Behaviour management strategies for the Science classroom
Managing classroom or laboratory behaviour can be one of the most challenging aspects of teaching. Join the National Science Learning Centre this autumn for a free, high quality, five week online continuing professional development course to help you improve students’ behaviour.
Watch the video and register
Good Brain, Bad Brain: Parkinson’s Disease
Learn the fundamentals of Parkinson’s disease; what causes it and what we can do to ameliorate the symptoms.
This free online course is aimed at anyone with an interest in finding out the fundamentals of Parkinson’s disease; how it affects people, what causes it, what we can do to try and ameliorate the symptoms and what we don’t yet know about it.
As one of the most prevalent neurodegenerative diseases, most people at least know of one person who has Parkinson’s disease.
As the population ages, so the number of people with it will increase. Many people will be able to give a vague description of how that person is affected but may not know why. In this course we will consider how the normal principles of how neurones work and communicate are altered in the parkinsonian brain and why this leads to the symptoms that we see. We can then apply this knowledge to thinking about how current therapies work.
Finally we can think about where the holes in our knowledge are and the importance of this for improving our ability to alleviate the symptoms of the disease.
Basic Science: Understanding Experiments
This practical, hands-on course is aimed at school aged learners to help them start thinking like a scientist by carrying out experiments at home and making scientific observations.
They will carry out simple experiments to extract the DNA from fruit or vegetables, observe osmosis in action and bake a potato to destruction! They’ll also investigate how different liquids behave when frozen and how much water an everyday food item contains.
As they carry out these experiments they will develop important science-based skills including observation, record-keeping, data analysis and how to control an experiment. After examining their results, they will share them with other learners and discuss their findings.
360 degree safe is an online, interactive Self Review Tool which allows schools to review their e-safety policy and practice. It is available, free of charge, to all schools across Scotland. It is suitable for both local authority and independent schools.
The tool suggests possible sources of evidence, provides additional resources / good practice guidance and collates the school’s action plan for improvement. Sections of these policy templates can also be found in the links / resources section in 360 degree safe.
You can access the tool at http://www.360safescotland.org.uk/. If you wish to discuss this further then please contact your local authority representative.
Quotes from the training events took place in June 2014:
‘I intend to promote awareness of the tool to all North Lanarkshire schools and centres and will offer them the opportunity to be supported in using it. I hope to establish a network for schools to share good practice and collaborate appropriately.’ Morag Hay, Quality Improvement Officer, North Lanarkshire Council
Very worthwhile session. Felt the tool was very easy to use and helpful for staff.’ Mark Allen, South Lanarkshire Council
Time is running out to join over 3,000 colleagues from across the education sector at this year’s Scottish Learning Festival, Scotland’s largest education event, which takes place at the SECC in Glasgow on Wednesday 24th and Thursday 25th September.
At SLF this year you can choose your range of professional learning from the keynote speeches over 100 seminars and professional discussions, as well as the largest exhibition of its kind in the country. Everything is themed around raising achievement and attainment for all by maximising educational outcomes through early intervention and prevention, through promoting health and wellbeing, and through developing employability skills.
Cabinet Secretary for Education and Lifelong Learning, Michael Russell MSP will open the conference with a keynote speech to a wide audience who come from across the educational spectrum and who all contribute to the learning and development of Scotland’s children and young people. Delegates won’t want to miss the opportunity to hear the speeches from world renowned educationalists such as Dr Frank Dick, Prof Alma Harris or John Carnochan OBE, QPM. In addition there promises to be lively debate as part of the highly interactive seminar sessions, including sessions led by leading figures such as Sir Ian Wood, Sir Bill Gammell and Kenneth Muir.
Dr Bill Maxwell, Chief Executive for Education Scotland, said: “I’m looking forward to meeting colleagues from across the early years, primary, secondary, community learning, health, social work and voluntary sectors at this year’s Scottish Learning Festival, which looks set to be our best yet.
“Those attending will have the opportunity to meet with peers from across the country to network, share best practice and develop fruitful insights and partnerships that can really benefit children and young people.”
Alongside a huge range of stimulating keynotes and seminars and the ever-popular exhibition area, there will be a number of exciting announcements and launches over the course of the two days. The new curriculum development toolkit ‘Evaluating and improving our curriculum-Primary’ will be launched as will ‘Insight’ the new benchmarking tool for the senior phase. The newly redeveloped Parentzone website will also be previewed.
There is still time to register for this year’s Scottish Learning Festival, follow the link to book your place.
The Curriculum Area Impact Review Report for Religious and Moral Education was published in February 2014. The report highlighted strengths in RME in Scotland but also identified some significant aspects for improvement which are the responsibility of senior leaders across all sectors. The report is available here.
A series of national engagement events has been arranged to explore the implications of the RME Impact Review Report, consider what high quality RME looks like and how improvements in RME can be realised, and support continuous improvement in RME through effective self-evaluation and high quality leadership.
These free one day events are aimed at senior leaders, Head Teachers and Depute Head Teachers across early years establishments, primary, special and secondary school sectors and will take place as follows:
Places will be allocated on a first come first serve basis. If you would to book a place at one of these events, or would like further information about the events, please contact Vicki.mckechnie@educationscotland.gsi.gov.uk
