Category Archives: Responsibility of All

Literacy, Social studies, Technologies

Panda Competition Winners Announced!

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Dual post from the Glow Scotland Blog.

Firstly, we would like to thank all schools who took part in our Panda leaflet competition. We were overwhelmed by the response we received, both in the sheer number of entries (which is why it has taken us so long to judge!) and in the standard of those entries.

We took into account how well the entries had met the competition’s requirements (a leaflet giving information about visiting them at the zoo) and the standard of information provided, as well as the overall design quality.

We really were most impressed with the entries and only wish we had more prizes to give out. Congratulations to everyone involved. We have also been very impressed with the number of comments on the blog and just how much interest has been shown in the topic. It clearly shows that pupils have been as excited about the arrival of Tian Tian and Yang Guang as we have. Well done! And Happy Chinese New Year to you all as well!

And now for the big news. Here are the winners:

Name Class School Prize
Ellis Stables P3 Kirkcowan Primary 1st– Panda and GTV T-shirt
Rory Crombie P6b St Joseph’s Primary 2nd– Panda and GTV T-shirt
Liam Eccleston P5 Caerlaverock School 3rd – Panda hat and GTV T-shirt
Ashley Leggat P4 Drumblade Primary 1st runner-up
Faye Jackson P7 Caerlaverock School 1st runner-up
Carine Bissett P6 Caerlaverock School 1st runner-up
Morgan Murray + Emma Barclay      P5 Goldenhill Primary 1st runner-up
Greig Sinclair   St Joseph’s Primary Runner-up
Dylan Bell Drummond   St Joseph’s Primary Runner-up
Eilidh Skinner   Whitdale Primary Runner-up
Amy Begbie   Whitdale Primary Runner-up
Ryan Conroy P5 St Joseph’s Primary Runner-up
Aoife Mclaughlin P6 St Joseph’s Primary Runner-up
Abbie Ribbens P4 Kirkcowan Runner-up
Amy Smith P3 Kirkcowan Runner-up
Archie Mortiboy P4 Kirkcowan Runner-up
Jy Guthrie P4 Barrshare Primary Runner-up
Zak Service P3 Kirkcowan Runner-up
Freya Coyle   Balbardie Primary Runner-up
       

*Please allow until next week to receive prizes. We will try to post some more of the entries here as time allows, but here is the winning entry, submitted by Ellis Stables of Kirkcowan Primary School. Ellis will receive the larger of the two pandas we picked up as well as a Glow TV T shirt and some sweeties. Well done, Ellis! We picked your entry because it was very informative, with just the kind of information we were looking for. We also choose Ellis as the overall winner because of the fact that it was a P3 entry and of such a high standard.

Rory PandasThe second prize goes to Rory Crombie from P6b at St Joseph’s Primary. Rory’s entry can be viewed by clicking the link here. Very high standard from Rory, with lots of information and quite a high degree of IT skills in preparing his document. Great work!

Runners up will receive a Glow TV T shirt from us and 1st runners up will receive a Glow TV T shirt as well as a small panda gift from the Edinburgh zoo gift shop.

Health and wellbeing, Health and wellbeing, Responsibility of All

Health and Wellbeing Showcase – Carnegie Conference Centre, Thursday 26th January 2012

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The Health and wellbeing team are welcoming a hundred practitioners to the first of our Showcase events.  We have a packed day celebrating good practice across the health and wellbeing organisers.  There is marketplace where some of our partners are available to discuss how they can support schools and we have a keynote speech from Dr Rosemary Geddes, Research Fellow for the Scottish Collaboration for Public Health Research and Policy at the Medical Research Council in Edinburgh.  Also Julie Wilson from Outdoor Learning will stimulate ideas about how schools can deliver health and wellbeing by taking the curriculum outside.  Click here to go the Outdoor Learning Blog for updates.

We hope our delegates gain a lot from the day and would encourage them to sign up to our HWB Community where we will share the presentations from the day and partner contact information.  Click here to sign up to the community.

Also don’t forget to join Education Scotland on Facebook and Twitter.

Literacy, Literacy and English, Technologies

Digitalising Burns Poetry

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Today I had the pleasure of visiting Wellwood Primary School in Fife. The pupils were looking at Burns’ Poetry in a range of ways to develop their ICT skills. First of all the pupils researched Burns’ poetry and selected a poem they wanted to read. They read their poems to a talk partner, ensuring they followed the Success Criteria that they had set them themselves. Pupils used the software Audacity to record their poem and then used their creative skills to create an avatar using Voki. The Voki was then added to their individual blogs.

To find out about other Burns activities visit our resource calendar.

Click here to find out about Burns Day on Glow on 25/01/11 at 9:45 am.

Health and wellbeing, Health and wellbeing

Get Set Network and Ticketshare

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I am pleased to attach as usual the latest figures for Get Set registration and network membership together with lists of those schools in your authority which are either ‘not yet registered’ or ‘registered but not yet networked’.  You will see from the overall Get Set report that there are now extra columns detailing the final tally of schools which successfully applied for membership of the network before the 16th Dec ticketshare deadline.  The overall figures show a healthy 39% of eligible schools nationally and a rise to 65% of registrations.   Well done for all your efforts in making this happen!

 As we move into 2012 there is still plenty of time to apply (click here!)and take advantage of many more rewards and opportunities including Get Set goes global, World Sport Day and the Torch relay.  Please continue to encourage Get Set network membership!

Health and wellbeing, Health and wellbeing

Health and wellbeing event – 10th March 2012

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The health and wellbeing team are busy organising a number of events to support staff in this key area of the curriculum. If you have any thoughts or suggestions regarding content for events then please let us know. Contact

An event for all practitioners takes place on 10th March 2012 at the Grand Central Hotel in Glasgow.
If you would like the opportunity to network, share good practice and hear key messages then add this date to your diary!

Watch this space for further information and sign-up details!
If you have any thoughts or suggestions regarding content for events then please let us know. Contact Yvonne Sherry at the following address: yvonne.sherry@educationscotland.gov.uk

Health and wellbeing, Health and wellbeing

Scottish Athletics

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Scottish athletics have recently launched a new national schools athletics programme booklet to provide  guidance and support for schools in Scotland offering athletics opportunities.

National Schools Athletics programme

Health and wellbeing, Responsibility of All

Head Teacher / Depute Head Teacher HWB Event, Thursday 19th January, Carlton Barcelo, Edinburgh

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The Health and Wellbeing Team had a very positive and stimulating day with Head Teachers and Depute Head Teachers from across the Central Belt with just a smattering of snow.   

There were inputs from Granton Primary and Craigroyston Community High that received rapturous praise and look to have inspired leaders to return to school and share with colleagues.  Also there was welcome guidance and reassurance for delegates from Joan Mackay, HMI around inspection in Health and wellbeing.  As expected assessment was a more challenging part of the day. however the evidence from feedback featured a very strong steer that assessment is the key area for development and next steps described what will be taken forward from the day.

We would like to encourage participants to sign up to our hwb lead community which will also give members access to the hwb-cpd community.  To access the presentations from today please click here.  To add your intention about impact after the event click here.  Remember to use the hashtag #hwblead which you can also use to tweet about the event.

Expressive Arts, Literacy

Glow Meet: King of Masks – Part of Chinese New Year Celebrations

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The King of Masks is a brilliant street performer who practices the change-mask opera art of bian lian. He laments that he has no grandchild to pass on his magical skills, so he adopts an orphan boy to become his apprentice. But the boy turns out not to be what he seems… A special film from China full of colour, fireworks and adventures!

On the day of the screening of the King of Masks live in Glasgow Glow TV be broadcasting the introduction to the event which lasts approximately 10 minutes. You are able to request a free DVD to watch along in the classroom during the live screening in Glasgow. To request your free DVD please contact matt@eightandahalf.org.

At 11.55am we will return live to Glasgow to take part in the live interactive workshop with Chinese opera singer and Ricefield workshop leader Fong Liu from St. Ninian’s High School who will be dressed in full Chinese costume. This workshop will last approximately 15-20 mins.

THIS EVENT IS RECOMMENDED FOR PRIMARY 4 AND ABOVE.

Why not sign up and join us on the day Don’t forget to request your free DVD! http://bit.ly/kingofmasksevent

Date and time: 06/02/2012 – 10:15am

Find out more on the Glasgow Film Festival Website
Literacy

Tell us what you think of ‘On the Money’

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Education Scotland, in partnership with Scottish Book Trust and Standard Life, is carrying out an evaluation of the ‘On the Money’ resource.

‘On the Money’ is a book of four stories by Theresa Breslin, Jonathan Meres, Nicola Morgan and Alison Prince, exploring issues of financial responsibility for children. It was distributed free to schools throughout Scotland and was also published as an online resource.

The main purpose of this evaluation is to help us decide how we take the project forward. Therefore we are looking for the views of practitioners who have used the resource with learners in educational establishments to provide us with evidence on which we can base our decision.

Please take 10 minutes to complete our online survey.

Your help is greatly appreciated, and in recognition of your support one lucky school will be picked at random from the respondents to receive a free visit from an author, organised by the Scottish Book Trust.

The deadline for responses is the end of this term.

(Please note, the online survey website contains adverts).

Literacy, Literacy and English

New Literacy across learning materials

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New reading support materials for first and second levels and new Literacy across learning materials to support the third and fourth levels are now available on Glow.

First and second level materials

‘Reading to Learn; Learning to Read’ are new reading support materials to support first and second levels. They are now available in Glow: (Glow log-in required).

These materials include practical ideas to develop and support reading at first and second level, active learning strategies for teaching reading and a wide variety of approaches to support reading.

Specific areas covered include:

  • reciprocal reading.
  • hot-seating.
  • before, during and after reading activities.
  • the Thinking Reader.

Third and fourth level materials

New Literacy across learning materials to support the third and fourth levels are now available in Glow. (Glow log-in required).

These materials include information on:

  • practical strategies and ideas to develop literacy across learning
  • listening and talking strategies
  • writing across the curriculum
  • recording literacy across the curriculum
  • analysing moving image texts
  • reciprocal reading strategies
  • information literacy
  • Bloom’s Revised Taxonomy
  • links to additional resources.
Early Years, Gaelic Learners, Responsibility of All

Wise Up Wednesday!

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Robert Burns – Lets Celebrate

Happy New Year from the Early Years Team at Education Scotland!

Its time to celebrate the life of Robert Burns on Burns’ Day 25th January.

To give you some ideas on where to get started we have provided you with some links to good practice and some interesting resources which will enable you to explore Burns’ birthday as well as Scotland itself including the languages of Gaelic and Scots particularly within the early years.

  • Why not explore the stories of Katie Morag by Mairi Hedderwick? Katie lives on a Scottish Island.

What is it like to live on an island?

What Islands are around Scotland?

Sing and speak the Scots language by tuning into our Glow meet on ‘watch again’.

Matthew Fitt, author of many stories in Scots for young children including “Katie’s Coo” and “A Wee Book O’ Fairytales in Scots” sings, tells stories and will have you ‘burlin roon’ before you know it!

Have a wee sing song

Visit the Education Scotland Knowledge of Language site and listen to auld favourites such as ‘Coulter’s Candy’ and ‘Ye Cannie Shuv Yer Grannie’. Also visit ‘Scotland’s Songs’ and see songs for the early years and songs in Gaelic too!

Celebrate Robert Burns’ birthday in a nursery setting

You could make a book all about things relating to Scotland. This would also encourage reflection and recall. You could add various pictures of Scottish food, tartan, animals, landmarks, places etc. The children may also want to add the Scots word that they like to use in conversation!

The Early Years team at Education Scotland hope you have a fabulous time during you Burns’ celebrations.

Additional Support for Learning, CfE, Early Years, Expressive Arts, Health and wellbeing, Languages, Mathematics, MCMC/16+LC, Responsibility of All, RME, Sciences, Senior Phase, Social studies, Supporting Learners, Technologies, Universal Support

Global Citizenship – JOIN our Glow drop in session

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Developing Global Citizens through sustainable development education

Time:  3.45pm – 4.45pm, Thursday 26th January

Where: The shiny new Glow community for global citizenship

 2012 is a big year for Sustainable Development Education (SDE):

  • World leaders will gather in Rio to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the Rio Earth Summit in 1992 and decide on further action
  • 2012 is the International Year of Sustainable Energy for All
  • We only have three years until the end of the UN Decade of Education for Sustainable Development Education and there is a buzz of activity happening in schools and local authorities across Scotland.

If you’d like to tune into all that’s happening and are looking for inspiration and ideas to kick start 2012 then this is the Glow meet for you. The Developing Global Citizenship Team will be hosting this informal session open to any practitioner or school leader – just drop into the Glow meet to pick our brains, find out what’s coming up or tell us what you’re up to. If you missed the previous sessions then click here to see how they work.

Note: if you join us with a headset or webcam then it means we can have a good blether. However, if you prefer to type fast with wonky spellng then that’s good too!

One click (then another small one) to take part >>  http://bit.ly/DGCdropin3

Health and wellbeing, Responsibility of All

101 apprenticeships in 100 days

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Young Working Lives focuses on finding employment for work ready individuals between the ages of 16 to 25 that are not currently in education, employment or training.

The ‘101 apprenticeships in 100’ days is a challenge set by Stirling’s local More Choices More Chances Partnership to create 101 apprenticeship opportunities in 100 days.

100-in-101-groupThe challenge has been welcomed locally as well as being recognised by the Scottish Government. The launch event was attended by MSP Angela Constance, Scottish Government Minister for Youth Employment who commented; “I am thrilled and delighted to support the campaign. It is an excellent example of local partners and employers working together and giving young people a strong start to their working lives and I look forward to
hearing about the success of the campaign”

The ‘101 in 100’ programme is a great way to help fill current vacancies within a company and to ensure the workforce is appropriately skilled. It is also a great opportunity to support local young people who are ready and willing to work, but finding it difficult to compete against sometimes-higher skilled or more experienced applicants.

Click here to read more.

Health and wellbeing, Literacy, Technologies

South Ayrshire cook off

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Councillor Hywel Davies, Lifelong Learning Portfolio Holder said: “These young people showed exceptional talent in the kitchen when they took part in the competition.

“South Ayrshire is known for great hospitality and wonderful places for residents and tourists to eat. Tourism plays a huge part in sustaining our local economy and ensuring we have outstanding people who can create new dishes, put a modern twist on traditional ones and cater for all tastes in future years is very important.

“The competition called for the students to use literacy and numeracy skills combined with their flair and talent for culinary creation.

“Cooking is a skill that will stay with these young people for life, whether they become professional caterers or enter another profession, the knowledge they have gained will be of great use to them.”

To read more click here.

Health and wellbeing, Sciences, Technologies

STEM Central: Bioengineering

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Work continues towards the publication of the STEM Central context “Bioengineering”. Working in partnership with the BBC to explore the role Bioengineering plays in helping service personnel from 45 Commando Royal Marines based in Arbroath, and Touch Bionics, the Livingston based company behind world leading prosthetic technologies, this fourth level sciences and technologies based context will prove a rich source of learning, debate, discussion and creative thinking for your learners.

CLD, Responsibility of All, Supporting Learners, Young people, children & families

Consultation “Speak Out for LGB people in school”

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A survey is being carried out by researchers in the Centre for Family Research at the University of Cambridge for Stonewall UK. This survey is for young people in England, Scotland and Wales who are aged 11 to 19 and who are lesbian, gay or bisexual (or think they might be). The survey is about their experiences in school or college: Five years ago Stonewall carried out the first big study about LGB young people’s experiences at school: this survey is intended to discover if things have changed, and what action still needs to done to make things better.

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

Children and Young people’s Mental Health Indicators

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NHS Health Scotland has launched a new set of indicators for the mental health of children and young people in Scotland.  Updated every four years, the profile aims to provide a greater understanding of the current and changing picture of mental health within this population and the factors that influence it.

A briefing which contains the indicators is available from the Health Scotland website The indicators were launched at an event on 25th November at the Glasgow Royal Concert Hall. The presentations are available here, and videos of the presentations will be added to this webpage shortly as will the final report from the project.

 
Adult Learning, CfE, CLD, MCMC/16+LC, Responsibility of All, Senior Phase, Supporting Learners, Young people, children & families

Making the Difference in Partnership conference, 3rd February 2012, Glasgow

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Making the Difference in Partnership is a CPD opportunity exploring collaborative approaches to improving outcomes of young people who are most disadvantaged and may require more choices and more chances.

Delegates will have the chance to participate in practice workshops, hearing how a range of providers are working in partnership to develop young people’s skills for learning, life and work.

Nominations for attending this event are being sought from a wide audience including: education authorities, schools, community learning and development and third sector organisations.

As you may be aware, Building the Curriculum 4 states that:-

Curriculum for Excellence can best be delivered through partnership working. All establishments should work with partners and share a common understanding and language around skills development and application. Together, they should plan and deliver learning and other experiences which meet the needs of individual children and young people.

This event will provide an excellent opportunity for delegates to find out about a range of partnership approaches to delivering this agenda that could be replicated in their area.

Please  use this link to complete the online booking form by 20th January 2011. Please note spaces for this event may not be allocated on a first come first served basis.

For more information please contact Neil McIntosh or Sheila Doogan.

Adult Learning, CLD, Literacy, Supporting Learners

ESOL Workshops January – March 2012

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Education Scotland will provide opportunities to run ESOL Workshops to cover training around the national ESOL Initial Assessment Guide and to raise awareness of the Adult ESOL Curriculum Framework. If you are an ESOL provider and are interested in running a workshop for practitioners, please contact Mandy Watts.

Health and wellbeing, Sciences, Technologies

STEM Central @ SSERC

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Lauren Boath, Development Officer (Sciences), attended the SSERC Physics Residential on Friday 2nd December. A fascinating insight into using physics in accident reconstruction from the Police, a hard hitting account of reconstruction of an accident in 2006 which claimed three lives. Lots of ideas for exploring applications of Physics with connections to health and wellbeing, and ethics. After an introduction to STEM Central, delegates had an opportunity to try out a kit which could be used within the technologies focussed learning journey from the Electric Car context. Once constructed, scope for open ended investigtion around relationship between battery voltage and motor speed, reversing direction of vehicle, design and aerodynamics.

CLD, Early Years, Health and wellbeing, Responsibility of All, Young people, children & families

Heart to Heart

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The British Heart Foundation Scotland is committed to educating young people about the importance of making healthy choices, at every stage of life from nursery school through into adulthood. This includes diet and physical activity, as well as smoking awareness and wider community involvement through initiatives like our Heartstart programme.

 There is a  whole section of their website dedicated to resources that are available to schools, including  a kids’ and schools’ catalogue.

Click  here to find out about loads of helpful resources from the British Heart Foundation.

Expressive Arts, Literacy, Literacy and English

New Video Resources for Scottish Theatre

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Visit the national drama teachers glow group

https://portal.glowscotland.org.uk/establishments/nationalsite/Staffroom/Drama%20Teachers/default.aspx

and you will notice new tabs at the top of the glow group entitled ‘Video resources’.  Joe Gallacher from Replico Theatre has kindly offered to share these videos with practitioners who are interested in Scottish theatre.  The documentaries feature a variety of Scottish plays first produced at the end of the twentieth century and the beginning of the twenty first and include interviews with some of Scotland’s leading playwrights, such as Nicola McCartney, Ann Marie Di Mambro, Sue Glover, Liz Lochhead, Stephen Greenhorn, David Harrower and David Greig.

Literacy, Literacy and English, Technologies

Driving Learning with Mario Kart

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Cross post from Consolarium Blog.

Derek Robertson (Consolarium Team) was contacted by Wilma Leaburn, a QIO from Renfrewshire and invited to a Mario Kart CPD evening at a school in Paisley. A number of teachers had taken this practice forward and a CPD session to share their experiences had been organised. The evening itself was a fantastic example of how creative teachers can be and how, when give the chance, their own idiosyncrasies can lead to wonderful learning experiences that meet the needs of their learners. At this event he met a teacher called Julie Paterson who invited me to Mario Kart open afternoon for parents and carers at her school, Bargarran PS in Erskine.

This series of posts will feature Derek’s observations at this event:

1/4 Driving Learning with Mario Kart: What’s in the box?

2/4 Driving Learning with Mario Kart: The buzz of learning

3/4 Driving learning with Mario Kart: The parents’ perspective

4/4 Driving Learning with Mario Kart: Healthy Eating and Grannie changes her mind

Mario Kart Leaderboards

Literacy, Literacy and English, Social studies, Technologies

Using Technologies for Learning

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Today I had the opportunity to visit Bridgend Primary School in West Lothian to find out how they had used Technologies for Learning during  their Interdisciplinary Topic of Orkney.

To find out how the teacher used Technologies for Learning during their topic click here.

To listen to how the class used a blog to communicate with a school in Orkney click here.

Karlie and her pupils presented on this project at the Scottish Learning Festival 2011, to find out more click here.

Health and wellbeing, Health and wellbeing, Sciences, Technologies

STEM Central Electric Cars

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If you’re using the STEM Central Electric Car context, some interesting materials to support learning around vehicle and road safety from the BBC: crash-proof cars, and a map of road deaths from 1999-2010 with information on accident cause, weather conditions, injuries and fatalities searchable by postcode or local authority area. Would be ideally accompanied by work with the Desktop Road Safety Reaction Timer, developed by a partnership between Fifex, Renfrewshire Council and SSERC.

Literacy, Modern Languages

Storying Telling in French in Kilmodan Primary School

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I was lucky enough to visit teacher Gwen McCrossan in Kilmodan Primary school, Argyll and Bute so I could see how she uses story telling to teach French to learners in her P2-4 and her P5-7 classes.  Gwen made fantastic use of the target language and even learners as young as P2 use and understand classroom instructions in French.  She was using “La Surprise de Handa” and “Homme de Couleur” with the younger class and the film” Kirikou et la Sorcière” with the older learners.  Her pupils seemed to love learning a foreign language and enjoyed singing, dancing and acting out the stories.  One girl in P5 told me she loved learning French because “it’s just like playing, but you’re learning too!”  She went on to explain that they didn’t just do French at “Frenchtime”, they regularly used French in their numeracy lessons and in literacy too.  ” We watched video clips of French fables that were in French”, she explained, ” and then we wrote our own ones in English”. 

If you would like to hear Gwen talking about her approaches to teaching French then please visit my post on the Chalkface Blog by clicking here

If you would like find out more about Gwen’s lessons then click here to see her reading La Surprise de Handa”

If you would like to see her S2-4 pupils acting out the story then click here

Gwen has also very kindly shared her materials for the animated children’s film Kirikou et la Sorcière.  They are posted in the Modern Languages National Glow group in the resources for sharing section.  To find Kirikou please click here.  (You will need your Glow password)

Expressive Arts, Health and wellbeing, Responsibility of All

A Healthy Lunch packs a Healthy Punch

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Pupils at Auchinleck Academy are getting arty… and their talent is on display for all to see.

A group of third year pupils recently created a huge, colourful mural for the school dining hall as part of a health & wellbeing / art project.

“The mural has really helped to create a better environment for pupils who take packed lunches in Auchinleck Academy and has boosted the confidence of our art pupils who created the work”.

For more information click here

Literacy, Literacy and English, Technologies

There is still time to enter the Glovember competition

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Now that our amazing Glovember Author Events have finished, Education Scotland is giving you two more weeks to enter your stories, poems and illustrations for the Glovember competition.

All you have to do is go to the Glovember Glow Group within Glow, click on the competition page tab and upload your story, poem or illustration. Be sure to do this before the closing date of Friday 16th December.

Winners will be announced in January, after some of our authors have helped us with the judging.

Winning entries will be published in our eBook and read by one of the Glovember Authors.

Health and wellbeing, Responsibility of All

Head Teacher / Depute Head Teacher HWB Event, Tuesday 6th Dec, Radisson Hotel, Glasgow

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The Health and Wellbeing Team are looking forward to spending a day with 100 Head Teachers and Depute Head Teachers from the Central Belt.  We have inputs from Head Teachers and HMIE around leadership, planning and assessment in health and wellbeing.

We are encouraging  participants to sign up to our hwb lead community which will also give members access to the hwb-cpd community. 

To add to the share area click here.

To add your intention about impact after the event click here.

Remember to use the hashtag #hwblead which you can also use to tweet about the event.

Literacy, Literacy and English, Modern Languages, Sciences, Social studies

Pandamonium!

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I am delighted to hear that the pandas are arriving in Scotland on Sunday. This is a mark of the growing friendship between Scotland and China. The pandas offer another exciting opportunity for schools, teachers and pupils to engage with China, its language and culture. The arrival also offers opportunities to stimulate learning right across Curriculum for Excellence, e.g. environment and cultural heritage, science, literacy and creativity. The Panda Blog provides ideas related to these examples. We have already had schools indicating their interest in finding out more about the pandas and Glow offers an excellent way to share information, resources and ideas for practice. The Panda Blog is a starting point and will lead to the further development of resources. We are looking forward to working with colleagues in the zoo to provide news and updates about the pandas to local authorities and schools.

Professor Kay Livingston, Education Scotland.

To visit the Panda Blog click here.

Click below to sign up for the Glow TV Events (glow log in required):

06/12/2001 – 2:30pm: Pandaphernalia

07/12/2011 – 10am: Panda facts with DWN Eds and Competition details

08/12/2011 – 02:00 pm: Pandamentary

Click below to view The Daily What News articles:

Giant Pandas Come to Scotland

Panda – monium

Literacy, Sciences

Forensic Rookies, Transition and the Astrazenica Science Teaching Trust (AZSTT)

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Lauren Boath, Development Officer for Sciences, was excited to attend a meeting of the practitioners participating in the AZSTT funded “Forensic Rookies” project. This was the initial briefing by Professor Susan Rodrigues of the University of Northumbria, whose main research interests are in the language of science, teacher professional development and the use of ICT to  transform teaching, learning and assessment in science. Neil Taylor, Programme Director of PGDE Secondary programme at the University of Dundee has worked with Susan and the Centre for Anatomy and Human Identification at the University of Dundee to put together a series of lesson ideas to engage learners in dialogue around science and the nature of evidence.

Working in conjunction with the University of Dundee’s Xanthe Mallet, whom many of you will recognise as one of the stars of BBC’s History Cold Case, primary and secondary classes will share information via Glow Wikis, with input from Xanthe, to solve a crime. The participating learners from schools in West Lothian, Shetland and Perth & Kinross will have the chance to share their conclusions via a Glow meet in February. Will they succeed in solving the crime?

Health and wellbeing, Responsibility of All

NQT Health and wellbeing Event, Hampden, Sat 3rd December

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The Health and Wellbeing Team are looking forward to spending a day with 150 NQT’s.  We have presentations from two Head Teachers about how they lead health and wellbeing in their schools and much more.

We will be launching our hwb-cpd community and are encouraging all participants to sign up throughout the day.

Anyone can sign up for a priority place for more Health and wellbeing events happening in early 2012.

To add to the share area click here

To set an intention click here

CfE, Early Years, Expressive Arts, Health and wellbeing, Languages, Mathematics, Responsibility of All, RME, Sciences, Senior Phase, Social studies, Young people, children & families

Creativity in the Classroom – a call out to share what works

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Consider yourself creative?

The Creativity Portal is looking for examples of simple, short creative exercises that teachers and youth workers like yourself have used in the classroom and youth group settings.

It could be:

  • A creative chemistry experiment
  • The school’s fastest paper aeroplane contest
  • The imaginative alphabet
  • A 30 second dramatic warm-up

We would love to hear what’s worked for you. Get a mention on the national Creativity Portal and an invitation to future creative CPD. A wee bit of text is all it takes.

Add to the Creativity Archive here within Glow.

Or email Stephen.bullock@educationscotland.gov.uk

Health and wellbeing, Literacy, Mathematics

Cheers for credit unions!

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This resource illustrates the development of financial capability using pupil-run credit unions. The activities address experiences and outcomes within Curriculum for Excellence and help schools and early years’ establishments make connections across learning.

This 3-18 resource will support staff in embedding financial education in the curriculum, supporting family learning and promoting partnership working within the community.

To find out more click here.

Additional Support for Learning, CLD, Community Capacity Building, Health and wellbeing, MCMC/16+LC, Senior Phase, Supporting Learners, Universal Support, Young people, children & families

16+ Learning Choices Coordinators’ Meeting

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67 delegates (16+ LC Coordinators, Education Scotland colleagues from Communities Team, colleagues from LA CLD, HMI, Scottish Government, local authority colleagues) attended the network event in Perth on 23rd November. The purpose of the event was to embrace the positive input that CLD can make to 16+ Learning Choices.

There was an input from Rosie Whelan, Scottish Government and a presentation from Kenny Lindsay, CLD Manager, Children and Young People, Dundee City Council, round table discussions and speed networking workshops from representatives from 8 LA CLD representatives.Kenny Lindsay CLD Presentation 16 plus LC event Perth 23 11 11

Attached is Kenny Lindsay’s presentation from the network event.

Literacy, Literacy and English

Daily What Headline Competition

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Your chance to win a Kindle and see your work published

All you have to do is to think up a catchy headline, with no more than eight words, to go with the featured story.

The winning entry will be picked by the editor-in-chief of the Herald & Times newspaper group, Jonathan Russell, from a shortlist chosen by the Daily What News team.

Our winner’s headline will be published with the story on the Daily What News website, and will appear in the Herald newspaper. The lucky writer will also get a Kindle e-reader, courtesy of the Herald & Times group.

Deadline for entries: midnight on Thursday 1 December 2011

The winner will be announced on Friday 9 December 2011.

To find out more about the competition click here.

Early Years, Languages, Literacy, Literacy and English, Responsibility of All

Scots Language in the Early Years

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Do you know what ‘cow’,  ‘dog’ or ‘vest’ is in Scots? If not tune in and watch again on Early Years Glow TV. We had a fantastic session with Matthew Fitt this morning, lots of establishments tuned in and took part by burlin’ roon  and shoutin’ oot!

If you would like to know more visit the Glow TV ‘discussion’ section of our Early Years National Glow site and download the hints and tips on how to explore Scots more in your classroom/playroom.

Here are some useful links too:

Scotland’s Songs for Early Years

Scotland’s Stories

Itchycoo

Thank you for tuning in!

Assessment, Expressive Arts, Health and wellbeing, Health and wellbeing, Literacy, Literacy and English, Mathematics, Modern Languages, National Qualifications, Religious and Moral Education, RME, Sciences, Social studies, Technologies

Curriculum Area Events on Glow TV

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SQA, in partnership with Education Scotland, are holding a series of curriculum area events to discuss the new national qualifications and give practical support on their implementation. The events are also an opportunity for practitioners to give their views on the new qualifications. Places have been allocated to local authorities and their schools, independent schools and colleges. The events are part of a range of support to help local authorities and individual centres prepare for implementing the new qualifications.

The events will take place on 29 November, and 1, 5, 7, 8, 9, 12 and 13 December. Each event will be streamed live on Glow via the SQA Glow Group.  Most events and workshops will be shown live and recorded for watching again later.

A number of resources will be available following each event, including opportunities to hear some of the discussions from the day.

Expressive Arts, Literacy and English, Mathematics, Responsibility of All, RME, Sciences, Technologies

Curriculum Update at Glow Key Contacts

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Today I went along to the Glow Key Contacts Meeting to give an update about new resources from the Curriculm Team  at Education Scotland. 

You will find the presentation I used here. (Glow log in required)

The resources I highlighted included:

Education Scotland’s Learning Blog

Chalkface Blog

STEM Central

Marks on the Landscape

Early Years, Literacy, Literacy and English

Come and meet Debi Gliori!

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Debi Gliori lives in Scotland. Debi is well known for both her picture books and her novels for children and has been shortlisted for all the major prizes, including the Kate Greenaway Award (twice) and the Scottish Arts Council Award. Debi was the Shetland Islands’ first Children’s Writer-in-Residence. She published her first book in 1990 and since then has published so many successful books that she has lost count. She has written and illustrated No Matter What, The Trouble With Dragons, Stormy Weather and, most recently, The Scariest Thing of All for Bloomsbury.
In this session she will work with pupils from Primary 2 at Haddington Infant School – why don’t you join her?
Yes I would love to join her! (29.11.11 @ 1.30pm)
Can’t join in at the time? Remember to watch again!
Early Years, Languages, Literacy, Literacy and English

The latest Early Years Glow meet

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Our Glow meet, “Towards the Vision: Developing Literacy in the Early Years” was a great success.

Join in the interesting discussions here.

Grant Gillies, Literacy Development Officer at Education Scotland spoke about Bloom’s Higher Order Thinking fans. Find out about the Kilmalcolm case study here:

http://caledonianblogs.net/nilfs/2010/02/25/questioning-kilmacolms-innovative-blooming-blooms-approach/

Find Bloom’s Higher Order Thinking fans here:

https://portal.glowscotland.org.uk/establishments/nationalsite/Literacy%20and%20English/AAA%20Hidden%20Pages/CL%20-%20Resources.aspx

Literacy, Literacy and English, Senior Phase, Social studies

Get Debating for St Andrew’s Day

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On Monday 28th November, the annual St Andrew’s Day debating championship will be held in the Scottish Parliament with students and senior pupils from universities and schools across Scotland competing in debating heats covering a range of issues important in today’s society. The Final will take place in the Debating Chamber chaired by the Presiding Officer with the opportunity to win the specially engraved Scottish Parliament Quaich. This year, for the first time, all schools across the country will be able to follow the progress of the competition on Glow throughout the day and then watch the final, streamed live on Glow TV. This is an exciting opportunity for pupils to get involved in a high quality debate and to learn more about debating.

Sign up here to follow the debate on Glow TV.

For more information on developing your own debates in school click here.

Literacy, Religious and Moral Education, Social studies

Resources for St. Andrew’s Day

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St Andrew is the patron saint of Scotland. Find out more about the Saint, view an animated version of his story, and discover why the Saltire is Scotland’s national flag. Find out more information on Education Scotland’s Celebrating St. Andrew’s Day Website.

Click here to find St. Andrew’s Day resources.

On Monday 28th November, the annual St Andrew’s Day debating championship will be held in the Scottish Parliament with students and senior pupils from universities and schools across Scotland competing in debating heats covering a range of issues important in today’s society. To find out more click here.

Other Education Scotland resources include:

Scotland’s Songs

Scotland’s Stories

Literacy, Literacy and English, Technologies

Moving Image Education

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Moving Image Education (MIE) is fast becoming an integral part of 21st century literacy and modern teaching practice. Using moving image texts as a source in addition to the written word has been proved to vastly increase wider literacy skills, confidence, engagement and fun in the classroom.

Education Scotland is working in partnership with Creative Scotland to make moving image education more accessible and active within Glow.

We now have a Moving Image Education National Glow Group which is steadily being populated with information, resources and CPD opportunities. Work is also underway to engage with Glow users across Scotland and encourage them to participate in interesting and relevant topics of discussion through the group’s Glow Forum. We look forward to seeing you on Glow.

Health and wellbeing, Literacy, Technologies

Make a Sport Podcast!

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Over two Mondays in November and December, The L.A.B will work with you to make your own radio programme or podcast – on a sporting theme. We’ll be hosting two workshops in The L.A.B at BBC Scotland, and you can join in from your classroom. In the first workshop, you’ll be working with us to record an interview with a special guest, plus idents for your programme. And in the second workshop we want you to record an event at your own school. By the end you’ll have made your own sporting podcast. Where possible, we’ll publish your finished work on The L.A.B’s website.
In advance of the Glow Meet:
Practise with recording equipment. Think about what makes a good interview. The special guest will be Scotland and Glasgow Warriors rugby star, Ryan Grant. You should do some research about him in preparation for the Glow Meet.
To sign up to this Glow TV Event, click here.
Click here to visit The Lab Glow Group. 
Literacy, Literacy and English

Additional Glovember Author Dates

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There is still time to sign up for the already very successful Glovember Glow TV author events.

Still to come:

Alette J. Willis Monday 21st November @ 1.30pm
Julie Sandilands Wednesday 23rd November @ 1.30pm
V. Campbell Thursday 24th November @ 1.30pm
Caroline Clough Friday 25th November @ 11am
Debi Gliori Tuesday 29th November @ 1.30pm

(Click on the author name to sign up to the event, Glow log in required)

Remember pupils can take part in the writing and illustrator competition, click here to find out more information.

To find out more information about Glovember visit the Glow Group.

Literacy, Mathematics, Sciences, Technologies

STEM Central raising issues for debate and discussion

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Perhaps your use of STEM Central contexts has raised debate around ethical issues – access to clean water, housing sustainability, energy through renewables? If so, the Speak Up Scotland! initiative might be of interest to you. Free workshops for teachers introduce different forms of debating, so you can encourage learners to explore the ethical and moral considerations around scientific developments. The programme also offers to arrange visits from or online discussions with university and industry STEM Ambassadors.

More details available on the SSERC website or by e-mailing science@esus.scotland.org.uk

Literacy, Literacy and English

Imprint Book Festival & Glovember

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The East Ayrshire Imprint Book Festival schools programme was watched by just under 3500 pupils from around Scotland on GlowTV. Pupils from schools in Dumfries and Galloway to Orkney logged on to Glow to see and hear the authors. There were also many East Ayrshire schools joining these events on Glow as well as pupils from local schools attending the Burns Monument Centre in Kilmarnock in person. Glow teamed up with east Ayrshire’s Imprint Book Festival to make the 5 author sessions with Lynne Rickards, Scott McIntyre, Simon Puttock, Barry Hutchison and Tony Bonning part of Glovember, Glow’s national writing competition taking place throughout the month of November.

 This was an excellent example of partnership working between Education and Library Services in East Ayrshire, and the national Glow team, to provide events to schools that promote and encourage literacy and reading. At the Imprint Festival finale on Saturday, Councillor Douglas Reid highlighted the input of Glow as one of the successes of the festival.

To find out about more up and coming author events during November, visit the Glovember Glow Group.

Early Years, Literacy, Literacy and English, Responsibility of All

Only 7 days to go……

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On Tuesday 22nd November the Early Years team here at Education Scotland are hosting a topical debate on Glow TV. We ask an expert panel:

  • Thinking about your own work and experience, what do you think is the best way to develop children’s literacy skills?
  • What do you believe that parents of young children can do to support their literacy development?

We will also discuss the latest findings from PISA:

 “the performance advantage among students whose parents read to them in their early school years is evident regardless of the family’s socio-economic background”

Visit the Early Years National Glow site today to find out more!

CLD, Early Years, Health and wellbeing, Literacy, Literacy and English, Research, Responsibility of All

Very interesting research about parental involvement in the early years

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“Children whose parents frequently read with them in their first year of school are still showing the benefit when they are 15, says an international OECD study.”

(BBC News 8 November 2011)

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-15639642

Health and wellbeing, Literacy, Religious and Moral Education, Religious Education in Roman Catholic schools, Responsibility of All, RME, Social studies

Edinburgh Interfaith Week

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Edinburgh Interfaith Week Programme has been launched and offers an ideal opportuntiy for those in and around the Edinburgh Area to find out more about faith and belief and its relevance to the world today.

 EIFA Inter faith week