniques to help you plan and hold your own ‘Tell a Story Day’ event. On ‘Tell a Story’ day we plan to broadcast your stories across Scotland via Glow TV. Find out more here: http://bit.ly/1dBZu1R

This Glow TV event is part of the Learning Experiences catalogue and a series of opportunities for Scottish learner to learn, create, make, build, bake, grow, collect, code tell stories and more. Learning experiences are set within contexts and many themes are interdisciplinary and take the form of learning spaces to connect learners and allow them to share, collaborate as well as a series of live events. Find out more about the Learning Experiences Catalogue here: http://bit.ly/1bx6c5B

Join us on Thursday 19th September at 11am – sign up and join us in Glow TV – LearnCat Tell a Story – Journeys At the Scottish Storytelling Centre.

CfE, Glow TV, Health and wellbeing, Literacy, Literacy and English

Dinosaur Discovery

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What kind of dinosaurs do you know about? Which was the largest, which was the smallest, which had the most horns, or longest neck, or which at the most food? How can we learn more about the dinosaurs that ruled the earth using evidence and fossils and what they can tell us about the history of the earth? What type of dinosaurs roamed the planet and where did they go?

Visit the National Museum of Scotland through Glow TV to be inspired and amazed by the fossil and bone evidence and go on a Dinosaur discovery. Explore some dino data to find out what we can tell about dinosaurs, their size, what they ate and who would be predator or prey. Meet the 12 metre long life-sixed cast of a T.rex to see the scale and power of the real thing and share your own dinosaur creations. Find out more here: http://bit.ly/18OIMsz

Play the Transformasaur game before the Glow TV event and adapt your dinosaurs characteristics and get your questions ready for the experts at the National Museum of Scotland!

This Glow TV event is part of the Learning Experiences catalogue and a series of opportunities for Scottish learner to learn, create, make, build, bake, grow, collect, code tell stories and more. Learning experiences are set within contexts and many themes are interdisciplinary and take the form of learning spaces to connect learners and allow them to share, collaborate as well as a series of live events. Find out more about the Learning Experiences Catalogue here: http://bit.ly/1bx6c5B

Curriculum links
SCN 2-01a
I can identify and classify examples of living things, past and present, to help me appreciate their diversity. I can relate physical and behavioural characteristics to their survival or extinction.
SCN 2-20a
I can report and comment on current scientific news items to develop my knowledge and understanding of topical science.
LIT 2-05a
As I listen or watch, I can make notes, organise these under suitable headings and use these to understand ideas and information and create new texts, using my own words as appropriate.

This learning experience is suitable for learners at second and third levels.

Join us on Friday 20th September at 1.30pm live in Glow TV – sign up and join us on our Dinosaur Discovery!

CfE, Glow TV, Health and wellbeing, Responsibility of All, Supporting Learners

SCCYP – The 7 Golden Rules for Participation

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The Golden Rules for Participation are a set of principles designed to help anyone working with, and for, children and young people.

Their purpose is to remind adults of what participation means from the point of view of children and young people, and to encourage children and young people to think about what they need from adults to support them to participate.

They have been developed by Scotland’s Commissioner for Children and Young People through consultation with children and young people from across Scotland. They are also informed by research, reflecting the knowledge and experience of those working to promote participation. Every school received a pack of these Golden Rules, in April 2013.

Join us for a Glow TV event on Wednesday 18th September at 11am to see how children from Lawmuir Primary School in North Lanarkshire are using the Golden Rules. Your pupils can take part in the activities or they can make up their own to share. The session will be developed and led by pupils.

First of all find your golden rules. If they are hidden somewhere in school go to The 7 Golden Rules for Participation and download a set or phone 01315583733 and order a replacement copy.

Sign up and join us in Glow TV On Wednesday 18th – SCCYP – The 7 Golden Rules for Participation

Additional Support for Learning, Health and wellbeing, Health and wellbeing, MCMC/16+LC, Supporting Learners, Young people, children & families

Getting the right help in school – two new guides from Enquire explain young people’s rights

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Getting the most out of education can be difficult if you are looked after or struggling to be in school. That’s why Enquire have produced two new guides to help young people understand their rights to support in school.

“What happens when you can’t go to school?” will help young people understand their rights to get support so they can carry on with their learning even when they are not at school. The guide considers a number of reasons young people might be away from school including being ill, caring for a family member, being excluded, home schooled from a travelling community or a refugee.

“Extra help at school when you are looked after” will help looked after pupils understand their rights to extra support and what that support might be. It explains how they can be involved in making decisions about their learning and the planning that should be in place for them as they prepare to leave school.

Created with help from children and young people, the guides are an essential tool for all those working with young people who aren’t in school or who are looked after. Short and easy to read, like all Enquire’s resources, it has been accredited by the Plain Language Commission.

The guides can be used as a teaching resource for a whole class or with individual pupils.

Both guides can be downloaded from the website

CfE, Mathematics, Outdoor Learning, Sciences, Technologies

STEM at the Scottish Learning Festival

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Raising the Bar in Scotland – transforming lives through learning.

Science, technology, engineering and maths are key priorities within Curriculum for Excellence.

The Scottish Learning Festival 2013 provides numerous opportunities for practitioners to engage in meaningful discussions and attend seminars and workshops relating to STEM.

 A select showcase of innovative practice will demonstrate how STEM skills are being developed in creative, exciting and thought provoking ways.

Come along and watch learners from Hamilton College demonstrate how Lego Mindstorm robots helped develop their problem solving skills, take the I-pad journey with Bellshill Academy pupils and find out how to bring science into your school community through Citizen Science activities.

Download the STEM programme of workshops and seminars detailing dates and times:

STEM at the Scottish Learning Festival 2013

To book and register for the Scottish Learning Festival follow the link below:

http://bit.ly/1eqaimD  

Additional Support for Learning, Adult Learning, Health and wellbeing, Health and wellbeing, Literacy, Outdoor Learning, Responsibility of All, Social studies, Universal Support, Young people, children & families

Outdoor Learning with the National Parks Inspiring Landscapes – Inspiring Learning

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Senior Leaders Professional Learning Event – Dounans Centre, Aberfoyle: Friday 20th September 2013

A one day event for head teachers and deputy head teachers, focusing on whole school approaches, inspection and self-evaluation for school managers. Delegates will hear from senior managers, education officers and others with experience of outdoor learning in the context of school improvement.

Staff Professional Learning Weekend – Dounans Centre, Aberfoyle: Friday 20th – Sunday 22nd September 2013

This opportunity is aimed at staff from all schools and settings within the partner authorities, and will provide inputs from project and centre staff, from the National Park ranger service, and from Education Scotland staff to support you in embedding Curriculum for Excellence through Outdoor Learning in your school or nursery. As well as a variety of ‘sharing good practice’ sessions run by teachers across all sectors.

The weekend will provide staff with practical tools, ideas and inspiration for developing progressive and frequent outdoor learning opportunities for pupils which will support and enrich all aspects of their learning.

Spaces are still available on these programmes for further information contact

Joan.Reilly@educationscotland.gov.uk

Workshops Staff Professional Learning Weekend

Staff CLPL residential weekend 2013 – info for schools

Final Programme Staff PL Weekend

Final Programme School Leaders

Health and wellbeing, Health and wellbeing, Responsibility of All

Food and Gardening

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Creating a Prairie Garden

24th September 2013, Aileymill Primary, Greenock

8th October 2013, Blackfriars Primary, Glasgow

Develop a Prairie flower bed in your school garden, richly planted with drifts of perennials and self-seeding annuals, punctuated with grasses. An everlasting, low maintenance style of naturalistic planting, a haven for bees, butterflies and all others that fly!

THE EDIBLE SCHOOL GARDEN

1st October 2013, Perth Academy

To give teachers of all age groups the skills to confidently grow and manage a simple productive garden throughout the year. Also, to ensure that produce is used in tasting, cooking and enterprise activities. Every school should be a food growing school.

Glow TV, Health and wellbeing

Flushed with Success!

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Scotland’s Commissioner for Children and Young People has launched a new campaign Flushed with Success: Setting the Standard for Scotland’s School, which seeks to address the fact that standards of school toilets for pupils need to improve and the quality of the facilities must be monitored and guaranteed in the same way as in workplaces for adults. A recent survey of over 2000 Scottish pupils (Ipsos MORI) found that 56 percent of secondary school pupils never used school toilets or only used them if they ‘really had to’.

As well as working with influential organisations and leaders to explore how this problem can be properly addressed, Tam would like all schools in Scotland to sign up to supporting pupils to take part in the ‘Flushed with Success?’ Active Enquiry and Self Assessment Project. This special Glow TV session on Wednesday 11th September at 4pm will allow you to learn about how your school can now take part in this highly participative 8 step project which will help 1) identify where best practice and success already exists and 2) the actions school pupils, teachers and managers – working in partnership – will take to improve standards where the need for change is identified.

Sign up and join us on Wednesday 11th September at 4pm – Flushed with Success.

Sciences

Twig Summer Challenge – winning school announced!

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Congratulations Bo’ness Academy!

Professor Robert Winston has selected Team Eco-Option from Bo’ness Academy, Falkirk, as the winners of the Twig Summer Challenge! 

Professor Winston praised all the shortlisted entries, highlighting ambitious filmmaking, relevant science and a sense of humour! 

Congratulations to the following schools who were runners-up in the Twig Summer Challenge:

2nd place: Millburn Academy, Inverness

3rd place: Whitehill Secondary, Glasgow 

Highly commended: 
Arbroath High School
Mearns Primary
Mearns Castle High

View the shortlisted films 

Many congratulations to all those schools who entered the challenge last term.

We hope you enjoyed making your short films!

CfE, Responsibility of All, Sciences, Technologies

Scottish Engineering Special Leaders Award Challenge 2013

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SCOTTISH ENGINEERING SPECIAL LEADERS AWARD CHALLENGE – “If you could be an engineer in Scotland – what would you do?”

 Scottish Engineering and the Leaders Award are challenging Primary and Secondary school pupils in Scotland to consider what they would do if they were an engineer.

The challenge addresses many of the Experiences and outcomes within Curriculum for Excellence and, at secondary level, the project will meet the requirements of level 4/5 National Qualification in Engineering Science. 

 To participate, research engineering in Scotland, download resources from www.leadersaward.com, talk to practicing engineers and complete an annotated illustration answer to the challenge question. Discover the numerous career paths an engineer can follow.

 Already there are over 60 primary and secondary schools registered to be a part of the challenge, many of which have already put in their requests for help from engineers. 

 Closing date for all entries is 20th November 2013, with the best entries going on display on 20th December 2013 in Glasgow City Councils Banqueting Hall.

 Register here.

Glow TV, Literacy and English, Literacy and Gàidhlig

At the Scottish Storytelling Centre – My Story

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Join us in Glow TV for the first of our Tell a Story events with the Scottish Storytelling Centre. This event lets you find out more about ‘My Story’

‘Tell a Story Day’ is celebrated across Scotland in October. In the 3 weeks leading up to this national event join Storytellers in the ‘bothy’ at the Scottish Storytelling Centre in Edinburgh via Glow TV.

Enjoy listening to the storytellers share tales about nations and territories within the Commonwealth, about personal challenge and achievement and memorable, adventurous and incredible journeys. ‘Journeys’ is the theme for this year’s event.

While listening, learn how to tell and perform oral stories. Then take the opportunity to ask the storytellers questions about their ideas and techniques to help you plan and hold your own ‘Tell a Story Day’ event.

On ‘Tell a Story’ day we plan to broadcast your stories across Scotland via Glow TV. Find out more here: Learning Experience Catalogue.

Glow TV, Health and wellbeing

Flu Immunisation Briefing Event

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The annual flu immunisation programme is being extended over the next three years to include all children and young people aged 2 -17.

From October 2013, 2 and 3 year old children will be offered the vaccine at their GP practice and some primary school aged children will be offered the vaccine at selected schools. As this is a new programme for primary schools, a limited number are taking part in this first year to assist with planning for the national rollout next year. NHS Scotland would like teachers to have as much information as possible about the programme, should they receive enquiries from pupils and parents.

Join us for a Glow TV event on Wednesday 4th September at 4pm to find out more when we will feature a panel of experts who will be available to take questions about the childhood flu immunisation programme. Sign up and join us in Glow TV – Flu Immunisation

You may also be interested in downloading the Briefing Notes for Education.