Daily Archives: March 17, 2014

CfE, Expressive Arts, Glow TV, Literacy and English, Mathematics, Technologies

M Factor Scoops Excellence Award

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Last year Glow worked in partnership with Midlothian Council to support a new and innovative approach to learning – the M Factor. This successful partnership was recognised as the team scooped the COSLA 2014 Scottish Government Delivering Excellence Award last Thursday at a star studded event in St Andrews.

The M-Factor was an interdisciplinary project aimed at Midlothian pupils in the upper stages of primary school (P6 and P7). The project used the context of the pop music industry to combine a range of curricular areas that enable pupils to develop knowledge and skills.

The M-Factor challenged pupils to write and record a pop song and create an associated pop video. Alongside this activity was a range of related activities, including:

• Advertising and promotion
• Branding
• Creating a simple website
• Planning a concert tour
• Carrying out research into the pop music industry

The project integrated a range of CfE experiences and outcomes covering Literacy, Numeracy, Technology, Art and Design, Music, Social Subjects and Enterprise.

Glow was able to provide the national platform for the final music video productions with thousands of pupils across Scotland casting their votes for their favourite bands. Voting took place over a 3 week period and the enthusiasm this generated amongst the teams was phenomenal – they were being recognised for their work by pupils all over the country!

The education team was presented with the award by First Minister Alex Salmond who said that Midlothian’s M Factor Project was an outstanding example of excellence in education – an innovative project where teachers became learners and learners became teachers.

Expressive Arts

Drama National Working Group

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An initial meeting of the Drama National Working Group meeting took place at Optima, Glasgow on Wednesday 5th March. The aims of the meeting were to identify and discuss the key national issues with regard to Drama education 3-18 and to begin considering actions to address these issues.

Using the International Futures Forum “3 Horizons” tool, the group set out to map the current landscape and to explore visions for the future, not just in three years’ time but looking further ahead into 2020 and beyond.

The statements the group used to stimulate discussion through the 3 Horizons sessions are shown below:

  1. The most effective Drama education is driven by learners
  2. Effective career-long professional learning (CLPL) supports teachers, building confidence and capacity
  3. Theatre Arts Technology should play a central role in Drama education
  4. Establishing and maintaining effective partnerships is key to successful Drama education
  5. Skills developed through Drama can be delivered through subjects in other areas of the curriculum

These statements were designed to provoke conversation and thinking in relation to current practice, either observed or undertaken by members of the group, and thinking about the future direction of Drama education and its relevance to learners.

From the conversations, the key issues that were highlighted during the day included:

  • The need to build practitioner confidence and capacity to teach Drama
  • The quality and quantity of Drama training during initial teacher education
  • The challenges associated with building and sustaining partnerships with arts professional and organisations

The outputs from the meeting are collated and posted below in both Word and PowerPoint format.

Comments from all stakeholders on the outputs are very welcome.

Planning for transformation in Drama

Planning for transformation in Drama (ppt)