Delegates attending our second conversation day at Bishopbriggs Academy identified four priority theme for sciences:

1. Equity in education – science for all
2. The importance of planning across school clusters
3. Career long professional learning and support for practitioners
4. Partnerships

Education Scotland is keen to hear your views regarding the fourth priority which addressed partnerships.

Delegates viewed that:

• Need to ensure STEM is added to local authority plans as a priority, with weight added by national government:
• Competing demands of secondary schools is a particular issue – work on new national qualifications is a priority
• Schools have been getting to grips with some of the key aspects of CfE, including the ‘responsibility of all’ areas
• East Dunbartonshire had offered a presentation on the 3-18 Sciences report to its schools, which had then prompted primary schools to integrate sciences into their planning.
  • Need to consolidate all of our efforts and join up our business (especially in the context of dwindling resources).
  • Partnerships tend to depend on postcode lottery – need coherent approach and consistency across the country.
  • Partners should move towards provision of long-term support – in some areas they are already queuing up to be involved. They also need to move from promoting their own interests to promoting a common purpose.
  • Activity with partners still tends to be an add-on – we need to embed it within learning.
  • The business case is compelling but is not being communicated in terms of the impact on children.
  • We need to celebrate success stories from the STEM Ambassador network for instance.
  • Teachers are a vital source of career information but their knowledge about jobs in science in inconsistent – we need to address this.
  • It is important that everyone has a sense of the existing landscape – the new SSAC Coordinator can help with this task. This will bring coherence and a sense of common purpose to our activities.
  • Education Scotland has a role to help make connections between schools, partners and different organisations and needs to consider the validation or endorsement of providers.
  • We need to consider the role of specialists to support STEM activity within clusters:
    • Connection with STEM  Ambassadors
    • Work with the science centres and HE
    • Ensuring partnerships are meaningful and not ‘one-off’ – they should dovetail with on-going learning.
• The example of the Department of Geosciences at Edinburgh University was cited as a model for partnership working – final year undergraduate students have been working with a school cluster. The schools have gained but also the university students have gained too in terms of employability skills, communication skills etc. This work provides them with 20 credits towards their degree qualification.

Education Scotland is keen to hear your views. Click on the title of this blog post to leave a comment.

Delegates attending our second conversation day at Bishopbriggs Academy identified four priority theme for sciences:

1. Equity in education – science for all
2. The importance of planning across school clusters
3. Career long professional learning and support for practitioners
4. Partnerships

Education Scotland is keen to hear your views regarding the third priority which addressed career long professional learning and support for practitioners.

Delegates viewed that:

• More emphasis needs to be placed on recognition of lifelong learning for all practitioners:
  • Need to provide support from FE, HE and industry
  • There should be a clear opportunity for teachers to extend learning to master’s-level
  • Drawing together of HE and other organisations to facilitate a move towards accreditation.
• Specialist support for teachers may be of benefit – potentially in the form of a visiting specialist.  Children age 9 + would be appropriate target audience.
• There is often an artificial connection between formal and informal science education – and a recognition that the structured/rigid way which science is taught in secondary schools needs to change to reflect the realities of the wider world.
• Promoting science in the classroom is not solely about teaching resources – teaching method (pedagogy) and leadership are key to success:
  • Need to ensure that there is a focus on STEM skills, rather than just content
  • Role of interdisciplinary learning is important – Bishopbriggs Academy has been undertaking an interdisciplinary project on the Commonwealth Games which connected with science learning.
• Initial Teacher Education has to recognise importance of STEM specialism – primary schools need access to teacher specialism
• Important to influence the work of the National Implementation Board to ensure needs of education system in relation to sciences are met
• Need to ensure that newly qualified teachers (NQTs) have appropriate level of support to ensure their practice aligns to principles of CfE
• Teacher support in sciences:
  • How does a leader create an environment for a practitioner to thrive?
  • Need to involve learners in prioritising improvements
  • We need to move away from tick box approach in identifying outcomes.
• Practitioners in primary schools are mostly not science graduates but the question was raised whether practitioners need a science background to be able to teach science effectively?
• CLPL in science needs to be targeted at all staff – not single practitioners.

 Education Scotland is keen to hear your views. Click on the title of this blog post to leave a comment.

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!